ML19319B367

Partial Transcript of 760614 Disqualification Proceedings in Oh District Court,Cleveland,Oh

ML19319B367
Person / Time
Site:	Davis Besse, Perry
Issue date:	06/14/1976
From:	Krupansky R, Oloughlin D OHIO, STATE OF, SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY
To:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Shared Package
ML19319B321	List: ML19319B320 ML19319B367
References
NUDOCS 8001150951
Download: ML19319B367 (13)

Text

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1 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF.THE UNITED STATES 2 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO @ g e -

EASTERN DIVISION e "~ ^ 's^ ,

.N' .Y.\

C JUL y 73-. , g'. il 3 -

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h CITY OF CLEVELAND, ) b- '-

) ' k ._, A' /

6 Plaintiff, )

Civil Action h'

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vs. ) No. c 75-560

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CLEVELAND ELECTRIC ILLUMINATING )

8 COMPANY, et al., )

9 Defendants. )

10 ,,,__ _

II - ,

12 TRANSCRIPT OF DISQUALIFICATION PROCEEDINGS 13 BEFORE THE HON, ROBERT B. KRUPANSKY, JUDGE 14 OF SAID COURT, COW 4ENCING MONDAY, JUNE 14, 15 1976, At 9:20 0' CLOCK A.M.

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m 50 9 n 700 u

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1 O'Laughlin - cross 2 2 A I believe since 1970.

3 Q Now, have you recently received a subpoena in connec-4 tion with this case to produce certain documents?

5 A Yes, sir, I accepted service this afternoon.

6 Q Prior to this afternoon you were aware, were you not,-

7 that this was coming and there was indeed a discussion 8

with your counsel, Mr. Gallagher, about the fact it was coming?

9 A Yes, sir, I was.

10 g Q Do you have that document with you, or a copy of $t?

. gg A I left it on the desk.

MR. DAVIS: May I?

33 Q May I ask, do you or have you with you any of the documents or things called for by that subpoena?

MR. GALLAGHER: May it please the Court.

THE COURT: Yes?

17 s MR, GALLAGHER: As I look et this --

18 and I have not had a chance to study it, since we just got it this afternoon -- it appears to cover substantially the same material, with the addendum 21 on it, of the subpoena that had been served at

.La the time the depositions of the four lawyers at

23 Squire, Sanders & Dempsy w3re taken. And at that 24 j time we moved the Court, as you will recall, ta  !

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1 O'Laughlin - crocs 8 2 quash the duces tecum feature of it, and that 3 was granted.

4 And it seems to me the same reasonitig, 5 comparative reasoning, would apply in this 6 instance. And 1 would object to a discovery 7 type thing taking place right in the midst of 8

the courtroom of this magnitude.

9 THE COURT: Well, is that the --

10 let me see it. Is that the document that has 11 been before me on two separate occasions?

g MR. GALLAGHER: Yes, your Honor.

THE COURT: That I have ruled on on 33 g two separate occasions?

g MR. GALLAGHER: I believe that is, your Honor. .

THE COURT: 'Well,'if that is the same document, I will conform to my two previous rulings. Sustained.

MR. GALLAGHER: Thank you, your Honor.

MR DAVIS: May I be heard, your

. Honor?

12 THE COURT: I have sustained -

23 Mr. Davis, you have L1 ready argued that motion to produce documents on two separate occasions, and l

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I O'Laughlin.- cross 2:

2 1 have received rather lengthy briefs and I have 3 reviewed each one of those documents. So let us 4 proceed. I don't want to waste any more time on 5 11 . Proceed.

6 MR. DAVIS: You are saying that you 7 will not entertain any. argument or discussion at 8 this time, your Honor?

9 THE COURT: Well, what did I say to 10 you, sir?

11 MR.. DAVIS: All right.

12 THE COURT: Do you have a hearing 13 impediment?

14 MR. DAVIS: I have no hearing impedi-15 ment, your Honor. I --

THE COURT: Youcan proceed, then, 16 17 MR.' DAVIS: I do have some observa-18 tion that I think --

THE COURT: Mr. Davis, would you 39 kindly proceed? I have ruled. I do not wish to 20 g arg- these points beyond a certain point.

MR. DAVIS: Well, I understand that, your Honor.

l g THE COURT: Proceed,.please.

3 MR. DAVIS: May I make a point, your I

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- 1 O'Laughlin - cross 2) 2 Honor?

3 THE COURT: Mr. Davis, will you 4 kindly proceed with the examination of this 5 witness?

6 MR. DAVIS: My point is, your Honor, 7

that the subpoena is not precisely the same as 8

it was before.

