Charles Miles v. The M/v Mississippi Queen, the Delta Queen Steamboat Company

ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge:

In a seaman's personal injury case the vessel owner refused to produce two pretrial statements made by the seaman despite the provision of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(3) that a party may obtain his own statement without showing any need for it. The district court refused to order that the rule be obeyed. Because the rule is mandatory, the court’s failure to order production of the statements was erroneous. We hold, however, that violation of the rule is not reversible error per se, and, because the plaintiff suffered no demonstrable prejudice from his…