ML19309H084
| ML19309H084 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | South Texas, Comanche Peak  |
| Issue date: | 04/03/1980 |
| From: | Gabe Taylor HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER CO. |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19309H074 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8005080334 | |
| Download: ML19309H084 (20) | |
Text
naUC DSn 8005080559' COST $
PAID BY PLF. DEF.
f 3
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA e
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD IN THE MATTER OF
(
HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER
)
NRC Docket Nos.
COMPANY, et al
(
(South Texas, Project,
)
50-498A and.50-499A Unit Nos. 1 and 2)
(
f IN THE MATTER OF
(
TEXAS UTILITIES GENERATING
)
NRC Docket Nos.
COMPANY, et al
(
(Comanche Peak Steam
)
50-445A and 50-446A Electric Station, Units
(
1 and 2)
)
(Consolidated for Discovery)
DEPOSITION OF:
GORDON TAYLOR (VOLUME I) g
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I DCPCSITION AND ANSWERC of Gordon Taylor, 2
called as a witness by the !!c u s t o n Lighting &
3 Power Company, taken before Eeborah S.
11a r p e r,
4 Certified Shorthand Deporter in.. o d for the State 5
of Texas, in the offices of rebevoise & Liberman, 6
1200 17th Street, Wa sh i ng ton,
D.
C.,
on the 3rd 7
day of April, 1980, beginning at 9: 45 a.m.,
8 pursuant to the following stipulation and waiver 9
of counsel.
10 M
11 A P P E A R A N C E S 12 13 Mr.
J.
7.
Bouknight of the law firm 14 of Pessrs. Lowenstein, Newman, Reis, Axelrad &
15 Toll, 1205 Connecticut Avenue, Wa sh ing to n,
D.
C.,
16 and Messrs.
J.
Gregory Copeland and 141 c h a e l 17 Baldwin of the law firm of Messrs. Baker & Botts, 18 Cne Shell Plaza, !!o u s t o n, Texas, appearing for 19 the Houston Lighting & Power Company.
20 21 Mr. Joseph E.
- Knotts, Jr.,
of the 22 law firm of Messrs. Debevoise & Libernan, 1200 23 17th Street, Wa s h i n g t o n,
D.
C.,
appearing for the 24 Texas Utilities Generating Companies.
25 INTERNATIONAL COURT REPCPTERS, INC.
liOUSTON, TFTAs (713) 652-5911
l J
M 1
Ms.
Susan Cyphert of the U.
S.
M 2
Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, P.
C.
l]l 3
Box 14141, Wa s h i ng to n,
D.
C.,
20044 4
5 Mr. William H.
Burchette of the law l(
6 firm of Messrs. Northcutt, Ely, Wa t e rg a t e 600 7
Building, Wa sh i ng t o n,
D.
C.,
20037, appearing for 8
Tex-La Electric Cooperative.
l 9
10 ALSO PRESENT:
11 Ms. Gail Owens 12 Ms. Felicia McDuffie 13 Dr. Charles Phillips 14 IS 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 INTERNATIONAL COUR1 REPORTERS, INC.
____._Jil@M2SIMh_StfU21A2 __RPAM GER_-Ao R R-
1 IT IS STIPULATED AND AGREED by and 1
2 between counsel for the respective parties hereto 3
that the deposition of CCPDON TAYLOR may be taken e
at this time and place before the officer named 1
5 in the caption hereto, and that said deposition, 6
or any part thereof, ehen so taken, may be used 7
on the trial of this cause with the same force 8
and effect as if the witness were present and 9
testifying in person; 10 THAT the necessity for preserving II objections at the t m' of taking is waived, and 12 that any and all legal objections to this 13 deposition, or any part thereof may be urged at 14 the time same is so ug h t to be offered in evidence 15 in this cause; except, however, that objections 16 to the form of the question and/or responsiveness 17 of the answer nust be made at the time of taking 18 or else such objections are specifically waived; 19 THAT the original of this 20 deposition shall be delivered to the wi tnes s by 21 United States Mail, Registered and Return Receipt 22 Requested, and thereafter said witness shall 23 return same to the officer taking this deposition i
24 for filing with the Nuclear Regulatory 25 Commission; if, however, the original of this INTERNATIONAL COURT REPORTERS, INC.
HOUSTON, TLXAS - (713) 652-5911
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deposition has not been signed by the witness and B
2 filed with said Commission, a copy may be 3
substituted in lie; thereof and used as though it 4
were the original and had been signed by the 5
witness.
