| N.Y. App. Div. | Jul 15, 1902
Lead Opinion
On the 16th of July, 1901, the applicant was run into by an express wagon, upon which appeared the name “ Century Express ” and she subsequently brought an action against one George W. Slingerland to recover damages for personal injuries sustained, upon the theory that he, doing business under the name .of the Century Express, was responsible for them. Slingerland interposed an answer in which he denied his liability or that he was at the time the applicant was injured doing business under that name. The plaintiff thereupon discontinued the action and subsequently obtained an order for the examination of Slingerland for the puiv • pose of enabling her to frame a complaint in an action which she proposed to bring against the one responsible for her injuries, "if that fact could be ascertained from such examination.. The affidavit upon which the order was granted set out, in addition to the foregoing facts, that the Metropolitan Express Company had succeeded to the business formerly carried on by Slingerland, who is its manager and One of its directors, and that the Hew York Transportation Company claimed to have succeeded to the business of the Metro-: politan Company, but that she was ignorant of and unable to ascertain when the Metropolitan Company succeeded to the business of Slingerland, or when the transportation company succeeded the Metropolitan Company, and for that reason it was necessary and material for her, before bringing an action, to examine Slingerland in in order to ascertain “ who is the proper party to be made defendant.” But these facts manifestly did not entitle her, to the order directing the examination of Slingerland, and for that reason the motion to vacate should have been granted. The purpose of the examination is apparent. It is to ascertain whether the plaintiff has a cause of action against the Metropolitan Company or against the transportation company, and the rule is well settled that an examination of this character cannot he had for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the plaintiff in a proposed action has a cause of action. (Matter of Anthony & Co., 42 A.D. 66" court="N.Y. App. Div." date_filed="1899-06-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/in-re-e--h-t-anthony--co-5186175?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="5186175">42 App. Div. 66 ; Matter of White, 44 id. 119 ; Long Island Bottlers v. Bottling Brewers, 65 id. 459.) This is precisely what was held in each of the cases cited, and in Matter, of Anthony c& Go. it was also held that a “proposed defendant must be definitely and not tentatively named in the affi
The order appealed from, therefore, must be reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and the motion granted, with ten dollars costs.
Van Brunt, P. J., and Ingraham, J., concurred.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting):
I am unable to concur in the reversal of this order or in the reasons which are assigned therefor by Mr. Justice McLaughlin. The affidavit upon which the application for the order was based sets out a good cause of action in favor of the applicant and against the person or corporation who inflicted the injury, and such person or corporation is liable to respond in damages therefor if the facts averred in the affidavit are sustained by the testimony given upon the trial. In respect to the examination of the person for which the order provides the affidavit states that the action is expected to be brought against the Metropolitan Express Company as defendant; that such express company is a domestic corporation, having an office for the transaction of business in the borough of
It is not needful that we set out the facts alleged in the affidavit showing the cause of action existing in favor of the plaintiff. It is sufficient to say that a perfect cause of action is stated against the person or corporation inflicting the injury.
•In Merchants Nat. Bank v. Sheehan (101 bT. Y. 176) it is decided that the provisions of the-Code of Civil Procedure (§§ 870, 876) authorize an order for an examination before an action, has been actually commenced, in a court of record, of the person or persons .against whom the action is about to be brought, upon the appli-
“ It sufficiently appears, I think, from the affidavits, that there is some doubt as to who are the owners or operators of the mine where the accident happened. * * "x" That it is necessary to-enable the appellant to frame her complaint to ascertain who are the proper defendants, who were the owners or operators of the mine at the time of the accident, I do not think can be questioned. The allegation as to who were the owners or operators of the mine
“ The respondent, Payette, is a very proper person to examine for that purpose; he is the one who employed the intestate; he was, according to his own affidavit, the superintendent of the mine at the time of the accident,, and presumably he knows who his employers were, and who were engaged in operating the mine; he would' be a proper person as defendant in the proposed action, and, therefore, a proper person to examine as a party.”
This language finds precise application in' every particular to the facts of this case, and if it be sound in law, is decisive of this appeal in favor of the respondent. There, as here, an action had been brought by a party to recover damages founded upon an accident against a supposed owner of the mine, an answer had been interposed denying such ownership, or liability for the injuries, and the sole question, therefore, which the examination sought to obtain was the person or corporation engaged in operating the mine at the time of the accident. The sole purpose of this examination is to discover the person or corporation who was operating the .business of the Century Express at the time the injuries were inflicted.
A like doctrine was held in Matter of Weil (25 A.D. 173" court="N.Y. App. Div." date_filed="1898-01-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/in-re-weil-5183620?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="5183620">25 App. Div. 173) where the Appellate Division of the second department decided that an examination was proper before service of the complaint in a case where an action was to be brought to enforce a claim for work done for a newspaper called the Hebrew Standard. Prior to the application suit had been brought against the editor of the newspaper as its proprietor, and the defendant having interposed an answer denying that he was the party responsible, such action was discontinued and another action brought against the newspaper as a corporation, and the editor was served with the summons and complaint as a director. To this action answer was interposed denying that the corporation was the contracting party, and thereupon the second action was discontinued. Application was then made to examine the editor for the purpose of discovering who was the proper person against whom to bring the action. Order issued for the examination of the editor and upon appeal such order was affirmed.
