Court Opinion

ID: 9854072
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:00:19.81355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:53.989618
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
Where there is not a federal question involved, this Supreme Court is the end of the line insofar as appellate review of trial court orders and judgments is concerned. In theory, because it is the end of the line, the composition of this Court is expected to represent an accumulation of trial experience and the knowledge which results from review of trial court rulings which should ensure that every civil litigant presenting his case to a jury receives at the very least a trial which has been fairly conducted. One of Justice Shepard’s frequent observa*482tions was that no one is entitled to a perfect trial, but all are entitled to a fair trial.
Any concept of a fair trial includes the right of plaintiff or defendant to retain trial counsel of one’s own choosing. From that point on the client of a necessity is dependent upon his chosen counsel to mar-shall the evidence and present it to the trier of fact, ordinarily a jury. The experience and wisdom of counsel weighs heavily in reaching determinations as to the mechanics of acquiring the evidence which is believed necessary in properly preparing the client’s case for trial. Since Idaho’s adoption of the “federal rules” of civil procedure, there has been considerably more pretrial discovery than was thought available under the prior code of civil procedure, primarily by the taking of depositions of adverse parties and their witnesses and by the serving of interrogatories, both of which may serve to pave the way for requesting admissions.
These discovery procedures were thought to remove from jury trials the element of surprise. There were abuses of discovery, particularly in regard to serving interrogatories which were unnecessarily multitudinous, vexatious, time consuming as to responses, and generally harassing. Much was written on the subject, not necessarily only an Idaho problem, but nationwide. Some alleviation of that exacerbating nuisance was achieved by court rules limiting interrogatories.
Regarding discovery depositions, too, there was some claim that there was unnecessary activity. It was generally the consensus of the legal profession that discovery was being used as a tool by which to grind down opponents who were not financially able to withstand the onslaught. Otherwise put, it was suggested that financially well-endowed parties, most often corporations, were at fault for abuse of discovery procedures, especially where defending against claims of ordinary citizens who were seeking redress in civil actions ordinarily sounding in tort.
Such legal indiscretions were in part curbed by court rules and legislation which provided that trial courts could enter protective orders.
Today this Court has before it, for the very first time insofar as available information discloses, a case where a child victim of an allegedly unsafe product has become also the victim of a judicially imposed protective order which precluded her trial counsel from preparing her case in advance of trial.
This Court has been asked to reverse the judgment entered below because of the trial judge’s pretrial order precluding the taking of depositions of various employees, officers, past employees, and past officers of the defendant Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, Inc. While many of the trial bar may not be critical of the trial judge’s order because it is understandable that a single judge may be persuaded into committing error by enterprising counsel (for which reason there are appellate courts), the entire trial bar will be amazed that a five member appellate court (here, unfortunately reduced to four) upon mature reflection sees no error in the trial court’s ruling, and in fact treats it as an open and shut case that the child-plaintiff’s attorneys had no right to make their own decisions as to how they would go about marshalling the evidence in the preparation of their client’s case. Justice Bakes speaks for the majority of three who so rule today.
As a generality, his opinion on this one issue is reduced to a single typewritten page, captioned Part III, one-half of which is a repetition of the trial judge’s rationale for denying counsel the opportunity to mar-shall the necessary evidence for the plaintiffs’ case. The essence of that monumental decision was the trial judge’s own conclusion that, depositions taken in federal multi-district litigations, “already accomplish that purpose,” referring to the judge’s preceding remarks, “The plaintiffs are entitled to obtain discovery of all relevant evidence and of all evidence which may lead to relevant evidence.”
Of course the plaintiffs are so entitled, but the discovery depositions in question were to be undertaken by the plaintiffs’ attorneys — attorneys who are knowledge*483able and experienced in such matters of examining adverse witnesses. Just how the trial judge here could justify making the overly-broad statement that the depositions taken in Ohio have already accomplished the purpose of discovering all relevant evidence is unexplained by the judge, and also goes unexplained by Justice Bakes in writing for the two other justices neither of whom venture any clue.
