Court: Supreme Court of Rhode Island; October 20, 1999; Rhode Island; State Supreme Court
On September 22, 1999, the Court convened to address a certiorari petition regarding a discovery order from the Superior Court, which allowed the defendant to take depositions from 67 out-of-state banking institutions. The case arises from a contentious family dispute related to the divorce of Elizabeth Cardi Talwar and Akshay Talwar, with Elizabeth and her siblings suing Talwar and Medical Homes of Rhode Island, Inc. for registration of Medical Homes stock they claim to have purchased. The defendants counterclaimed against the plaintiffs and third-party Dr. Alphonse M. Cardi, alleging he used family members to purchase Medical Homes stock in violation of a contract with Talwar.
During discovery, the defendants sought depositions to clarify the purchase of shares and adjacent land, claiming they were necessary due to uncertainty regarding how funds were obtained. The Superior Court authorized this broad discovery, which the plaintiffs contested as an abuse of discretion, arguing it was overly burdensome and unlikely to yield admissible evidence. The Court, acknowledging the trial court's broad discretion in discovery matters, ultimately found that the order constituted an abuse of discretion. The requested discovery spanned from 1976 to 1998 and involved extensive banking records not directly related to the relevant transactions, which primarily occurred between 1987 and 1991. The situation was likened to a previous case, DeCarvalho v. Gonsalves, where broad discovery was similarly disputed in a stockholder's suit.
DeCarvalho sought discovery of documents dating back to 1947, although the alleged misconduct of the directors occurred between 1962 and 1967. The standard for determining relevancy in discovery is based on whether the material relates to the subject matter of the suit, rather than the specific issues in the pleadings. The court found that most documents sought by DeCarvalho were not material to the claims, leading to the conclusion that the discovery request was overly broad. Specifically, the request to depose 67 out-of-state banking institutions lacked evidence that any party had accounts with those institutions, indicating an abuse of discretion by the trial justice. Consequently, the petition for certiorari was granted, and the Superior Court's order was quashed, with instructions to remand the case for further proceedings.
