Warford

This case raises questions concerning the conditions under, which discovery may be compelled from unwilling nonparty witnesses who invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

On June 3, 1981, plaintiffs J. Albert Warford and Joanne Stevens filed an application for an order to show cause why Manuel Wayne Medeiros, Bernice Sanga Medeiros and John Edward Medeiros (hereinafter nonparty deponents) should not be required to provide deposition testimony and certain documents. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 2034.) Plaintiffs’ application was supported by an affidavit of John Rapp, their attorney in an action pending in the State of Hawaii. The affidavit stated that plaintiffs had filed a civil action in the State of Hawaii against seven named defendants and ten Does. Plaintiffs assertedly alleged in that action that the named defendants, together with the unnamed Does, had been involved in a conspiracy which led to the murders of Paul Warford and David Blue, sons of the plaintiffs, as well as a conspiracy to inflict harm on plaintiff J. Albert Warford. By their action in Hawaii plaintiffs sought to recover damages sustained as a result of the conspiracies and to…