Georgia

Why GM’s Mary Barra got no special deposition treatment from Georgia Supreme Court

Published

3 years ago

June 2, 2022

Why GM’s Mary Barra got no special deposition treatment from Georgia Supreme Court

Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of Common Motors Firm speaks on the 2022 Milken Institute World Convention in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., Might 2, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com

Regulation companies
Associated paperwork

(Reuters) – Company CEOs and CFOs are busy individuals with a variety of duties. So are myriad different employees whose colleagues depend upon their efforts. And so are single mother and father juggling jobs exterior of the house.

All of them – certainly, all witnesses referred to as for a deposition in a civil go well with in state court docket in Georgia – are entitled to ask for an order shielding them from testifying as a result of the deposition could be an “undue burden or expense.” In each civil case in state court docket, Georgia trial judges have discretion to weigh the potential worth of the requested discovery in opposition to the disruption it will trigger to the witness.

What Georgia judges can’t do, below a ruling on Wednesday from the Georgia Supreme Court docket, is apply a particular take a look at for company executives who do not need to be deposed.

Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com

The unanimous Supreme Court docket rejected a name from Common Motors LLC and a bunch of amici – together with Georgia-based corporations United Parcel Service Inc, Delta Air Strains Inc and The Coca-Cola Firm – to undertake the so-called apex doctrine to guard high-ranking executives from abusive and harassing discovery calls for.

Beneath the apex framework, which is extensively utilized in federal court docket, judges think about 4 elements in assessing calls for for depositions from top-level executives: the company official’s rank and duties; her private information of details related to the litigation; the extent to which these details could be obtained in discovery; and the potential of acquiring the data from a unique supply.

GM’s legal professionals at Alston & Fowl advised the Georgia Supreme Court docket that the “sensible and versatile” apex framework doesn’t truly bestow particular privileges on company executives however merely assures that they obtain the identical safety as different potential deposition witnesses, in gentle of their “distinctive susceptibility” to baseless discovery calls for.

That’s not how the Georgia Supreme Court docket noticed it. “Adopting the apex doctrine,” wrote Justice Charlie Bethel, “would essentially prohibit the trial court docket’s discretion by putting a thumb on the dimensions in order to counsel a particular rule for high-ranking executives of huge corporations that exists nowhere within the Civil Follow Act.” (The court docket cited the aforementioned single mother and father and different busy, responsibility-laden employees in a footnote explaining why everybody in search of to duck a deposition in Georgia should show good trigger.)

Georgia is the seventh state explicitly to refuse to undertake the apex doctrine, following Oklahoma, Missouri, Colorado, Connecticut, New York and North Carolina. In an amicus temporary on behalf of the plaintiffs within the Georgia case, the American Affiliation for Justice stated the apex doctrine is “a dying judicial assemble.” (A number of pro-business teams argued as GM amici that among the states which have rejected per se adoption of the apex doctrine, together with Missouri and Oklahoma, have however utilized its ideas.)

The Georgia justices remanded the case — wherein Glenda Marie Buchanan’s surviving relations allege that her 2014 demise was the results of a faulty steering sensor in her GM Trailblazer — to the trial court docket with directions to investigate all of GM’s arguments for why CEO Mary Barra shouldn’t be required to sit down for a deposition. GM, which insists that Barra has no distinctive information and that the Buchanans can get the data they search from different witnesses, stated in an electronic mail assertion that it’s desperate to renew its movement for a protecting order.

Buchanan counsel Darren Summerville of The Summerville Agency and Lance Cooper of The Cooper Agency advised me they’ve already delivered all of the proof the trial court docket must deny GM’s movement. Barra, they contend, was on the forefront of GM’s effort to advertise car security after the corporate’s ignition change debacle, which price GM’s predecessor greater than $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements. Barra initiated security packages and stated the chief security officer would report on to her on deaths involving GM automobiles. So solely the CEO, in accordance with Buchanan’s legal professionals, can clarify her function in GM’s investigation of the alleged defect on this case.

“This all the time struck me as an odd car to push for apex doctrine,” Summerville advised me. “We’ve such good proof of Barra’s information and former statements.”