Various possible explanations come to mind: (1) The trial judge here presiding knows the attorneys, on a personal or professional basis, who conducted that Ohio federal court litigation, and on that basis can assert that they would prove superior in examining capabilities as compared to Mr. Harney, Mr. McMahon of the California bar, Mr. Tate of the Pennsylvania bar, and Joe Imhoff, Michael Moore and Patrick Furey of the Idaho bar; or (2) The federal judge or judges presiding in the multi-district litigation tried in the Ohio federal district court, wisely would have supervised the depositions taken in that litigation in order to assure that the various plaintiffs were afforded thorough and exhaustive examinations of Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, Inc.’s officers, personnel, experts, and other witnesses. Those are the best explanations which can be conjured, but both are ridiculous. Simply put, there is no explanation provided by either the trial judge or the majority of this Court, and there is no rational explanation which can be arrived at by surmise.
Every attorney who becomes involved to any extent in trial work knows that there are trial lawyers and then there are trial lawyers, meaning that there are always some who are better than the rest of us in conducting an examination of a witness, being of no moment whether it be a witness on the stand at trial, or a witness in a conference room giving a deposition. Even as among the best of the best there is always someone who on a given day in a given case can extract statements from a witness where others might fail, and, as applicable to this case may have already failed, meaning in the aforesaid Ohio multidistrict case. In northern Idaho we had our William S. Hawkins, our E.T. Knudson, our Harold Purdy, and from our neighbor to the west we had Del Carey Smith, Jr., Pete Tonkuff, James Connelly, Theodore “Ted” Petersen, just to mention a few, at the great risk of also forgetting a great many more. In southern Idaho there was Ben Doris, Ben Peterson, A.L. Merrill, Louis Racine, and many others who were skilled trial examiners.
Each one had his own style, and each was effective. As much as any of them may have enjoyed each other’s company, it is much doubted that any of them would have been content to passively be stuck with an interrogation of witnesses made by one of the others. For certain each would not under any circumstance agree to buy a pig in a poke, which is exactly what served as the basis of the trial court ruling which we review today.
There is great merit in this statement from appellants’ brief:
We vehemently object to preclusion' of our right to conduct discovery not only in our way pursuant to the Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure, but also to being bound by the competence, or lack thereof, or the strategies of other counsel ... We argued to no avail that due process and simple justice demanded that we be permitted to conduct the development of our ease in a way which would be in Sally Cosgrove’s interests and not be bound by a process of which we had any part!
To which I will ask that the trial bench take note that there is in Justice Bakes opinion, Part III, as now under discussion, not one single citation of authority, nay, not a single case mentioned, where another appellate court has upheld a ruling that a party defendant, or any party for that matter, is immune to discovery processes, especially where it was the plaintiff who would be putting up the ready cash which necessarily is attendant to the taking and transcribing of depositions. All that the intended witnesses needed to do was show up and receive witness fees, and testify, of course.
What the trial bench will make of this sad affair is that the trial judge and those in this Court who comprise the majority are *484not being realistic as to happenings at depositions. Justice Bakes, in defending the trial judge, confines his explanation to two lines. First, after noting the district judge’s remarks, “[Tjhis court repeatedly asked plaintiffs’ counsel what information was sought that was not already contained in the depositions taken in the multi-district litigation,” Justice Bakes adds, “No showing of a need for more specific information was ever made. Neither have appellants demonstrated prejudice resulting from the trial court’s order.”
If this is judicial rationale, it is asinine rationale as well, and if the point is not clear, it probably never will be. Nonetheless, it behooves me to point out to my usually astute brethren that most depositions are not taken to get specific information which one already possesses; depositions are taken to get information which one expects to obtain, by adroitly examining witnesses who have to answer (and many of whom may in fact want to answer in the interests of justice) and whose answers suggest further probing until, perhaps, lo and behold, the witness makes a statement supporting the case of one’s client.
It is ludicrous for this august body to uphold an order precluding discovery because a judge has not been told “what information was sought that was not already contained in depositions” (of some other witness in some other case in some other state in some other court system by some other unknown attorneys).
Point: If one has knowledge of the “information,” one probably doesn’t need to take any deposition.
Point: Taking depositions is a discovery process.
Point: Discovery, in addition to being a good name for a space shuttle, also by Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, is defined as “the act or process of discovering.”
