Identiseal Corporation of Wisconsin, a Wisconsin Corporation, Plaintiff v. Positive Identification Systems, Incorporated, a Texas Corporation

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.

The outcome of this appeal turns on whether the district court, in presiding over the pretrial phase of the ease, had the power to compel plaintiff to conduct discovery instead of permitting it to litigate the entire suit at trial. We conclude that the district court lacked the authority to compel involuntary discovery and we reverse the court’s order dismissing the complaint.

I

On April 26, 1973, plaintiff Identiseal Corporation of Wisconsin filed a complaint against defendant Positive Identification Systems, Inc. in the district court for the Eastern District of…