9 THE COURT: In what manner does it 10 differ?

11 MR. DAVIS: It certainly calls, in Section 15, for precise files dealing with the .

12 municipal electric light plant.

13 THE COURT: Mr. Kainski, would you g

kindly. go through the file of this matter and 3

find the previous rulings and the attachment here?

Find it for me, will you?

- The city in this case insists on wasting time and duplicating all of these efforts, and  !

this has been the pattern that the city has *!

followed throughout ther.e proceedings from the very inception, Mr. Davis, as the Court has S2 brought to your attention on so many occasions.

We will take the necessary time at this point to go over my previous rulings and examine j y

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I O'Laughlin - cross 2 point by point and compare the two prev 3ous 3 motions with this one.

4 MR. DAVIS: Well, may I, while the 5 Court is waiting for the Clerk to bring some 6 documents, state that what we have here is a 7 situation where a cl$ ent is seeking to obtain 8 from its own lawyers those materials and files 9 furnished by the client to the lawyer so t' hat it 10 may properly discover under circumstances where 11 it would be very difficult to do otherwise what 12 the lawyers learned from the client over a 13 pe'riod of years with regard to the issues in the

. 14 case.

15 THE COURT: Mr. Davis, if my 16 recollection serves me correctly, that is the

- 17 same argument you advanced previously, which I 18 overruled for the reasons set forth in the 19 order.

20 MR. DAVIS: Well, I believe your 33 Honor dealt with the question prior to this time.

The items called for were not done with specific --

3 or sufficient particu~arity. We have tried --

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. ,3 THE COURT: Why don't we just wait 25 and see what my order says and what you really t

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I O'Laughlin - cross 2:

2 asked for at this time, rather than rely on what 3 you tell me at this time. I would prefer to 4 examine and compare the documents.

5 Are you desirous of pursuing examination of 6 this gentleman while these documents are being 7 found, in other areas? We are going to probably 8 go to 7: 00, 7:30 this evening, gentlemen.

9 By Mr. Davis:

10 Q Will you tell us briefly, in narrative form, your 11 occupational history as a lawyer?

12 A Yes. My first employment was as a miscellaneous 13 investigator for the City of Cleveland in 1952. I l 14 was subsequently appointed Assistant Director of 15 Law. At a later date-I became chief counsel of the 16 City of Cleveland.

17 In the interim -- my employment with the City IS of Cleveland was from 1952 until 1963. In 1962 ID I resigned and accepted employment at the Weston, 20 Hurd firm. I was there for approximately a year and 23 a half.

I returned to the city in '64 as chief counsel .

33 I was chief counsel from 1964 to 1968. ,

21 I resigned from my position with the city in i

l 25 the latter part of '67 or the early part of '68, q

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• O'Laughlin - cross 2 1

2 I am not quite certain, and I started almost immedi-3 ately my employment with Squire, Sanders.& Dempsey, i l

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4 (Pause.) l

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THE COURT: Mr. Davis, the Court has l 5 1 examined and compared, line by line, your sub-6 poena duces tecum dated June.14th, 1976, at 9:30 7

'c1 ok A.M., to Daniel J. O'Laughlin, with a 8

similar subpoena duces tecum that was filed on

"" ' " " #""## ,a 30.

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10 And contrary to your representation to this Court, Mr. Davis, I find that the subpoena issued on the 14th of June, today, is identical 13 with the subpoena issued in February, with the 14 exception of minor deletions.

15 As to your subpoena issued today, number 1 -

16 is identical, number 2 is identical, 3 is iden-17 tical, with the subpoena of February lith,1976. -

18 4 is identical.

ID 5 is a transposition from that subpoena. .

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6, as it appears here, appears later on and .

. 21 is not numbered 6.

L2 Then 7 on today's subpoena is 8 on the 23 previous subpoena. .

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8 on today's subpoena is number 12 on the 25

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l O'Laughlin - cross 22 0 former subpoena.

3 9 in your present subpoena is 13 in the 4 former subpoena.

5 10 is number 9 in the former subpoena.

6 ll'today is number 20 on the former subpoena.

7 12 is number 11.

8 13, although it does not appear in the 3

O'Laughlin subpoena of February, appeared in 'the Lansdale subpoena for that.samo date.

10 11 10 18 1N' 15 in today's sub'poena is the same as 15 in 12 the former subpcena.

i3 g 16 is the same.

g 17 is the same.

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18 is the same.

19 is the same -- no, wait a minute. 20 in todhy's subpoena is number 19, and 21 refers to the list of attachments. And in examining the 19 list of attachments, with a few

• deletions, you 20 are requesting the same documents that you re- .

quested at that time.

u On February 18th, 1976, I issued a rather 23 lengthy opinion concerning that, a five-p 24 opinion concerning that particular subpoena u y.as h

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1 O'.Laughlin - cross 2:

2 tecumi.

3 Then, Mr. Davis, I don't know if you -- do you 4 take the time to review these documents --

5 MR. DAVIS: Yes, I do, your Honor.

THE COURT: -- and corapare them?

6 MR. DAVIS: Yes, I do.

7 THE COURT: And how is it that you 3

g can make the representation to me that there are differences?

10 MR. DAVIS: Well, certainly there g

are some differences. But the main point, your Honor, however --

THE COURT: Mr. Davis, there are no 14 differences.

15 MR. DAVIS: Well, I --

16 THE COURT: You are misrepresenting 17 '

to the Court, and I think you should know that I 18 consider you misrepresenting to the Court.

10 Now, do you recall the February 23rd, 20 197 6 memorandum that this Court issued?

21 MR. DAVIS: In general.

32 THE COURT:

Do you recall what it 23

' concerned?

21 MR. DAVIS: These were rulings of M ,

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1 O'Laughlin - cross 2 2 the Court on subpoenas, I believe, at the time.

3 I trust that is what we are talking about.

4 Your Honor, what I am --

5 THE COURT: If rf recollection

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6 serves me correctly, there was a ruling that 7

was issued overruling certain discoveries sought 8

by the city, and it was only issued as a result of the Court admonishing counsel at that time 9

g, for its failure to timely press its discovery.

Am I correct in that?

13 MR. DAVIS: Well, without th's docu-12 ment in front of me -- and I don't have it in 13 .

front of me at the moment -- I would accept the g

Court's characterization.

1 THE COURT: I would suggest that i 16 during the recess you reexamine these documents i and reexamine the Court's rulings and please I stop wasting the Court's time.

30 MR. DAVIS: Well --

20 THE COURT: Now, I have taken a half 21 hour2.430556e-4 days <br />0.00583 hours <br />3.472222e-5 weeks <br />7.9905e-6 months <br /> to review these documents on the representa- i S2 tion.from you that there were substantial differ-23 ences. And you may use my records to compare them, if you are desirous of so doing, if yours are not -

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O'Laughlin - cross 8 2 available. And in the event that I am inaccurate, 3 I will be pleased to entertain any' corrections.

4 So, now, let us proceed with the examination 5 of Mr. O'Laughlin.

6 MR'. DAVIS: May I simply address a few arguments to the Court on the question of 7

this subpoena?

8 THE COURT: Mr. Davis --

9 MR. DAVIS: All I am attempting to 10

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11 THE COURT: Mr. Davis, we have already 12 gone over this. Please proceed with the examina-13-tion of Mr. O'Laughlin. Now, let's not rehash it again, Mr. Davis, please.

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MR. DAVIS: Withou't' rehashing it, 16

-. your ruling is on the subpoena? .

' THE COURT: I am quashing it.

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MR. DAVIS: I'n its entirety? .f 10 .".

• THE COURT: That's correct, for the l 20 -

, same reasons that I have heretofore set forth I 21  ;

on two.different occasions, as I have already 22 indicated'to you, Mr. Davis. I 23 And for your benefit -- Mr Kainski, may 24 I have that memorandum? ,

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O'Laughlin - cross &

MR. DAVIS: Very well, your Honor.

2 Please note my exception to that. ruling.

3 THE COURT: The memorandum of 4

February 18th and the subsequent memorandum of 5

February 23rd of 1976.

6 Thank you, Mr. Davis, Would you kindly 7

proceed?

MR. DAVIS: You did hear my excep- )

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tion to the Court 's ruling.?

10 THE COURT: Yes, pleaso note an 11 .

exception.

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. By Mr. Davis: e-13 '

Q All right, Mr. O'Laughlin, going back to our question, 14 during the time that you have been an attorney with 15 .

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey what has been your area of 16 practice or specialization?

17 A Generally, public law.

18 Q And by "public law" what in general does that mean, 0

as you view it? .

', A In my view of it, it is representation of public 1 l

• I bodies as a predominant feature of the practice.

" Q And in what areas do you represent them?

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A

. Myself?

Q Yes. What would be the 6eneral kinds of legal problems i 3 *

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