Ex Parte Alabama Department of Transportation

The Alabama Department of Transportation ("ALDOT") petitions for a writ of mandamus directing the Montgomery Circuit Court to vacate its order requiring ALDOT to produce documentary evidence in response to a Rule 27(a), Ala. R. Civ. P., motion for pre-action discovery. We grant the petition.

Wallace Laird Hitchcock was injured in a one-car accident at the intersection of U.S. Highway 231 and Alabama Highway 51. Hitchcock learned that this intersection was known as a spot where water would not run off and that standing water at the intersection had caused cars to hydroplane. Hydroplaning was…