Judge Christian N. (“Speedy”) Weiler has to deal with ambiguous agents and their Matthew 18:18 roleplaying, in Harman Road Property, LLC, Capital Conservation Partners II, LLC, Tax Matters Partner, Docket No. 12304-20, filed 2/18/25. Dixieland Boondockery has birthed endless discovery and evidentiary roundy-rounds, which is why I follow them so closely. Both seasoned practitioner and novice need to review the FRCP and FRE, as Mark Twain and his Mississippi pilots needed to “learn the river” again and again.

There’s the usual limine preliminary bombardment, but Judge Speedy Weiler saves the bulk for trial; they mostly go to relevancy, and that best plays out as the case develops in the courtroom.

Note that an expert can be a fact witness, but to prevent a litigant from trying to submarine by claiming the expert is a fact witness and then eliciting expert testimony, bypassing the Rule 143(g) protections, Judge Weiler invokes FRCP 37, the judicial depth charge which “affords trial courts ‘discretion to decide how best to respond to a litigant’s failure to make a required disclosure under [Federal] Rule [of Civil Procedure] 26.'” Order, at p. 4, footnote 6. (Citation omitted).

There’s a bunch partners and indirect partners, hence party opponents whose out-of-court statements come in, avoiding hearsay per FRE 801(d)(2)(A).

Except.

These partners and indirect partners must have specific authority to bind the partnership(s) of which they are member(s), or the partnership must have adopted those statements as their own.

Judge-‘splaining FRE 801(d)(2)(A) “the rule provides for statements ‘made within the scope of that relationship and while it existed.’ Accordingly, we find respondent is not free to offer any prior written statement made by these individuals as excluded from hearsay, without first establishing the context in which the statement is being made. In other words, we are not willing to treat multiple emails (without first considering the specific documents and context) as all being excepted from hearsay simply because these individuals are potential agents of Harman Road and Green Rock.” Order, at p. 7.

Plenty for aspirants to the non-attorney admission route, and even those autoadmitees, to consider.