Case Histories, Anecdotes, and War Stories 189
cial statements. During the case’s first few hearings, however, the
wife’s financial statements failed to disclose even the existence of
a safe deposit box.
We started our basic discovery by filing a set of interrogato-
ries. These were simple questions covering many subjects, one of
which was the existence of a safe deposit box. When Sue answered
the interrogatories, she stated she did not have a safe deposit box.
She indicated that she had previously had one but that it had been
closed for more than a year. John knew this was false.
We subpoenaed records from various banks in town. One of
them disclosed the existence of a safe deposit box. In fact, the
safe deposit box had been closed within two days of Sue’s giving
us her interrogatories stating that she had no such box. We fur-
ther found out from the bank records that while our interrogatory
questions had been pending to her, she had made three trips to
the safe deposit box.
When I took her deposition, it became apparent to me that she
had not realized that in the records produced by the bank her vis-
its to the safe deposit box, and the actual closure of the box, had
all been documented. So at various times during the deposition,
and in a variety of different ways, I asked her whether she had a
safe deposit box or whether she had visited a safe deposit box at
any time within the last few months. Always, the answer was no.
When I got the deposition transcript, I counted up nine separate
occasions in which she testified falsely about the safe deposit box.
I did not, however, confront her about the bank’s records during
her deposition.
Instead, I waited until trial to trap her on this issue. We began
with questions about her interrogatory answers, and I danced
around the issue of the safe deposit box and the cash income gen-
erated by her business. She reconfirmed on the stand the informa-
tion she had provided in her interrogatory answers. She repeat-
edly stated that she did not have a safe deposit box and had not
visited one. She even feigned mock offense at the questions. She
doggedly confirmed all the testimony in her deposition. Then I
showed her the records of the bank.
It was clear that the last several minutes of her testimony were
all false. She tried to say that the signatures on these documents,