Liberty Mutual Insurance v. Superior Court

Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and its president and chief executive officer, Gary L. Countryman, seek a writ of mandate to compel respondent superior court to grant a protective order prohibiting Countryman’s deposition (Code Civ. Proc., § 2025, subd. (i)) in a lawsuit brought by plaintiff/real party Gunda Frysinger. This case raises an issue of first impression in California: whether the head of a corporation may be deposed when there is no showing he or she had any involvement in a lawsuit against the corporation, and prior to the plaintiff’s exhaustion of less intrusive means of discovery. We hold that under these circumstances a corporate head may not be deposed, and that the trial court abused its discretion by denying the protective order. Accordingly, we issue a writ of mandate.

Facts

Real party’s husband, William Frysinger, suffered an industrial injury on May 30, 1980. Mr. Frysinger, a high-rise sheetmetal worker, fell 65 feet down an empty elevator shaft on a jobsite. He sustained multiple trauma to his head, face and extremities, and was periodically hospitalized until 1983. The injury left him physically and mentally disabled, and he requires 24-hour…