CALL (24/7): 412-281-4340
TOLL FREE: 877-404-6529

Towboatlaw – Towboat & Barge Lawyer, Admiralty & Maritime Law on the Rivers

  • Court Orders Towboat Company to Produce Surveillance Video Before Crewman’s Deposition

    In Meyer v. Turn Services, L.L.C., 2016 WL 6610931 (E.D. La.  Nov. 9, 2016), a federal magistrate judge granted the plaintiff towboat crewman’s motion to compel the defendant towboat company to produce surveillance video it had shot of the crewman.  The Court also denied the company’s motion for a protective order to allow it to withhold the video until after its lawyer had taken the crewman’s deposition.  Magistrate Judge Wilkinson wrote:

    “Defendant has failed to make a particular and specific demonstration of fact, that withholding [its] surveillance evidence will either encourage a dishonest plaintiff to testify honestly or enable them to catch plaintiff in a lie….To conclude that a witness would lie or would testify truthfully only because of the threat that a surveillance tape might exist is simply stereotyping, an exercise in speculation….[Defendant’s argument is] a faulty one, because it flies directly in the face of the very purpose of discovery. The federal rules promote broad discovery so that all relevant evidence is disclosed as early as possible,…a fair contest, where each party can knowledgeably evaluate the strength of its evidence and chances of ultimate success.”

    ***

    “To permit plaintiff’s deposition to go forward before production of the surveillance evidence that all parties know exists undermines the search for truth, inhibits full trial preparation and settlement evaluation and invites an evidentiary mess at trial. I have reviewed numerous surveillance films and photographs in personal injury cases during my 21 years as a magistrate judge, both during and before trial. They depict what they depict, but seldom provide a full evidentiary picture. Invariably, the secretly recorded plaintiff has some explanation for the conduct being photographed, some testimony about the absolute necessity of his or her engaging in the photographed activity or some complaint that the photography does not also show the pain, discomfort, disability or medical treatment experienced in the aftermath of the surreptitiously recorded activity. The very purpose of discovery is to get all such facts and explanations on the table and out in the open, so that the case may be fully and accurately evaluated and adjudicated.”

     

    Share on: