Out of Town Deposition

Monday, December 16, 1991

I was in my office when the senior partner came to the door.  I knew something was wrong, because he never came to my office.  My office was in a corner of our building facing the street.  His office was at the opposite end of the building.  It was on the other side of the building.  My office could not possibly be further away from his unless I was on another floor.  In fact, some years ago, when I returned to the firm after a brief hiatus working elsewhere, I was in a completely different building while construction was being done here.

Not only was it unprecedented for him to come to my office instead of summoning me to his, but he was standing just outside the office in the doorway, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other and avoiding making eye contact with me.

“David”. He said.

“Yes”?  I replied.

“There is a deposition on Friday on the such and such case in North Carolina.  Gil is on trial, so you have to do it”.

Yes.  Gil was on trial.  He was trying a case on behalf of a brain damaged child where the claim was Obstetrical negligence.  It was a file that had been stagnating while it was assigned to one of the other attorneys in the office.  Then it was reassigned to me.  I did the depositions and certified it as ready for trial.  Then it was assigned to Gil to try.  I may have felt a bit slighted.

I did have a problem.  My wife and I had purchased tickets nine months earlier for the biggest hit on Broadway, “Miss Saigon”.  The tickets were for Thursday night.  We were bringing her parents and my mother who we had purchased tickets for as their Chanukah gifts.

Also, the following Wednesday was Christmas.  We were planning to go to Vermont on Friday and stay until Christmas day.  We had a share of a house together with another couple.  We would bring my three year old son, they would bring their two year old daughter.  I don’t ski, so I would watch the kids while the other adults were at the mountain.

“I have plans with my family”, I said.

“Change them” was the reply.

I made some phone calls.  There was a very early morning flight to where I had to go.  The defense attorney agreed to move the deposition starting time from 10 am to 11 am so I could fly in that morning rather than the night before.  I would be able to attend the show with my family and still do the deposition.  He told me that he had spoken to Gil who said that it would only take an hour to do this deposition. 

Tuesday, December 17, 1991

The senior partner summoned me to his office. 

I sat across the desk from him.  He held up a sheaf of papers.  “I’ve prepared some questions for you to ask at the deposition” he said.  He was holding twelve typewritten pages of questions. 

I was stunned and hurt.  I had been working for him as an attorney since 1981 (minus 16 months between September 1984 and February 1986).  I was a law clerk in his office for a year and a half before being admitted to the bar.  I had deposed hundreds of witnesses in that time.  Even when I was completely green, doing my first deposition of a doctor, nobody had ever written out questions for me.  In fact, I was unaware of anybody ever having written out questions for anybody for any reason.  I was also angry.  If this deposition was going to be done with the benefit of a script, why was it necessary for me to go to North Carolina to do it?  Why couldn’t anybody capable of reading do it?  I expressed my consternation.

“I can’t believe you” he said.  “I’m trying to help you and you’re ungrateful”!

Well, I attended Miss Saigon with my family on Thursday night.

I was on an early flight to North Carolina the next morning.  I took a cab from the airport to the air force base where the doctor who had been a resident at the time of the alleged malpractice (in Ohio) was serving his commitment to the military in exchange for paying for his medical education.  I conducted the deposition using the “script”, but also asking follow up questions and generally putting forth my best effort, as I always tried to do.

By the time I had completed the questioning of the witness, the defense attorney and I were both late for the flight we were taking out of North Carolina which would take us to connecting flights – for him back to Ohio and for me back to La Guardia in New York.  Luckily for me, he had rented a car.  He offered me a ride to the airport.  When we got to the gate, I ran out to hold the plane while he returned the car.  That is literally what happened.  We just made the flight.  We parted when the plane landed, and I caught my flight back to New York.

It was about 10 pm Friday night when I got into my car in the short term parking lot.  From there, I headed for the house in Vermont where my wife and son and our friends already were.  When I arrived at the house shortly after 2 in the morning Saturday, the adults were waiting for me.

The next morning, we were all in the kitchen.  I was making breakfast for everybody.  At around 10 am the phone rang.  My brother-in-law was staying at our house watching the dog so we didn’t have to board her.  I answered the phone.  “Dave” he said.  “Your boss just called.  He wants you to call him at the office.  He sounded really angry.”

“Okay.  Thanks, Alan”.

I called the office and he answered the phone himself.

 “When were you going to report to me”? he asked. 

“What do you mean, report to you”?  I replied.  I was really puzzled now. 

“When were you going to tell me what happened at the EBT “?*

“I hadn’t really thought about it”, I said.  “I guess next week.”

“What do you mean”, he said.  “What about Monday?”

“Well, since we’re off Tuesday and Wednesday I thought I’d take Monday off.”

“Who gave you permission”? He demanded. 

“I didn’t think I needed permission to take one day off after all these years.”

“When were you going to report to me”?

“I don’t know” I said.  “I guess when I got back”.  Nobody had ever showed the least interest in hearing about a deposition I’d done before, not even when I tried to tell them.

“Back from where”? He asked. 

“Vermont”, I said. 

“I told you not to go”, he said.  He sounded really angry.

“I did the deposition”, I replied.  “I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t go”, I said. 

“You’re not being smart”, he said.  “I like smart attorneys working for me”.

Now I was fuming.  It was then and there that I made up my mind to look for another job and leave his firm for good.  I felt as though he believed he owned me and I couldn’t even have time with my family.

*(examination before trial – another term meaning deposition or pretrial testimony)