Several years ago my client, "Carmen R " was living in an apartment building in the Bronx with her children. The building went through a total window replacement ; effectively every window in the building was removed and new ones installed. About two days after my client's windows were replaced,while she was looking out of her window it collasped on her head causing a bilateral hearing loss.
We filed suit in Supreme Court Bronx County against the landlord and window installer. As we proceeded through the discovery process we were ultimately advised by defendant's counsel that they could not produce one of the window installers. We were finally provided with a last known address only.
A little investigation and some leg work and we tracked the witness down at Franklin Correctional Facility in upstate New York some 30 miles south of Montreal . I was able to to engage an investigator who visited the witness securing a "smoking gun statement"; i.e. that the installers were behind schedule and in an effort to bring the job in on time they were instructed to cut corners on the installation.
My next move was to obtain a so-odered subpoena and then to serve the witness at the "correctional facility" setting up a non-party deposition. Defense counsel was obviously placed on notice as well.
Before you could say "do you speak French", myself and my adversary were on a plane heading to Montreal, renting a car and driving down to Malone. I remember this "surreal moment ", after crossing over into NY State from Quebec when we stopped for directions and everone on the New York side spoke French. Not what you would expect.
Well we get to prision, are virtually strip-searched and we meet our court reporter and I conduct the deposition. I was armed with the sworn statement in case there were problems, and because I intended to read the deposition to the jury I conducted the questioning as if I was putting on my direct case. Went off without a hitch!
On the plane ride back to New York we discussed the case over drinks(never tasted better). The case ultimately settled a few weeks later after jury selection.
Putting all the pieces together and having things pay off was a great thrill!
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