What part of "Hummel is on pain meds" does Silver not get? A doctor's note to testify on narcotics? Really? She is going to rule in the West Class favor anyway, so what if she had her feathers ruffled over someone having open heart surgery a week ago and not being able to present cognitive testimony. I think it reflected poorly on her basic judgment, but she was just making sure we knew who was boss. I remain unimpressed. RR
I think she gets the bigger picture, RR.
A little background:
THE COURT: All right. So our hearing with Dr.
Gleason was held on Thursday, October 17, at 1 and Dr. Gleason,
who is his surgeon, after some questions by me, said he did not
see why he could not participate in telephonic testimony before
this court. And I asked counsel to let me know -- and he also
said he was in stable condition. He was on a telemeter and
that he was not in critical condition. He was going to be
released he expected in the next couple of days. I ordered
counsel to inform me of circumstances where his health
depreciated where he was unstable, his status, that is his
health, had deteriorated to such an extent that he could not
participate in a hearing such as this.
So you know, as a footnote, in a criminal case that I
held on Monday, a defendant appeared after I determined that he
was competent to appear who was charged with very serious
offenses but was on dialysis and the hearing of course was
confrontational. However, he was able to appear.
And I heard also Mr. Szymanski said that --
You told me you learned this from somebody, that is
the opinion of Dr. Lambrou, on Sunday.
This hearing did not occur until Tuesday. I made
clear that if there has been change in circumstances, I was to
know. We could have perhaps made arrangements for me to talk
to the doctor at that time to make an appropriate determination
instability of Mr. Hummel's condition. To merely say it's
stressful for him is not enough.
So either -- and the other aspect, too, is although I
have appreciation, having been there, that counsel, when a
deposition is taken of a party or a witness, the opposing party
doesn't always ask questions of that witness and perhaps you
didn't have reason to do so at the time because you didn't
anticipate that Mr. Hummel would have emergency surgery.
Nonetheless, that was your choice.