The deposition-extracted tidbits were enough to bring down Deen’s culinary empire, but that doesn’t mean they were actually relevant to anyone’s legal case against her: “U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled Monday that [Lisa] Jackson, who is white, has no standing to sue them [Deen and her brother] for race discrimination.” [USA Today]
2 Comments
The weird thing to me is that the allegations sat in the plaintiff’s complaint for about a year and no one cared. It was only when Deen’s lawyers quited Deen’s deposition in a filing that it really hit the fan. That strikes me as bad defense lawyering.
I do not understand, then, why Deen had to testify about this subject. In NY, e.g., objections are generally reserved for after the deposition, but I would think you would be within your rights to refuse to answer a clearly irrelevant/scandalous question and ask a judge to rule on it. You would risk sanctions if the judge ruled against you, which might have been an acceptable risk in Deen’s case.