One of many key implications of the Supreme Court docket’s opinion, Summerville stated, is that GM will bear the burden on remand of creating good trigger to dam Barra’s testimony. The Supreme Court docket devoted appreciable consideration to the burden of proof, noting that among the many federal courts which have adopted the apex framework, there’s broad variation in its utility. GM requested Georgia to undertake a hybrid model of burden-shifting, wherein executives in search of a protecting order would bear the preliminary accountability of creating, by means of an affidavit, that the execs are “sufficiently high-ranking” and should not have private information of the details of the case. After that prima facie exhibiting, GM stated, it ought to be as much as the opposite aspect to rebut the presumption of excellent trigger for a protecting order barring the deposition.

The Georgia Supreme Court docket made clear that below the state’s discovery guidelines, the burden of proof belongs totally to potential witnesses who’re attempting to dam depositions requests, no matter who these witnesses are. “GM’s formulation would impermissibly shift that burden to the celebration in search of discovery,” Bethel wrote.

Companies are, in fact, free below the brand new ruling to claim arguments primarily based on the apex elements once they search a protecting order shielding executives from being deposed. However trial courts, the Supreme Court docket held, retain case-by-case discretion to resolve if these issues are – or should not – enough.

GM and a number of other of its amici warned the Georgia Supreme Court docket that with out safety from “abusive” discovery calls for, plaintiffs will run amok with requests to depose executives whose time is simply too invaluable to waste. UPS, Delta and Coca-Cola stated of their temporary that rejection of the apex doctrine would place Georgia companies at a “distinctive drawback.”

The Georgia Supreme Court docket suggested them to deliver their coverage arguments to state lawmakers. The justices’ job, they stated, is to interpret Georgia’s discovery guidelines. And below these guidelines, the court docket stated, high-ranking company executives aren’t any totally different from anybody else.

Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.

Opinions expressed are these of the writer. They don’t replicate the views of Reuters Information, which, below the Belief Rules, is dedicated to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Alison Frankel

Thomson Reuters

Alison Frankel has lined high-stakes industrial litigation as a columnist for Reuters since 2011. A Dartmouth school graduate, she has labored as a journalist in New York protecting the authorized trade and the legislation for greater than three a long time. Earlier than becoming a member of Reuters, she was a author and editor at The American Lawyer. Frankel is the writer of Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World’s Most Precious Coin.

Source link

Related Topics:AMERS Featured LEGAL NAMER NRLPA:OAPP NRLPA:OPER REUTERS-LEGAL us

Click to comment

Georgia

Texas ran all over Clemson, and the Longhorns may have Georgia to thank for that

Published

2 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Texas ran all over Clemson, and the Longhorns may have Georgia to thank for that

AUSTIN — Yeah, yeah, sure. Georgia has beaten Texas twice already this year. The Bulldogs have done their best to ruin a perfectly good season on the Forty Acres. If not for Georgia, well, Texas wouldn’t even have had to go to work Saturday.

But hear us out: Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

After all, Texas got another Bevo Walk, one more time for an experienced senior class to soak in the atmosphere of 101,150 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. It gave the Longhorns one more opportunity to hear Matthew McConaughey get weird on the sound system. Most importantly, it gave the Longhorns another opportunity to get back to what they actually do really well: Run the damn ball.

In a 38-24 win over Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Texas outmuscled and then outran the overmatched Tigers defense for a season-high 292 yards and four touchdowns. Texas will take its regrouped ground game back to Atlanta, site of the most recent loss to Georgia, to play Arizona State in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on Jan. 1.

Texas split things up pretty evenly: Quintrevion Wisner and Jaydon Blue each got two. Wisner did most of the hard running early; Blue — who had touchdown runs of 38 and 77 yards, the latter coming after Clemson had closed within one score — did the speed work. End of the night: Blue had 146 yards, Wisner, who didn’t play in the fourth quarter to rest a knee he “banged” late in the first half, had 110.

It was, in a lot of ways, just like coach Steve Sarkisian drew it up after Georgia held the Longhorns to 31 yards 10 days ago in a 22-19 overtime loss in the SEC Championship.

“One of the first bullet points I put up in the room was ‘run to win,’” Sarkisian said of his workweek message to his team. “We needed to run to win this game. And we’re going to need to run the football to advance in these playoffs. That’s what playoff football is about. So, we really challenged them on the run game.”

They responded. Just as they did the first time Georgia beat them back in October and held the running game to 29 yards. Texas followed that up with three 200-plus-yard games on the ground in the five games ‘twixt Georgia meetings.

