Project Posner

Lead opinion by POSNER

   MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

   RICHARD A. POSNER, UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE, SITTING BY DESIGNATION

   This order will memorialize matters discussed at the pretrial conference of March, 5, 1990, and outline the requirements for the final pretrial order, due March 12, 1990.

   As I indicated, the specifications for the final pretrial order are as follows, and violations will be sanctioned:

(1) There will be one pretrial order prepared jointly by the parties.

(2) The order will contain a statement of both uncontested and contested issues of fact and law. The parties shall negotiate in good faith to arrive at this statement.

(3) The order shall contain a full set of instructions, divided into jointly proposed instructions, and instructions proposed by one party and not agreed to by the other. For those instructions not agreed to, the party objecting to the instruction must include a short statement summarizing the objection. The parties shall negotiate in good faith to arrive at an agreed upon set of instructions.

(4) The order shall include a revised set of proposed verdict forms, narrowly tailored to the issues remaining for trial.

(5) The order shall include a revised set of voir 2 dire questions. The duty of good faith negotiations shall apply to (4) and (5).

(6) The parties shall provide the court with a computer disk containing (a) the instructions, (b) the verdict forms, and (c) the voir dire questions.

(7) The order shall include pretrial briefs by both parties, narrowly tailored to the issues remaining for trial. No issues previously resolved shall be included.

(8) The order shall include a list of witnesses, together with a complete summary of the testimony each witness will provide and a specification of the issue to which the testimony is relevant.

(9) The order shall include copies of the deposition testimony marked to be read at trial.

(10) The order shall include the list of documents to be introduced at trial. The list shall distinguish between those documents that will be published to the jury, and those that will not. Both parties are to indicate to this court by Thursday, March 8, 1990, at 4:30pm (1) the documents it claims are inadmissible, (2) the grounds for its objection, and (3) copies of the documents it plans to introduce at trial.

   In their pretrial order, AGNS made five motions in limine. As I indicated at the pretrial 3 conference, those motions are DENIED. I have also GRANTED Edison's motion to reconsider my determination on Section 17.1(b) of the Contract, and agree that summary judgment cannot be granted on the meaning of that clause. I have amended my opinion of February 14, 1990 to reflect both parties' most recent submissions, and a copy of this amended opinion will be sent to counsel with this order.

   Finally, after hearing AGNS's argument on the need for background testimony regarding reprocessing, I have decided that the jury does need a limited understanding of reprocessing to make sense of the testimony in the case. I do not think that this requires extensive testimony by AGNS's witnesses. Instead, I have reconsidered my ruling excluding the video tape, "What is Reprocessing?" and have decided that the jury shall be shown that tape at the start of trial to explain the nature of reprocessing. That tape should provide all the necessary background for the jury. Additional testimony beyond this tape on the nature of reprocessing will not be admitted. The tape will be placed in evidence as a court document.

Date: March 6, 1990