BY: GUIANG, MARY ALGEN E.

Under the Rules of Court, discovery means the disclosure by a party litigant of facts, deeds, documents or other things which are in his exclusive knowledge, control or possession, and which are necessary to the party seeking discovery as a part of a cause of action pending or as evidence of his title or rights in such proceedings.

This chapter deals about deposition taking of the three parties in the Woburn case- Anderson, et al, Beatrice, and W.R. Grace.

Schlitmanns first witness, Richard Aufiero was so emotional during the deposition taking and Schlitmann cant help himself from being overprotective of him. By the end of his deposition taking, Richard had tears in his eyes. The depositions of 13 Woburn adults took up one whole month, each deposition taking as emotional as the next.

Schlitmann began his own series of depositions. He turned his attention to Grace. This is when he found Al Love. Al Love worked at the sheet metal department of W.R. Grace since 1961. Schlitmann felt that Love might have difficulty abandoning his self-respect enough to lie and he was right.

Schlitmann started asking about Loves family and children, and objections came with every questions. Love could not understand why Cheeseman was trying to object to questions about his familys health. Cheeseman was supposed to be on his side, but it seemed to him as if Schlitmann was his ally.

Three weeks after the deposition taking, Schlitmann was invited at the Loves house, and Love told him everything he knew about the dumping of wastes practice of W.R. Grace.

Love also referred Schlitmann to other W.R. Graces employees who knew of the dumping practice. Through Als help, Schlitmann found that everyday during five years, employees would dump waste into the gully.

Cheeseman did not, and could not fire Al Love. He knew that if he did so, Schlitmann would turn him into a martyr. Cheeseman told Love Its your right to find out what happened around here that might affect the environment. But Cheeseman made it clear that Love could not speak Schlitmann again, or the company would have no choice but to fire him.

As for Beatrice, Jan Schlitmann had taken only one deposition, that of John J. Riley, manager of Beatrice tannery which had not gone so well. The tanner had answered his questions with open contempt and Jan responded in like manner. Riley denied repeatedly that the tannery had used TCE. Never, said the tanner, Never.

Jan thought he found the perfect witness against Beatrice in the person of Dr. Bernard Turner, but he soon realized he was mistaken. He asked Turner how, as a boy, hed been able to remember all those complicated names- xylene, toluene, butyl alcohol and trichloroethylene.

The doctor explained he used to look up the names in a chemistry book his grandfather gave him. Schlitmann find Dr. Turners story as pompous and self-important, fantastic even. Schlitmann knew he couldnt risk putting Turner on the witness stand. His perfect witness had turned into a trial lawyers nightmare.

The period for discovery ended, and Schlitmann was left hanging and still unprepared. So much had been done and yet so little had been gained.