Against Clemson, it was important to demonstrate that the issue was just a Georgia thing. Clemson was the perfect opponent for Texas to reestablish the ground game. Clemson entered the playoff ranked 73rd in the country — last among the playoff teams — in run defense. There was a weakness to exploit and eventually a message to send to the rest of the remaining playoff field: Sarkisian may have been a quarterback once and may remain a quarterback at heart, but Texas will run to win. Arizona State, consider your Sun Devils warned.

“The run game is really important for us on a lot of levels,” Sarkisian said. “One, our offense is better when we can run it, because then the balance can really kick in for us. It opens up a lot that we do. When we can run it effectively, teams have to prepare for a lot when they’re getting ready to play us.”

On Saturday, this is how effective Texas’ running game was: It literally didn’t matter who was where on the offensive line. Texas got left tackle Kelvin Banks, who missed the SEC championship game, back Saturday, but lost center Jake Majors and right tackle Cameron Williams on successive plays late in the first half. Guard Hayden Conner moved over to center and Cole Hutson moved into the offensive line, which was jumbled to say the least. Worked good enough to spring Blue on a 77-yard TD run through the right side three plays after Clemson had cut a onetime 28-10 lead to 31-24. On both of Blue’s long touchdown runs, Ewers had checked off a pass play after reading the Clemson defensive set.

It was also good vindication for Blue, who dealt with issues holding on to the ball earlier this season, and had fallen into more of a secondary role to Wisner.

“The guys up front, those guys paved the way for me,” Blue said. “We made a big emphasis that we’re going to have to run the ball in order to win this game.”

For that, Texas can somehow thank Georgia for the reminder.

So far, so good: See photos from Texas’ first-round College Football Playoff win over Clemson in Austin

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Source link

Georgia

Notre Dame vs. Georgia: Odds and how to watch the Allstate Sugar Bowl

Published

10 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Press Room

Notre Dame vs. Georgia: Odds and how to watch the Allstate Sugar Bowl

The first round of the College Football Playoff lived up to expectations, as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish claimed a quarterfinal spot after defeating the Indiana Hoosiers in snowy South Bend, Indiana. The Fighting Irish will face the No. 2 seeded Georgia Bulldogs in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish secured their first playoff victory in the new era of the College Football Playoff with a 27-17 win over Indiana. Quarterback Riley Leonard delivered a stellar performance against the Hoosiers, completing 71.9% of his passes for 201 yards, one touchdown, and one interception while also scoring a touchdown on the ground. On defense, safety Xavier Watts was the standout player, recording 10 tackles and an interception to help the Fighting Irish clinch the victory.

The Bulldogs, who received a bye, are gearing up for a run at the College Football Playoff without their starting quarterback, Carson Beck. He will likely be sidelined due to an elbow injury on his throwing arm, which he sustained during the final play of the first half in the SEC Championship game against Texas. This injury forced him to leave the game early. Sophomore Gunner Stockton stepped in and successfully led the Bulldogs to a 22-19 victory. Gunner has a completion rate of 78.1% and has thrown for 206 yards in the three games he played this season. He is expected to lead the offense moving forward.

Here is everything to know ahead of kickoff at the All-State Sugar Bowl.

Allstate Sugar Bowl odds, lines: Notre Dame vs. Georgia

The Georgia Bulldogs are favorites to defeat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, according to the BetMGM college football odds.

Odds as of afternoon on Saturday, Dec. 21.

Spread: Georgia (-1.5)
Moneylines: Georgia (-120); Notre Dame (+102)
Over/under: 44.5

How to watch Notre Dame vs. Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl

Date: Wednesday, Jan. 1
Time: 8:45 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Stream: Fubo
Where: Caesars Superdome (New Orleans, LA)

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

Source link

Georgia

Georgia Disaster Recovery Centers to be closed for Christmas, New Year holidays

Published

18 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Press Room

Georgia Disaster Recovery Centers to be closed for Christmas, New Year holidays

ATLANTA, Ga. (WALB) – All Georgia Disaster Recovery Centers will be closed for the holidays.

For the upcoming Christmas holiday, the centers will be closed from Tuesday, Dec. 24, until Thursday, Dec. 26.

The centers will be closed from Tuesday, Dec. 31, until Thursday, Jan. 2, for the New Year holiday.

All centers are also closed on Sundays.

While the centers are closed, you can call the FEMA helpline at (800) 621-3362, or apply or check your application on https://www.disasterassistance.gov/. The helpline will be closed on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.

Survivors may visit any one of the FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers throughout the state to apply for assistance. Click here to find a center near you.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.