Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Superior Court

Plaintiffs Gorden, who are real parties in interest here, filed a personal injury action against Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft (VWAG), a German corporation, alleging defective design and manufacture of a 1966 Volkswagen automobile. Plaintiffs moved for two discovery orders: one, appointing a commissioner to take the depositions of seven Volkswagen officials or employees at Wolfsburg, Germany; the other, permitting plaintiffs to inspect and take pictures of certain departments of the Volkswagen manufacturing plant. Both proposed orders declared that refusal to comply would impel the Sacramento Superior Court to impose sanctions on VWAG.

In resisting these motions, VWAG presented to the superior court an aide-memoire from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, stating that the proposed orders would constitute an encroachment on German sovereign rights; declaring that there would be “no hesitation” to the interrogation of witnesses in Germany under “proper letters rogatory through the normal channels . . . .”

Accompanying the aide-memoire was a memorandum prepared by an expert in German law attached to the German Consulate in New York City, declaring that the…