Opinion
No. CV09 5029096S
July 21, 2011
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION IN RE MOTION FOR ORDER (#148)
The plaintiff's action arises from a December 12, 2008 motor vehicle accident involving two motor vehicles in the state of Connecticut. On May 16, 2011, the plaintiff argued a motion before the court, Woods, J., requesting an order requiring the Massachusetts State Police Department to turn over a copy of a previous investigative file involving Stephen Benanti, the defendants' expert witness, who is an accident reconstructionist. The defendants object on the basis that the investigation at issue concluded over ten years ago with the exoneration of Benanti and that he had been permitted to continue with both his police force and private employments.
"[T]he granting or denial of a discovery request rests in the sound discretion of the [trial] court . . ." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Barry v. Quality Steel Production, Inc., 280 Conn. 1, 16-17, 905 A.2d 55 (2006). "That discretion applies to decisions concerning whether the information is material, privileged, [and] substantially more available to the disclosing party . . ." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Brown v. Housing Authority, 23 Conn.App. 624, 626-27, 583 A.2d 643 (1990). Further, Practice Book § 13-2, governing requests for production, inspection and examination generally, provides, in part, "[d]iscovery shall be permitted if the disclosure sought would be of assistance in the prosecution or defense of the action . . ." "[R]equested nonprivileged material is discoverable as long as it is calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence." Vargas v. Yale-New Haven Hospital, Inc., 47 Conn.Sup. 1, 3, 768 A.2d 967 (2000). In the Vargas case, the court allowed discovery relating to the expert's disclosure of other cases in which he had testified as an expert. Id., 3.
In the present case, however, the plaintiff has failed to demonstrate how a ten-year old investigation concerning Benanti's conflict of interest emanating from a relationship between his police force and private employments — an investigation resulting in Benanti's exoneration — would be of assistance to the prosecution of this case. More importantly, the parties have failed to provide, nor has research uncovered, any authority for the proposition that a Connecticut court has the jurisdiction to order a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to turn over such material to this court.
For the reasons set forth above, the court denies the plaintiff's motion.