Document bLGnQddmXonaMOg0G0nNnYDk

1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COljJRT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS . BEAUMONT DIVISION CECIE SCOTT, ET AL VS. MONSANTO COMPANY * * * * CIVILACTION * NO. B-84-.il03-^CA k * ********************** SEPTEMBER 3, 1987 VOLUME XIV ********************** ) BEFORE THE HONORABLE JOE J. FISHER UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE, AND A JURY V REPORTED BY: C. FRANK MCMILLAN FEDERAL COURT REPORTING CO. P. 0. BOX 2664 BEAUMONT, TEXAS 77006 (409) 839-2518 i A i 1 APPEARANCES 2 3 ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFFS: 4 MR. DAVID M. LACEY MR. MICHAEL A. POHL 5 MS. SUSAN BAKER GILPIN, POHL & BENNETT 6 1300 POST OAK BOULEVARD HOUSTON, TEXAS 77056 7 MR. THOMAS HENDERSON 8 MR. ANTONIO PYLE HENDERSON & GOLDBERG 9 1030 FIFTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 15219 10 MR. BENTON MUSSLEWHITE 11 609 FANNIN, SUITE 517 HOUSTON, TEXAS 77002 12 13 ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENDANT: 14 MR. ROBERT A. HALL MR. ROBERT A. JONES 15 MR. JONATHAN SHOEBOTHAM WOODARD, HALL & PRIMM 16 4700 TEXAS COMMERCE TOWER HOUSTON, TEXAS 77002 17 MR. TANNER T. HUNT, JR. 18 MS. CHERYL D. OLESEN MR. WALTER CRAWFORD 19 MR. MARK FREEMAN WELLS, PEYTON, BEARD, GREENBERG, 20 HUNT & CRAWFORD P. O. BOX 3708 21 BEAUMONT, TEXAS 77056 22 ALSO PRESENT: 23 MR. WILLIAM PAPAGEORGE, CORPORATE 24 REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE MONSANTO CHEMICAL COMPANY. 25 1 INDEX 2 1 3 WITNESS: DR. PAUL WRIGHT 4 READING FROM DEPOSITION 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 PAGE 2176 2176 1 still true today, is it not? 2 A Yes, as much as it can be, you know, living 3 900 miles apart. 4 5 MR. CRAWFORD: Thank you. Your Honor, 6 we have a few exhibits to offer if we could. 7 We have got 2811C, which are the 8 records of Dr. Spencer. We have got 2821A, 9 which are the Bloomington Hospital records. 10 We have got 2827A, which is a report from 11 the National Jewish Hospital on April 13th 12 and then we would also offer these three 13 exhibits which we have just made reference 14 to and that's 2397A, B and C. 15 THE COURT: All right. Any further 16 questions? 17 MR. CRAWFORD: Thank you. 18 MR. POHL: No, Your Honor. 19 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Toon, you 20 may stand down. 21 Ladies and gentlemen, the Court is 22 going to instruct the jury in regard to the 23 testimony by video depositions and 24 depositions of Dr. Wright, Dr. Paul Wright. 25 The Court made a ruling yesterday after 4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 X 7 7 1 the plaintiffs had attempted to offer the 2 deposition of Dr, Paul Wright over the 3 objections of the defendant that it would be 4 admitted. 5 Then during the offering of the 6 deposition it appeared that Dr, Wright was 7 taking what is known as the Fifth Amendment, 8 that he refused to give testimony. 9 So, the Court could not see any purpose 10 in continuing that deposition after 11 inquiring of counsel if his answer to all of 12 the questions that they had asked, which was 13 some six or seven or eight questions, I 14 don't remember how many it was, maybe less 15 than that, but several questions. 16 The Court then reversed his ruling and 17 said that we would sustain the defendant's 18 objections to the offering of this testimony 19 by Dr. Wright and would grant their request 20 to suppress the deposition. 21 Out of an abundance of fairness, the 22 Court has been advised that there was some ! I 23 testimony given by the witness to which he 24 did not assert a Fifth Amendment right and 25 gave some testimony. 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 % -- -------------------------------------------2178 The Court feels that although the deposition may not be of too much significance, that the jury should be able to weigh and consider the deposition for whatever it might be worth in regard to this case. And the deposition as the Court understands offered by the plaintiffs over the objections of the defendant for the purpose of showing Dr. Wright's relationship to Monsanto and the knowledge that Monsanto had as to the test work which Dr. Wright had done. So, we are going to permit the plaintiffs to reoffer or offer such deposition testimony of Dr. Wright by video or question and answer as they wish to offer. And we will also permit counsel to state the number of questions that they have asked Dr. Wright and the questions. You may read the questions to which he asserted his constitutional right of not answering. All right. You may proceed. i % 2179 1 The record will reflect that the 2 defendant has made objections to this 3 testimony and they have a running objection. 4 All right. 5 MR. MCJSSLEWHITE: Your Honor, to save 6 time, I'm simply going to say that we will 7 not rerun the video portion that we ran 8 yesterday. The jury has already seen it 9 about his background, when he went with 10 Monsanto then went with IBT and then back 11 with Monsanto. 