Borse v. Superior Court

[288]

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, Acting P. J.

In this era when calendar congestion afflicts the California court system, attorneys could avoid squabbles such as this by recognizing the difference between legitimate and illegitimate discovery and by a modicum of cooperative observance of the spirit of the discovery statutes. Had plaintiff’s

*

attorneys utilized discovery as a tool rather than a bludgeon, they would have narrowed their excessive, oppressive and strategically motivated interrogatories. These interrogatories went far beyond plaintiff’s legitimate needs and constituted a massive invasion of defendant’s business affairs. Had defendant’s counsel not felt put upon, they could have recognized plaintiff’s legitimate need for a restricted area of discovery. As it was, plaintiff’s demand was far too broad and defendant’s outright rejection understandably narrow. Recourse to a reviewing court was a sequence of the trial court’s failure to recognize a middle ground.

The trial court’s complete denial of discovery fell squarely within the following passage from

West Pico Furniture Co.

v.

Superior Court,

56 Cal.2d 407, 418 [15 Cal.Rptr. 119, 364 P.2d 295]: “From the facts presented here, it is clear that total rejection of the interrogatory indicates a failure by the trial court to recognize the discretionary power to grant in part and deny in part, and to balance the equities, including costs, that is [,] to balance the purpose and need for the information as against the burden which production entails . . . .”

Despite the overbreadth of plaintiff’s effort, his mandate petition demonstrates an abuse of discretion by the trial court. Hence he is entitled to relief.

(Flora Crane Service, Inc.

v.

Superior Court,

234 Cal.App.2d 767, 776 [45 Cal.Rptr. 79].)

In an F.E.L.A. action against Southern Pacific Company, the railroad raised the special defense of a release signed by plaintiff. A special trial on the release issue was ordered. According to the documents, plaintiff hopes to prove that his signature on' the release was induced by the false representations of a claim adjuster. He seeks supporting evidence through a search for other claimants who might have been similarly misled. In June 1969 he submitted interrogatories requesting the names and addresses of all defendant’s Sacramento shop employees involved in personal injury settlement negotiations from September 1963 to the present, as well as the name and address of each claim adjuster involved in these negotiations, also the names and addresses of other persons present during said negotiations.