Reynolds Metals Company v. Paula Martin Yturbide, Reynolds Metals Company v. Verla Martin, Reynolds Metals Company v. Paul Martin

In July, 1946, Reynolds Metals Company, a Delaware corporation, acquired through lease, an aluminum plant belonging to the Government and located at Troutdale, Oregon. It commenced operation of its first potline for the production of aluminum in September of that year. In the operation of the plant chem *323 ical compounds containing aluminum were collected in the reduction cells of the so-called “pots” and were reduced or separated by the process of electrolysis or passage of current through the cell. In the process, temperatures up to 1775° F. were developed. As the compounds with which the cells were charged, (cryolite or sodium fluoride or calcium fluoride and aluminum fluoride) contain large percentages of fluorine ranging around 50 percent, a considerable portion of fluoride material was volatilized in the process and reached the atmosphere. 1

Shortly after the operation of the plan began, and in December, 1946, the appellees in these three appeals, Paul Martin, his wife, Verla Martin, and his daughter, Paula Martin (now Mrs. Yturbide), moved to their cattle farm or ranch near Troutdale located about a mile to a mile and one-half from the aluminum plant, and they resided…

(concurring and dissenting).

I concur in the foregoing opinion except with respect to the specification concerning the limiting order on the taking of the depositions of Drs. Hills and Proctor in Baltimore. Their testimony would have concerned the cases of Paul and Verla Martin. In my view we have not been told by any Oregon state decision what we should do on the point. And, usually I am most reluctant not to follow the opinion of a district judge well versed in the law of his own state on a point peculiar to his state.

Here I think we do an injustice when we say to the defendant, “During the course of trial you should have renewed your request to take the doctors’ deposition; that is, have stopped the trial to do it.” Ordinarily, that would be a useless right. With a jury one does not want to stop the main show to run off to a side show in Maryland. That has many perils, not the least of which is the urgency of courts to get on with their business. I would let a plaintiff restrict the taking of testimony on depositions at his own risk, if he should later offer to testify in the restricted area. And, as a trial judge, I would think it plaintiff’s error, not mine.

But assuming…

258 F.2d 321 REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY, Appellant, v. Paula Martin YTURBIDE, Appellee. REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY, Appellant, v. Verla MARTIN, Appellee. REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY, Appellant, v. Paul MARTIN, Appellee. Nos. 14990-14992. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. June 5, 1958. Certiorari Denied October 13, 1958. See 79 S.Ct. 66 . King, Miller, Anderson, Nash & Yerke, Frederic A. Yerke, Jr., Clifford N. Carlsen, Jr., David R. Tillinghast, Portland, Or., Joseph H. McConnell, Gustav B. Margraf, W. Tobin Lennon, Richmond, Va., for appellant. George W. Mead, Irving Rand, Portland, Or., for appellees Paul Martin, Verla Martin, and Paula Martin. Frank L. Seamans, Smith, Buchanan, Ingersoll, Rodewald & Eckert, Pittsburgh, Pa., Gordon Johnson, R. W. Koskinen, Oakland, Cal., Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, San Francisco, Cal., E. J. Spielman, Torrance, Cal., R. E. McCormick, New York, N. Y., Turner McBaine, Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, San Francisco, Cal., Edward W. Rothe, Veder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz, Chicago, Ill., amici curiae. EN BANC. — Before STEPHENS, Chief Judge, and HEALY, POPE, LEMMON, CHAMBERS, BARNES and HAMLEY, Circuit Judges. POPE,…