A CIVIL ACTION

Jonathan Harr
Discovery

Discovery was referred and described in this chapter as a deposition, a deposition is an

out of court inquiry or interview done on the witnesses. Depositions are held at the law firms of
either the plaintiff’s or defense’s counsel, of course with presence of each counsels for every
party regardless of venue.
The first to be deposed at the Hale & Dorr was Richard Aufiero. Auferio’s son, Jarrod,
was one of the children residing in Woburn who died due to leukemia. The inquiry on Auferio
was dramatic and real, persons present during the deposition felt the sorrow of Auferio’s
narration and answers to each questions, especially when questions leads to him remembering
the day when his son died on his lap. After the deposition, Facher realized that this Woburn Case
is a case in which he can’t win.
Paul Shalline and Thomas Barbas, employees of W.R. Grace, were deposed at
Schlitchmann’s firm, at his $12,000.00 conference table to be exact. The first deposition of the
two employees of W.R. Grace did no good for Schlitchmann, depositions were made full of self-
protection, lies and inconsistencies.
Later, a man named Al Love, also an employee of W.R. Grace was presented to
Schlitchmann for deposition. Love was accompanied by Cheeseman. At the early part of
deposition, Love answered briefly to Schlitchmann’s questions, as what Cheeseman instructed.
But, a twist in Love’s mood occurred when the questions raised were leading to his families
health issues, and due to Cheeseman’s consistent objections, Love thought that he was in the
wrong side of the game. After the deposition, Love realized that Schlitchmann was the ally, and
that the company on where he is working practices acts that harm the environment.
Love then met with Anne and decided to help with the case. Love’s confessions or
statements through Schlitchmann became enough grounds for the U.S. Attorney to have interests
in the Woburn case. The involvement of U.S. Attorney with respect to the W.R. Grace case was
a great edge for Schlitchmann.
Now, having done great advancement for the conviction of W.R. Grace, Schlitchmann
now focuses on Beatrice Foods. The deposition with Riley done no advancement or gathered no
information to establish a case against Beatrice Foods. But due to Schlitchmann’s perseverance,
he found witnesses and documents which is contrary to Riley’s claims that the tannery never
dumped any hazardous chemicals or materials on the 15 acre land owned by them. But
documents and witnesses does not proved that TCE was used by the tannery, maybe other
companies like Whitney Barrel, a company that cleans and repaints the drums from the tannery.
Documentary evidence directly pointing the tannery using TCE cannot be produced since Riley
claimed that the company only stores such documents for three years.