Pierburg GmbH & Co. KG v. Superior Court

By petition for mandate a West German national corporation, Pierburg GmbH Co. KG (hereafter Pierburg), which is a defendant in the underlying personal injury products liability action in respondent court, seeks to vacate respondent’s order of June 9, 1982, that requires Pierburg to answer written interrogatories served upon it by plaintiffs (real parties in interest) without compliance with the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil and Commercial Matters (23 U.S.T. 2555, T.I.A.S. No. 7444, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1781 ) (hereafter the Hague Evidence Convention).

The principal question presented here is whether respondent abused its discretion in ruling that the Hague Evidence Convention need not be complied with by plaintiffs seeking discovery of Pierburg because by answering other written interrogatories propounded by other parties in the same action Pierburg has waived the applicability of that convention.

Review of the Hague Evidence Convention and the California cases addressing its application requires the conclusion that a litigant may not be estopped to assert the requirements of the convention by reason of failure to assert those…