It is evident that the cases to which we have called attention furnish abundant authority for the support of this order. It is claimed, however, that the cases in this department (Matter of Anthony & Co., 42 A.D. 66" court="N.Y. App. Div." date_filed="1899-06-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/in-re-e--h-t-anthony--co-5186175?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="5186175">42 App. Div. 66, and Matter of White, 44 id. 119) are opposed to this view of the law. It is not to be denied but that there are ■expressions in these cases and in the authorities which they cite which deny right in the court to grant the order the subject of this Appeal. In Matter of Anthony & Co. (supra) the decision is made to rest quite largely upon Matter of Bryan (3 Abb. N. Cas. 289" court="None" date_filed="1877-12-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/in-re-bryan-7345602?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7345602">3 Abb. N. C. 289). In that case, however, the moving affidavit upon which the order was based did not show any cause of action in favor of the plaintiff ■against anybody, known or unknown, while the witness sought to be examined in that casé bore no relation whatever either to the proposed defendant or to the proposed plaintiff, and it was not pretended that the witness could by any possibility become a party to the action. It was held that a witness as such could not be examined for the purpose of enabling a plaintiff to frame a complaint. The ■case did not determine that a person whose examination was sought under such circumstances as tended to show that he would be the party defendant was not a proper person to examine as the case did not involve such question. The main ground of the decision proceeded from the fact that no cause of action was shown by the affidavit to exist in the plaintiff, and upon this ground the decision was unanswerable. Reliance was also placed in Matter of Anthony & Co. upon De Leon v. De Lima (66 How. Pr. 287" court="None" date_filed="1884-01-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/de-leon-v-de-lima-6145023?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="6145023">66 How. Pr. 287). This was a Special Term decision by Mr. Justice Ingraham. It appeared clearly in that case that the purpose of the examination was to discover if the plaintiff had a cause of action. The action was for slander, and the attempt was to find out the exact language used.
Muller v. Levy (52 Hun, 123" court="N.Y. Sup. Ct." date_filed="1889-03-29" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/muller-v-levy-5496343?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="5496343">52 Hun, 123) was also cited in support of the last contention. The opinion in that case opens with the statement, “.When a plaintiff, for the purpose of framing his complaint, obtains an order for the examination of a defendant before trial, he must establish by affidavit the existence of a cause of action in his. behalf. * * * The affidavit upon which the order for the examination of the defendant Bernard Levy was granted, does not state facts sufficient to show that a cause of action exists in favor of the plaintiff.” And at the close of the opinion it is stated, “ The application of the plaintiff to examine the defendant is fairly subject to the criticism that it is merely an attempt, not to obtain information for the better statement of a known cause of action, but' to find out whether he really has any cause of action at all. A party cannot be examined for this purpose.” It is clearly evident, therefore, that neither of the last two cases cited nor Matter of Bryan (supra) furnish authority for the doctrine announced in Matter of Anthony & Co. In each one of the three cases there was no cause, of action stated in the moving papers in favor of the moving party, and, under such circumstances, it is conceded that a case for an examination is not made. The limitation which is placed upon. Merchants' Nat. Bank v. Sheehan (supra) in Matter of Anthony & Co. (supra) I do not think is warranted.. The effect of the decision seems to be that an examination may be had, at the instance of one party, of his adversary when it is contemplated by the moving-party that his adversary is expected to be made a party. The affidavit in this case states that the moving party expects to bring an action against the Metropolitan Express Company, and it clearly
I am of opinion that an examination may be had of a person against whom it is contemplated that an action maybe brought, or of a witness who is shown to be possessed of information necessary and essential for the more complete statement of a cause of action shown to exist in the moving party, whether the information essential to be obtained relates to substantive matter required to be stated in the complaint or of the name of the defendant against whom the cause of action exists. The present case exemplifies the necessity for such holding, as it is evident that the party can only be discovered by successive actions or by uniting them all in one action and thereby subjecting the party to the payment of bills of costs for the misfortune of including the wrong parties. There is little danger of any abuse of the process of the court under such circumstances. It follows that the order should be affirmed, with ten dollars, costs and disbursements.
O’Brien, J., concurred. .
Order reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and motion granted, with ten dollars costs.
Concurrence Opinion
(concurring):
I concur with Mr. Justice McLaughlin. By section 870 of the Code of Civil Procedure provision is made for taking the deposition of a party to an action pending in a court of record, or of a person who expects to be a party to an action about to be brought in such court, at his own instance or at the instance of an adverse party, or of a co-plaintiff or a co-defendant. Section 871, which provides for the deposition of a person not a party, only applies where an action has been actually commenced or where the application is made by the person against whom the action is to be brought. This distinction is recognized by the Court of Appeals in Merchants' Nat. Bank v. Sheehan (101 N.Y. 179" court="NY" date_filed="1886-01-19" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/hammond-v--morgan-3598466?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="3598466">101 N. Y. 179) where the court say: “ On the whole, we are of opinion that the order issued in this case on the application of the bank for the examination of Slieehan, against whom the bank was about to commence an action, was authorized, and that he was in contempt for disobeying it.”