Yoder, et al v. Town of Morristown, et al

Filing 101

STATUS REPORT Letter dated 2/3/2012 from Russell L. Hirschhorn to Judge Lowe by Menno L. Glick, John L. Hershberger, Menno S. Hershberger, Urie Hershberger, Andy A. Miller, Harvey Miller, Mose Miller, Dannie L. Swartzentruber, Mosie Swartzentruber, Peter D. Swartzentruber, Levi Yoder, Jonas Zook, Sam Zook. (Hirschhorn, Russell)

Proskauer Rose LLP Eleven Times Square New York, NY 10036-8299

February 3, 2012
By ECF
The Honorable George H. Lowe
United States Magistrate Judge
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York
P.O. Box 7346
Syracuse, New York 13261-7346
Re:

Russell L. Hirschhorn
Attorney at Law
d 212.969.3286
f 212.969.2900
[e-mail]
www.proskauer.com

Yoder, et al. v. Town of Morristown, et al., Civil Case No.: 09-cv-00007 (NPM/GHL)

Dear Judge Lowe:
We write to follow-up on our discussion with Your Honor on January 18, 2012
concerning the $250 court reporting cancellation fee Proskauer incurred as a result of Defendants
unilaterally deciding to use a court reporter other than the one the parties agreed to use for the
depositions on January 18, 2012.
The parties are scheduled to take nearly twenty depositions in this litigation. As is
common for large cases, we suggested the parties engage a nationwide court reporting service
(TSG Reporting) to handle all of the depositions at a discounted rate, with no travel fee. After
multiple discussions with Defendants’ counsel about logistics and costs, on December 17, 2011,
Defendants agreed “for the depositions to be covered, at least initially, by TSG Reporting, Inc.”
(See Exhibit A.)
Proskauer thus arranged for TSG to cover Defendants’ January 18 depositions of Andy
Miller and Menno Hershberger. However, upon arriving at the depositions, we were surprised to
find that Defendants had arranged for their own court reporter. They did so without informing
either Proskauer or TSG. Because no notice was provided, TSG charged Proskauer a $250
cancellation fee. (See Exhibit B.)
It is well established that the party taking the deposition bears the cost of the court
reporter. For that reason, and because the cancellation was in no way the fault of Proskauer or
Plaintiffs, we believe Defendants should bear the full $250 expense. We informed Defendants of
our position in a letter dated January 24, 2012. (See Exhibit C.) Unfortunately, Defendants
have indicated that they are only willing to agree to pay half of the cancellation fee, and “have no
intention on (sic) spending further time on this issue.” (See Exhibit D.)

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Hon. George H. Lowe
February 3, 2012
Page 2
We therefore respectfully request that the Court order Defendants to reimburse Proskauer
for the entirety of the $250 cancellation fee.
Sincerely,

Russell L. Hirschhorn
cc:

Gregg T. Johnson, Esq.
Timothy J. Higgins, Esq.
Lori Windham, Esq.
Michael T. Mervis, Esq.
Jason D. Gerstein, Esq.
Daniel P. Goldberger, Esq.
Bunjamin M. Rattner, Esq.