Alger v. American Family Mutual Insurance

The Rules of Civil Procedure should be construed "to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action." Following this admonition to the periphery of permissible discovery in the concurrent case of Williams v. Carr, 84 S.D. 102, 167 N.W.2d 774, this court holds a plaintiff in a tort action has a pretrial discoverable interest under RCP 33 in any policy of liability insurance carried by the defendant.

Contrariwise, defendant in the present action is denied pretrial right of discovering the report and opinion of opponent's expert witness under RCP 34. The scope of discovery…