Document 2zV7V2MdBn8pjODvern15vLR

FILE NAME: Kaiser Gypsum (KG) DATE: 1992 DOC#: KG045 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Legal - Response to Request for Production I PATRICK J. HAGAN, ESQ. - Bar N o . : 68264 q / EDWARD E. HARTLEY, ESQ. - Bar No.: 122892 2 KINCAID, GIANUNZIO, CAUDLE & HUBERT A Professional Corporation 3 200 Webster Street, Suite 200 Oakland, California 94604-0828 4 (510) 465-5212 5 Attorneys for Defendants kaiser cement corporation AUG 1 0 1992 6 k a i s e r g y p s u m c o m p a n y , INC. C: t 7 LDP 9/2?/<? 8 t h e SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA ^ 9 IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 10 11 COY COSSEY, V ^^ ACTION NO. 920148 12 vs. Plaintiff, 13 ABEX CORPORATION, ET AL, 14 Defendants. 15 _______ _________________________ ____________/ 16 LYNN WEIMER ^ 17 vs. Plainti.ff, fL ^ 18 ABEX CORPORATION, ET AL. 19 Defendants. 20 ________________________________________ ___ / ACTION NO. 914594 CONSOLIDATED PARTIAL RESPONSE OF KAISER CEMENT CORPORATION AND KAISER GYPSUM COMPANY, INC. TO PLAINTIFFS' REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS 21 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT During April, 1992 Plaintiffs served Notices of Deposition and Requests for Production of Documents on defendants Kaiser Cement Corporation ("Kaiser Cement" ) and Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. ("Kaiser Gypsum"), seeking production twenty-five categories of documents and related depositions. Copies of the notices are attached as Exhibit A. On May 1 Kaiser Cement and 1 Kaiser Gypsum served Plaintiffs, by letter, with their objections. 2 (Exhibit B hereto). All objections stated in Exhibit B are 3 incorporated herein by reference. Among the objections was that 4 the requested categories have no geographic limitation and span 5 very long time periods. Consequently, locating the responsive 6 documents would be unduly burdensome and oppressive. 7 However, Kaiser Gypsum agreed, without waiving any 8 objections, to produce appropriate responsive documents, if given 9 a reasonable amount of time to complete the task. By letter of 10 May 20, 1992, counsel for Kaiser Cement and Kaiser Gypsum indicated 11 several months would be needed to complete this task (Exhibit C ) , 12 but also indicated that certain categories of documents could be 13 provided before completion and prior to any depositions. 14 Since May, Kaiser Cement and Kaiser Gypsum have been 15 engaged in a diligent search through their voluminous retained 16 records for documents potentially responsive to the twenty-five 17 document production categories. Because neither firm's retained records are organized in terms of the document production 18 19 categories, literally thousands of boxes must be thoroughly 20 examined to locate documents fully responsive to some requests (or to determine that there are non e ) . However, completion of that 21 task is not required in the case of documents responsive to 22 document production category 15 (annual reports). 23 Accordingly, Kaiser Cement and Kaiser Gypsum provide the 24 following separate partial response to Plaintiffs request for 25 26 production of documents % Request 15. All your annual reports for the years 1936 27 through 1991 inclusive, to include all alleged predecessors or 28 2 5 1 successors in interest and subsidiaries involved in the sale, 2 mining, milling, distribution, import, transport, installation, or 3 manufacture of asbestos or asbestos-containing products. 4 Kaiser Cement Response! Kaiser Cement objects to 5 this request on the grounds that it is oppressive and overbroad 6 (and therefore not calculated to lead to the discovery of 7 admissible evidence) to the extent that it seeks annual reports for years in which Kaiser Cement did not market asbestos8 9 containing products. The only years during which Kaiser Cement 10 issued annual reports and marketed any products that contained asbestos as an ingredient were from 1959-76. During the years 11 1959-63 Kaiser Cement was known as "Permanente Cement Company" ; 12 during the years 1964-76 Kaiser Cement was known as "Kaiser Cement 13 & Gysum Corporation." Without waiving its objections, 14 Kaiser Cement agrees to produce these annual reports. 15 Kaiser Gvosum Response: Kaiser Gypsum adopts the above- 16 stated objections of Kaiser Cement. 17 Without waiving those objections, Kaiser Gypsum responds that it never issued annual 18 reports, and, consequently, there are no documents responseive to 19 this request. 20 21 DATED : August 7, 1992 KINCAID, GIANNZIO, CAUDLE & HUBERT 22 A Professional Corporation 23 24 25 EDWARD e 7 HARTLEY, ESQ. - S&r No. : 122892 Attorneys for De fendants KAISER CEMENT CORPORATION AND KAISER GYPSUM COMPANY, INC. 3