Alberto v. Toyota Motor Corp.

I cannot join the majority’s announcement of a broad, new “apex-deposition rule” shielding high-ranking corporate officers from certain discovery in Michigan litigation. Nor can I conclude, under existing principles of Michigan law, that the trial court abused its discretion by denying defendant’s1 motion for a protective order to quash the scheduled depositions of Yoshimi Inaba and Jim Lentz. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.

I

As explained by the majority, plaintiff noticed the video depositions of Inaba, defendant’s chairman and chief executive officer, and Lentz, defendant’s…