Defendants Harry A. (“Harry Harrison”) and Dottie Harrison (collectively “defendants”) file this Motion to Compel Discovery, and respectfully request this Court to order plaintiffs Dr. Mark Nichols and Mark Lynn Nichols, M.D., P.A. in the above titled cause to produce the discovery due defendants pursuant to Rules 191.3 and 194.2 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.
I.
Rule 191.3(a) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure states that every disclosure, discovery request, notice, response, and objection must be signed (1) by an attorney or (2) by the party. Defendants have requested three times that counsel for plaintiffs provide signed copies of plaintiffs’ responses to Requests for Admission, Requests for Production, and Requests for Disclosure. A true and correct copy of defendant Dottie Harrison’s January 15, 2003 fax to Robert J. Killeen, Jr., counsel for plaintiffs, incorporated herein by reference as Exhibit A, shows that defendant Dottie Harrison requested said signed copies of discovery on 12/26/02, 1/8/03, and 1/15.03. The true and correct copy of the transmission verification report for said fax is incorporated herein by reference as Exhibit B.
II.
.Defendant Dottie Harrison requested further information from plaintiffs regarding a “Joyce Carpenter” listed in plaintiffs’ response to Request for Disclosure in her January 18, 2003 fax to counsel for plaintiffs. Pursuant to Rule 194.2(e) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, a statement about each identified person’s connection with the case is to be supplied. Plaintiffs merely list “Joyce Carpenter” with no explanation of Ms. Carpenter’s connection with the case. True and correct copies of said fax and of the fax transmission verification report are incorporated herein by reference as Exhibits C and D, respectively. Further, defendants require a statement of “Jan Gilden’s” connection with the case. A true and correct copy of pages 4 and 5 of plaintiffs’ response to Requests for Discovery are incorporated herein by reference as Exhibits E and F.
III.
The repeated non-response by plaintiffs’ to any request by defendants appears to invoke the principle of res ipsa loquitur, that is, that plaintiffs have no intention of providing any information to defendants without intervention of this Court. Defendants require information about the connection of Joyce Carpenter and Jan Gilden in order to decide whether to depose them. With at least 20 days’ notice being required, plaintiffs are intentionally causing delay after delay in order to cause defendants to miss the discovery deadline of March 17, 2003. Respectfully submitted,
CERTIFICATE OF ATTEMPTED RESOLUTION
I certify that I made reasonable efforts to resolve the dispute giving rise to this motion
without the necessity of Court intervention, and that those efforts failed.
Dottie Harrison, defendant pro se
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I
hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the above defendants’ Motion to
Compel Discovery has been served in accordance with Rule 21a of the Texas Rules
of Civil Procedure via certified mail, return receipt requested, to all known
counsel of record as indicated below, on this 24th day of January, 2003.
Robert
J. Killeen, Jr.
Certified Mail #7002 0860 0000 2097 5839
Killeen
& Wheat, PLC
8 Greenway Plaza, Suite 614
Houston, TX 77046
Return to CHRONOLOGY