12 There's no reason to repeat that and we 13 are just going to ask two questions and read 14 the answers and that's it, Your Honop. 15 THE COURT: All right. 16 17 MR. MUSSLEWHITE: "QUESTION: ou knew 18 at the time you were a manager of tojxicology 19 at Monsanto that Monsanto was con tinuing to 20 use the IBT test results that per tai ned to 21 Monsanto's Aroclor products in an ef fort by 22 Monsanto to forestall various gov er nment 23 regulations designed to limit the di scharge 24 of PCBs into the environment? 25 "ANSWER: On my attorney's adv ic e , I ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2T87T 1 hereby invoke the rights secured to me by 2 the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the 3 U.S. Constitution and respectfully refuse to 4 answer that question on the grounds that any 5 information I give in response may tend to 6 incriminate me. i 7 "QUESTION: Dr. Wright, when you had an 8 interchange with the EPA about causing them 9 to forestall their regulations limiting the 10 discharge of PCBs into the environment, you i 11 knew at that time that the IBT Aroclor 12 studies both understated and misrepresented 13 the toxic effects of PCBs on rodents; i s n 't i 14 that true? 15 "ANSWER: On my attorney's advice, I 16 hereby invoke the rights secured to'me by . ! 17 the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments! to the !i 18 U.S. Constitution and respectfully refuse to 19 answer that question on the grounds; that any 20 information I give in response may tend to 21 incriminate me." i 22 23 MR. MUSSLEWHITE: That concludes it, 24 Your Honor. 25 THE COURT: All right. What else do 0 '2181" i you have? Do you have something to add? 2 MR. JONES: Yes, sir, Your Honor. 3 THE COURT: All right, Mr . Jones. 4 MR. JONES: Your Honor, in light of the 5 Court's ruling, I would like to read at 6 least a small portion of Paul Wright's 7 deposition. 8 That portion which begins on Page 18, 9 line 20. And this was an objection that I 10 made as counsel for Monsanto, prior to, 11 right after the first invocation of the 12 Fifth Amendment by Paul Wright. 13 MR. MUSSLEWHITE: Excuse me, Your \ 14 Honor. May I interpose this? He's about to 15 read an objection, not a question. And we 16 object to him reading his objections. I 17 don't mind him making the objection to His 18 Honor; but to read it from the deposition 19 seems superfluous. 20 THE COURT: I think that's appropriate. 21 No need of you reading your objection. 22 MR. JONES: Your Honor, the only thing 23 that I was going to state in connection with 24 that deposition was that I as counsel for 25 Monsanto requested Dr. Wright to truthfully '- f TTW 2----1 l 1 and honestly and completely answer all 2 questions that Mr. Pohl or I may ask at the 3 deposition because so far as Monsanto was 4 aware, there was -- 5 THE COURT: The Court will accept that 6 statement. 7 MR. JONES: Okay. Thank you, Your 8 Honor. 9 Your Honor, I would like to read one 10 other additional portion and that's on Page 11 63 where I asked the question: Page 63, 12 line 10. 13 14 "QUESTION: Dr. Wright, for the past 15 hour and a half, you have been asserting 16 your Fifth Amendment privilege against 17 self-incrimination in the Constitution of 18 the United States. 19 "Do you intend to continue to assert 20 your Fifth Amendment privilege to the 21 questions that I may ask concerning the 22 subject matter of this lawsuit?" 23 24 MR. JONES: Wherein Mr. Wright's 25 counsel said: "Assuming that your questions i 2 1 8 3 ~I 1 intend to ask Dr. Wright that as to each and 2 every question you pose that would touch 3 upon the same subject matter as M r . Pohl 's 4 questions to which Dr. Wright has invoked 5 his constitutional rights on behalf of D r . 6 Wright, I would state that, y e s , he intends 7 to invoke the same rights he invoked all 8 along during Mr. Pohl's questions." 9 At that point, I did not ask any 10 further questions and pass the witness. 11 12 THE COURT: All right. What do you 13 have next? 14 MR. POHL: We call Phil Smith as our 15 next witness. 16 THE COURT: Have a seat in the witness 17 chair. ' You may proceed. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS 3 OFFICIAL REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 4 5 6 I, FRANK MCMILLAN, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER FOR 7 THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN 8 DISTRICT OF TEXAS, DO HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE ABOVE AND 9 FOREGOING PAGES CONSTITUTE A TRUE, CORRECT AND COMPLETE 10 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE ABOVE STYLED AND 11 NUMBERED CAUSE. 12 WITNESS MY OFFICIAL SIGNATURE IN THE CITY OF 13 BEAUMONT, TEXAS, ON THE 1__ .DAY OF'JZLMLV^i 14 15 16 17 '- A __ C. FRANK MCMILLArt 18 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 19 EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS 20 21 22 23 24 25