6 GORDON TAYLOR, 7
was called as a witness by the Houston Lighting &
8 Power Company and, being first duly sworn by the 9
notary, testified as follows:
10 11 DIRECT EXAMINATION 12 13 QUESTIONS PY MP. BOUMNIGHT:
14 0.
Good morning, Dr. Ta yl o r.
15 A.
Goou morning, Mr. Bo u kn ig h t.
16 MP. GREEN:
I'd like to know the 17 status of the Department's relationship to Carl 18 Stover at this point.
I haven't received any 19 response to uy letter of Parch 13, 1980.
I'd 20 like to know if the Department has worked out 21 with Fr. Stover the problems that I identified in l
22 that letter.
23 PS. CYPHERT:
I told you that when
, 24 I had something to add to the letter, that I n
L 25 would contact you and I do believe you'll recall, m
.o 3
although I don't have the letter in front of me, 1
2 that we had a telephone call between that period 3
of time in which you agreed that that arrangenent 4
was perfectly satisfactory to you and when I knew 5
5 anything in in addition, I would let you know and I
6 if I had any correspondence with Mr. Stover, you 1
1 7
would also be sent that.
The status of that has 8
not changed.
9 MR. GREEN:
I told you that I had l
10 no problems with your not answering our 11 interrogatory at the time because you told me you 12 had no additional information, but as I pointed 13 out to you in the phone conversation and in my 14 Ictter of March 13, 1980, it's inpossible for us 35 to take any neaningful discovery of Fr. Stover as 16 things now stand and I'd like to know when you 17 are going to provide us with a reFponse to this 18 letter.
14 MS. CYPHERT:
Since I assume the 20 reason for the conversation is that you're 1
21 planning on using the transcript in order to file l
22 a r:. o t i o n about this, let ne say the following 23 things:
I don't have the correspondence in front 24 of ne.
To that extent, I am prejudice in not 25 knowing the sequence of events.
INTERNATIONAL COURT REPORTEDS, INC.
HOUSTON, TFXAF (713) 652-5931
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Let. me do say this:
Nothing has R
2 changed since the letter that I sent you or that 2
I represented to the Court.
We still intend to 4
call Pr. Stover as a witness.
The fact that Fr.
5 Stover is an engineer answered the fact that he G
can be qualified as an expert in that regard also 7
has not changed.
8 That is a fact.
His status has not 9
changed.
He is not employed by the Department of 10 Justice.
I don't anticipate he's going to be 11 employed by the Justice Department in this case 32 and if and when I have additional information, 13 I'll provide it to you, Mr. Green, but I don't 14 know anything more today than at the time I sent 15 you that previous response and you can esk ne as 16 many questions as you want, but that is not going 17 to change the situation.
I think our order of i
18 bu iness is to go on the deposition.
19 MR. GREEN:
Well, I will advise you 20 right now, we want a response concerning the 21 matters raised in my March 13th letter.
It's 22 been over two weeks since then.
23 MS. CYPHERT:
You have had a 74 resFonse.
25 MR. GREEN:
You have to file and it I
l INTERNATIONAL COUR1 REPORTERS, INC.
P. 0 U S T O N, TEXAS (713) 652-5911
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+
1 is totally unacceptable for you to say you have x
2 no idea what this man is going to testify about, l
3 what documents he has and what his role is going 1
4 to be in this litigation.
That's absolutely 5
absurd at this point.
6 MR. BOUKNIGHT: Miss Cyphert, is it 7
your position that you can call and oualify as an 01 8
expert witness a person who instead of being 9
employed by you, has simply been subpoenaed by 10 you and clicit opinion testimony from him?
l I
l 11 MS. CYPHER 7:
Mr. Pouknight, I l
12 think if there is something specific that you 13 want to ask me, the proper way of doing that is 14 in some type of pleading and I will respond to it.
15 I think we're here to take the Doctor's I
16 responded to the letter that Mr. Green refers to 17 and he was satisfied at the time.
18 HR. GREEN:
You did not respond to 19 that letter.
You have never given me a response.
20 PS. CYPHERT:
The conversation, 21 gentlemen, is concluded now.
I'm not going to 22 sit here and argue with you this morning.
23 MP. GREEN:
Well, I'm going to 24 correct your misrepresentations on the record.
I I
25 have never received a single response.
i INTERNATIONAL COURT REPORTERS, INC.
