TNJ............. A Legal Response from Opposing Counsel........

Part One


The Monday after I got home for the C-Fair Charity Horse Show was pretty much a crash day for me. After running for six days straight my mind was mush and really I could not think. I just sat in a chair and vegged.

Then that Tuesday was the day from H*LL as I said goodbye to Solidare. I had known the whole time I was gone this was what was waiting for me when I got home. It made even the lawsuit pale in comparison.

Wednesday I had to pull myself together and get focused for my hearing the following afternoon. I knew I needed to be more proficient speaking to the judge than I had been at that first hearing. I couldn't afford to get tongue tied or have my lips stuck to my teeth. The only advocate I had was me so I immersed myself in my paperwork playing possible communications with the judge over in my head.

With the afternoon mail came the defense attorney's opposition to the motion for expansion of discovery I had filed with the court. I could tell from the contents of the document that she had not been amused by my attempts to gather evidence for my case. She claimed my requests were "overly burdensome and clearly designed to harass the defendants and needlessly increase the cost of litigating this manner."

That was, of course, news to me. I had no idea about costs. I thought the whole point of requesting documents, admissions and interrogatories was to keep costs down by avoiding more expensive things like extensive use of court reporters for sworn testimony and such. It was my understanding the more a case relied on the testimony of witnesses the more expensive a case could become. Trading paper back and forth and answering simple statements should make things less expensive not more.

Their attorney did provide a list of what was allowed by the local court rules that was very informative. There were provisions for five standard form interrogatories, three standard form requests for production of documents, plus an additional five requests for production of documents without permissions of the court. I could see from those rules that I could probably have requested most of what I needed specifically that way instead of how I had done them. There were, however, only provisions for 15 admissions with subparts which sure wouldn't have worked for me, not with the way I saw the admissions should be used anyway.

Looking at her paperwork it was the admissions I had worked so diligently on that gave her the biggest fits. Although I was reading a court document, I could clearly hear the frustration in her voice. In bold letters her paperwork stated "564 requests for admission is an abuse and the defendants should not be required to respond." She claimed she had not even had a chance to read all of the requests but that some of them were clearly frivolous and irrelevant.

For instance, request no 277 states," MiKael Caillier responded to that email that BG as X Arabian does not charge clients for show fees or lesson fees." and no 278 states "MiKael Caillier further responded “how could you think that the amount of training in those months from when we started this agreement to when your mother got sick would have been anywhere near enough to pay off a $30,000 debt.” She is asking the defendants to admit or deny statements that she herself allegedly made in written emails. This is ridiculous. The plaintiff's intent is clearly that the defendants be forced to spend so much time and effort in defending this suit that they will have exorbitant attorney fees and be prevented from continuing on in their defense."

"The plaintiff's production requests include requests for the defendant's personal tax returns, and the tax returns for their two businesses, neither of which are a part of this suit. These requests are completely irrelevant as to whether the plaintiffs received the disputed $20,000 remaining payment for the horse. In the event the court allows additional discovery, the defendants do not waive their right to object to relevance of the discovery. The vast majority of the additional discovery appears to be completely irrelevant to the legal and factual issues presented in this case. "

She went on in a summary to ask the court to weigh the factors set forth in the local court rules and deny my motion for expanded discovery. Stating "the facts of the case do not warrant additional discovery and the discovery requested, "particularly the 564 requests for admissions is a form of harassment."

I must admit I looked at her responses in wonder. Was she ignorant or was this just her manipulations of the legal system to defend her clients? I really had to wonder. Certainly she must know by including copies of the documents I had signed from both of their business that she herself had opened the door to those records. If they had no bearing on the case, why had she included them? Why were those documents even included in her own exhibits if they had nothing to do with this case? Didn't she realize that training horses is X Arabians and the boxer puppy was indeed part of X Primier Boxers? It seemed to me that BG and WF's attorney was either making a lot of mistakes or she was as loose with the truth as her clients were.

Clearly the thing that had pushed her buttons the most was those admissions. Calling them irrelevant made me wonder what she was up to. She was so ticked off by them she had mentioned them in bold three different times in her paperwork. Nothing else I wanted got the kind of response from her that the admissions did. Even the tax records had been mentioned only once. I had clearly hit a nerve.

To be continued..............

The Discovery Motions Hearing.......

The last foal from my third foal crop was out of the midget mare, Lilly and, of course, by Legs. Hope is a beautiful, elegant filly who had always captured the hearts of visitors. Definitely a princess, Hope has a quiet charisma that doesn't take the haughty boasting of a mare like Dare or Scarlet. Hope has always been a lady and she captured my heart in about thirty seconds flat.


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