The plaintiff in this case, Sally Cosgrove, a child, may take little solace in one day fully being brought to understand that her attorneys simply ran into two wholly unforeseeable stumbling blocks in trying to fulfill the guarantee of a fair trial.
Clearly there was monumental error in precluding counsel from developing the case which they endeavored to prosecute, and apparently at the expense of advancing costs, in an attempt to obtain some measure of damages for Sally Cosgrove by reason of her mother’s ingestion of defendant’s product, Bendectin. A majority of this Court say otherwise, and so be it. While it is Sally Cosgrove who bears the brunt of two strange and unexplained rulings by two Idaho courts, the damage done to the right of a fair jury trial is inestimable. It remains to be seen what new developments take place when corporate defendants complain that they are being harassed by penniless plaintiffs.
There is also some question concerning Part XI of the majority opinion, dealing with the post-verdict amalgamation of jurors, or some of them, with first the trial judge, and then with defense counsel for Merrell Dow, and, also perhaps with corporate personnel. It may or may not be of some moment. It may have been lack of someone in authority laying out a game plan as to informing the plaintiffs’ counsel as to whether there would be a meeting. Justice Bakes provides one account, and his view is that “plaintiffs’ counsel was put on notice ... and had the same opportunity as defense counsel had to be present.” Majority Opinion, Part XI, p. 17. Appellants’ brief agrees that the trial court replied to a defense interview of jury request by saying, “Well, we will discuss it. It is their decision. [R.T. 3933]” Appellants’ Brief, p. 13. The brief also states that the foundation for its contentions is contained in sworn affidavits of Mr. Moore, Mr. Harney, and Mr. McMahon, all counsel for plaintiffs.
Following the trial court’s “It is their decision” statement appellants’ brief presents this argument:
The jury’s verdict was rendered at approximately 11:25 a.m. in open court. At 1:30 p.m. on the same date, two of plaintiff’s attorneys, Michael Moore and Patrick Furey, arrived at the Ada County *485Courthouse only to be advised that members of the jury still in the courthouse were meeting with Mr. Carlson and other representatives of Merrell, a fact immediately verified by counsel. There had been no order permitting such contact to our knowledge although still later on the same day one juror revealed that defense counsel, the trial judge and all jurors were together for at least three-quarters of an hour discussing various substantive issues in the case sub judice. On March 11, 1988, plaintiffs’ representatives, upon further discussions with the same juror referred to above, learned that the members of the jury had been ordered not to speak to attorneys involved in this matter. That order emanated from Judge Bail and was executed by the deputy jury commissioner. The juror, David Dyce, would therefore not execute an affidavit reflecting the substance of his conversations on the evening of March 10 with plaintiffs’ counsel. See Affidavits of David M. Harney, March 12, 1988, Michael W. Moore, April 4, 1988, Carl A. McMahan, April 4, 1988, together with ‘Motion for Relief from Order,’ filed March 14, 1988 at C.R. 594, 605, 610, 591, respectively.
Plaintiff sought relief from the trial court’s order precluding them from determining whether juror or attorney misconduct had taken place and filed same on March 14, 1988. We requested expedited consideration and argument on the motion, so as to effectively preserve an issue of misconduct at whatever source— jury, counsel, or court — and to more fully develop such facts in support of what already was — and still is — an arguable more than ‘straight face’ case that a new trial should be granted on the ground that the process was tainted. The trial court refused to rule one way or another in the necessary time frame to enable us to make a complete I.R.C.P. 50 and 59 motion.
When the trial court failed to rule on our motion for relief within the time in which we could have filed motions for new trial and judgment N.O.V., we noted this appeal from the final judgment entered herein on March 22,1988, including all adverse orders, rulings and decisions made by the court below. We noticed this appeal on April 5,1988. We respectfully seek reversal of the judgment below and this case reinstated in all respects for a new trial before a different trial judge. Under the circumstances whereby the trial judge met ‘secretly’ with the jurors and defense counsel and excluded plaintiffs from the ‘meeting,’ a motion for a new trial would have been futile and an idle act.
Appellants’ Brief, p. 13-14.