@@Bl@9@No 1EXAS (713) 652-5911
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MS. CYPHrRT:
You received a phone 2
call fron me, Fr. Creen.
l l
3 MR. GRFEN:
I received a phone call 4
from you which was way back about two days 5
previous to that, March 11.
6 MS. CYPHERT:
That's incorrect.
7 MR. GREEN:
Acco rd i ng to your own 8
letter.
9 f1 S. CYPHERT:
That's incorrect.
10 There was a subsequent telephone call.
11 MP. CREEN:
No t with regard to 12 response to ny Farch 13 letter.
13 MS. CYPHERT:
Indeed, there was.
14 MR. GREEP:
What is your response, 15 how have you resolved the metters we raised in 16 that letter?
17 MS. C Y P11 E R T :
I have no additional 18 information to provide you other than what you lo have in the pieces of paper before you.
20 MR. COPELAND:
I'n going to go ct.11 21 Calt right now.
22
.v R. E C Ult t? I G H T :
Okay.
23 PR. GREEN:
I take it you're not 24 going to respond to Mr. Eouknight's question to L_----------INTERMATIO 25 you?
COURT REPORTERS, INC.
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I MS. CYFHERT:
I have no additional 2
i n f o rnia tio n to give you other than what I gave l
3 you in that piece of paper.
4 PR. BOUKNICHT:
Co you recall the 5
question that I asked you?
l 6
MS. CYPHERT:
Lo n, I have a feeling 7
that for some reason, I'm being set up.
I don't 8
have any pieces of paper in front of me.
You 9
asked ne a particular question that I feel that 10 we answered in interrogatory response.
11 In all fairness, I think the 12 conversation is concluded.
If there is something l
13 you're planning to impeach me w '. t h, I haven't 1
14 talked to Mr. Calt, if you can find some 15 infornation about him that's going to g iv e you l
16 some light on this, go pursue that.
17 MP. SOUKNIGHT:
The only reason 18 that I injected myself at all into it was not to i
19 set you up or inpeach you or anything else.
The l
20 background of this is that you mentioned in an 21 interrogatory response that might well call Carl 22 Ctover as an expert witness.
23 It had not occurred to me in 24 reviewing that interrogatory resronse or any of 25 the correspondence since then that you cig ht be INTERFATIONAL COUR1 REPORTERS, INC.
It O U S T C H, TEXAS (713) 652-5911
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taking the position that you could simply G
2 subpoena Mr. F.tover, bring hin in and elicit 3
opinion testimony without retaining him as an 4
expert wi4 ness, but yo u s ug g e s t e d that a few 5
5 minutes ago and that prompted ny question and the 6
question wa s purely extenporaneous.
If you have 7
anything S
MS. CYPHERT:
Mr. Stover is who he 9
is.
The rederal E ul e s are what they are.
10 MP. BOUKNIGHT: And you are what you E
11 are.
All r.i g h t.
Shall we proceed with the 12 deposition?
13 MS. CYPHERT:
I think,that might be 14 more fruitful.
15 MR. BOUKNIGHT:
When Mr. Co pel a nd 16 returns, perhaps he'll have more information.
~
17 0
11a v e you prepared an outline of your 18 testimony in this proceeding?
i 19 A.
No, I have not.
20 Q.
Have you prepared a draft of your 21 testimony?
22 A.
No.
23 0
What do yo u have in mind now as the 24 scope of your testimony?
25 A.
I expect to testify on conpetition, l
INTERNATIONAL COUR7 REPORTFRS, INC.
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Il o us TON, texas (713) 6 5 2 - 5 9 1 _1 O
25-6 E
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1 area and therefore, cannot as reedily compete to I
supply themselves with wholesale power and I 2
think that the Tex-La of Texas cooperatives are l
l 4
frustrated in their attempts to a obtain their E
5 own supplles of bulk power to supply themselves 6
with wholesale power by having to operate in 7
either one or the other of the two markets and 8
not having continuous access to both 9
sinultaneously.
10 HR.
B O U K N IGilT : Ms. Cyphert, I think II we reached the time when we assured you we would 12 break.
I.
MS.
CY Pl!E R T :
All right.
14 15 (Luncheon Recess.)
16 17 MR.
COPELANC:
I have spoken with le Fr. Jay Galt who is the personal attorney for Fr.
19 Stover and C.
H.
Cuernsey, Mr. Stover's enployer.
l 20 I u n d e r s t a r'd that you had a meetino with Mr.
