ST. LOUIS — U.S. District Judge Richard Webber issued a mixed ruling in a personal injury case against Suzuki Manufacturing of America involving an ATV rollover accident.
According to an order entered Feb. 13, Webber indicated he would allow plaintiff C.C., through his mother Melanie Ginnever, to conduct an additional deposition outside discovery deadlines, but if additional ones are sought, plaintiff must seek leave of the court.
The lawsuit filed on Aug. 4, 2016 claims C.C. was injured when an ATV he was driving rolled over on top of him. The suit claims the ATV was designed, manufactured, assembled, sold in a defective condition and was unreasonably dangerous.
The matter before the court was Suzuki Manufacturing of America Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp.'s motion for a protective order regarding the plaintiff's notice of deposition for the non-party Suzuki Motor of America Inc., as well as Suzuki Motor Corp.'s motion for a protective order regarding the plaintiff’s first set of requests for admissions directed to Suzuki Motor Corp. (SMC).
In allowing the additional deposition, Webber ordered the plaintiff to pay for reasonable travel costs incurred by the defendants and limited the deposition to 90 minutes.
He also limited topics to be discussed in the deposition "because some of the information sought is overbroad and irrelevant," the order states.
Webber further held that regarding 79 requests for admissions, he would not issue a protective order stating Suzuki Motor Corp. does not need to answer any of the requests, "because many of them are simple, comply with the Federal Rules, are readily admitted or denied, and are not burdensome for SMC to answer."
He wrote that SMC would not be required to answer any requests that require legal conclusions or ask for admissions that certain testimony was stated in a deposition.
“The Court is not unaware of the unprofessional commentary included in briefs filed in this case,” Webber wrote. “The Court expects all counsel to follow the rules of professional conduct, the local rules, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court also expects counsel to work together to accomplish the spirit of the rules, including conferring in good faith prior to filing discovery motions.”