21 Stcver this week in Austin and offered to enploy 22 Mr. Stover anc he told you thet he was not 23 available for employment for whatever reasons and 24 that therefore, he is not being retained by the 25 de pa r tmen t as an expert witness.
IN'I ERNATIONA L COURT REPODTEDS, INC.
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257 5
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Mr. Galt, Mr. Stover's lawyer told me 5
2 that if I were try to re depose Mr. Stover, that l
3 he, Mr. Galt, would agein instruct him not to
/.
answer any questions about his expert opinion 5
5 rince he had not been retained and paid as an h
6 export witness and that if yc u remenber, C.
II.
7 Cuernsey was not going to produce the studies 8
that M.
Stover has been doing for the power l
9 procurcment group which we have also attempted to 10 obtain th ro ug h Mr. We t ze l and Mr. McGinnes.
IJ I think for that reason that we are J2 placed in an absolutely Ira po s s i b l e position to be 12 at:1 e to depose Mr. Stover as to his expert 14 opinion in this case and I'n not sure yet what's 15 appropriate for us to do, but ue would probably 16 be filing a supplemental motion to our motion to l
17
- 1. a v e Mr. betzel stricken from the witness list.
IP I just wanted to put yo u on notice on what I had 19 found out.
g 20 MS.
CYPHERT:
I don't dispute 21 anything that Fr. Galt has told you with the g
22 execption there is information Mr. Stover did 23 indicate that under the current time constraints i
2t of the trial, he would be uncble to be employed g
25 by the repartment and it was my understanding his 1
INTERNA TIOff,AL COUR7 REPORTERS, INC.
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I principal reason related to other activities that 2
he has engaged in between now and the time of the 3
current trial date and we did leave open the 4
option that we would discuss it with him if that B
5 trial date changed, so I have no additfoaal 6
knowledge as to whether he wil] in the future 7
d e pend i ng on the current notion before the Eoard i
P right now, be able or consider being a con s ul ta n t l
9 for the Department.
10 MR. COPELAND:
Well, is it yo u r B
13 position then that you are no longer planning to h
12 call hin as an expert wi tn e s s at this time?
13 MS. CYPETRT:
I have not changed my 14 opinion from shat I stated in a letter to Mr.
15 Creen and to the Board, two things in the motion.
16 One, Mr. Stover is who he is and two, we believe 17 that he has credentials that nahe hin subject to 16 being qualified on the stand as an export.
39 i' P. COPELAND:
Eo you understand 20 that I tried to take his deposition and his 21 lawyer wouldn't let ne depose hin?
22 MS. C Y P!! E R T :
I understand that.
23 MD. COPELAND:
Ev you have any 24 suggestion as to what I can do about it.
25 MS. C Y P li E D 'I :
I have no s ug g e s t io n INTERNATICNAL COURT REPORTERS, INC.
HOUCTON, TEXTS (713) 652-5911
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I but I did want to also make a statement on the 2
record myself and this is just as good a 'ine as j
l 3
any.
I went back end checked ny calendar for the l
4 proper sequence or chronology of e v e r. t s that Pr.
5 Creen spoke chout yesterday norning and contrary 6
to Mr. Green's recollection, we did have a
~1 telephone conference after he sent his letter to 2
ne on March 12th.
9 I responded to him with a letter on 10 Farch 13th.
fi e c a u s e of the infoimation contained 11 in Mr. Green's response, I called him back late 32 in the day on the 13th and left a message.
I was 13 i n f o r.a e d as ny calender shows that his secretary 14 said that he had left for the day.
My records 15 also indicate that Mr. Creen called me back on 16 the 14th of ticrch subsequent to the 17 correspondence we had which wa s contrary to what 19 he had on the record yesterday and at that time, 19 I told 1: r. Green that if I had eny additional 20 connunication with Fr. Stover which would lead ne 21 to bclieve that he could nake a concitment as to 22 being an expert witners for us, I would let him 23 know.
24 In addition, that hes not happened 25 cs of today.
In addition, if I had any INTEhN?TIONAL COURT REPCRTERS, INC.
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edditional correspondence with
.r.
Stover to hin w
m.
0m 2
cr from him, I would forward Mr. Creen that l
3 i r4 f o r m a t i o n.
I have done so, I will continue to e
do so.
1 hat's the only thing I hcve to say, too 5
and here we are.
G bR. COPELAND:
Do you understand
,j 7
that that does not in any wa y solve the problem
\\l P
of how we are to depose Mr. Stover?
M3. CYFHERT:
I assune that you can 10 nove to compel Mr. Stover's testimony if you were 11 interested in finding out what 22 l
FE. CCPELAND:
But he has not been i
13 re ta in ed by you as an expert l e.
MS.
CYFHEST:
Pe has not been N
15 retained by me but that does not necessarily mean n
10 that I am conmitted that I can not ask him en 17 opinion question on the stand.
18 MR. COPrLAND:
Tven tho ug h M.s.
If Parris objected to my asking hin expert opinion 20-quentions.
Pl kB 21 MS. CYFHEPT:
I c a r, ' t speak for Ms.
22 Harris.
23 PP. CCPELAND:
Ms.
harris wa s the 24 lead lawycr on this case at the tine we took the 25 deFosition.
I N T E R V A 'l I O N A L CCURT DEPORTERS, INC.
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1 MS. C Y F I' E F T :
And you have been on l
2 notice for some time that my intention regarding 3
Mr. Stover ney be different than those of Ps.
4 ita r r i s.
So if yo u wish to depose Vr. Stover 5
again, as I stated in t'he letter, I heve no
'l 6
objection to doing that and if you wish to compel n
7 him to ride the testinony and the documents that 6
you are interested in having, the De pa r tm en t will 9
ta ke that under advisement at the time.
10 k' e are filing a response to your 11 notion to Mr. McGinnes and I expect that will be 12 filed probably Monday or Tuesday.
13 MF. BOURNIGHT:
I suppose the other l
14 natter which I would raise at this time is that I i
15 cc very nuch troubled by your coming in here 16 today in Mr.
Creen's absence and naking a record 17 s t a t e r. e n t based upon apparently your own notes 18 which you have stated today contradict something 19 that or. Green said to you on the rocord 20 yesterday.
21 I think it would have been much 22 more a li p r o p r i a t e for you to have continued this 23 dialogue while Mr. Green wa s here and I don't 24 want any silence on ttis side of the table to 25 indicate any acquiescence in the accuracy or II:T TR N AT I O t: A L COURT RTP('RTERS, IFC.
. man cem cxwin m. o o n e n a r< e r4 m o n
1 1
MR. B O U K N I C lit :
You're very kind.
2 This would be a good time fo r a break.
3 4
(Discussion off the record.)
5 6
(Brief Recess.)
7 0
MP. FNOTTS:
Mr. Eouknight informs 9
they that he hasn't quite suspended his time to 10 ne yet.
11 MR. E Q U I'N I G II T :
Mr. Green, yo u may 12 proceed.
13 MP. GPEEN:
Ms. Cyphert, I 14 understand that in my ehsence, you made some 15 representations about telephone conversations 15 between you and me.
I wasn't here, of course, to 17 hear precisely what you said.
I've had reported 18 to me what you said.
I 19 Let ne say this:
If yo u wi l l 20 represent to us that you have documents shouing 21 dates of telephone conversations between us, I an l
l 22 not coing to quarrel with you as to the accuracy 1
23 of those repr esen ta tions and will stand corrected.
24 However, I must say that I have ll 25 never received a response that deals with or l
E I N T E P N A T I DI.' A L COUR" REPORTPPS, INC.
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attenpts to resolve the concerns that I put 2
forward in my letter of Parch 13th, 19E0 and I 3
think we are entitled to have those concerns.
t.
tio r e over, I really do think it t
5 would have been a better procedure if you were 6
going to tr/ and correct the record or make 7
repre senta cions about our telephone conversations, 8
to do that when I was present to hear what yo u l
9 had to ssy.
l 10 MS. CYPPERT:
'.'a i l, my only E
11 response is when you started spilling specifics 12 on ne ye ste rday no rning, I would have liked to 13 find the optortunity to have the papers in front 14 of rie as well as a calendar.
Lo n, do you have a 15 question that is pending for the witness?
16 MR. BCURNICHT:
No, I don't.
As we 17 discussed, the procedure that Mr. I:n o t t s and I 18 have agreed upon and I believe it's your 19 suggestion is that fr. Knotts will proceed with 70 some questions now.
I will resune tonorrow 21 norning and that vill enable Mr. ::no t t s to 27 accommodate the f am il y conra i tn e n t s that he has 23 tomorrow.
24 FR. FNOTTS:
Well, et least to take 25 a shot at it.
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EXHIBIT E
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