Court filing
Exhibit Adams Transcript Excerpts — Agent Fee Litigation (Dkt. 52.1)
Summary
Exhibit 1, a set of deposition transcript excerpts from the June 18, 2020 deposition of a bank witness identified as Adams, in Sport & Wheat CPA PA v. ServisFirst Bank Inc, Synovus Bank, et al., Civil Action No. 3:20-CV-5425, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division. The excerpts consist of the cover page and a few nonconsecutive transcript pages. Several pages record exchanges between counsel over whether exhibits must be shown before questioning and over questioning from a document with portions grayed out, with objections stated on the record. Another page records questions about whether the bank issues cell phones and its policy on texting customers, and the witness's answers that the bank has a bring-your-own-device policy and that customer communication should not take place by text.
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Full text
EXHIBIT 1
1
1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
2 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
3 PENSACOLA DIVISION
4 SPORT & WHEAT CPA PA, )
5 a Florida corporation, )
6 individually and on )
7 behalf of a class of )
8 similarly situated )
9 businesses and )
10 individuals, )
11 Plaintiffs, ) CIVIL ACTION NO:
12 VS. ) 3:20-CV-5425
13 SERVISFIRST BANK INC; )
14 SYNOVUS BANK; et al., )
15 Defendants. )
16
17 Deposition of Steve Adams
18 June 18, 2020
19 9:30 a.m.
20 At the offices of Butler Wooten & Peak
21 105 13th Street
22 Columbus, Georgia 31901
23 Court Reporter: Karen Hinch
24
25
42
1 document before you have the witness
2 testify.
3 MR. PRATHER: Hey, Mr. Cash, why
4 don't you go ahead and email them to us and
5 I can print out copies and we'll have copies
6 available here in the room with the witness?
7 MR. CASH: Well, I'm not going to
8 do that because I don't know which exhibits
9 I do and don't need to use, and I don't want
10 to tip my hand on what the exhibits are
11 before the time comes.
12 MR. BATES: Well, then we're at a
13 stalemate. I'm entitled to see the
14 documents before you ask the witness
15 questions about them.
16 MR. CASH: All right. I don't
17 agree. I mean, I'm happy to show you the
18 two pages of this email. It's pretty
19 uncontroversial. There's page one.
20 MR. BATES: I'm not going to take
21 your word for whether it's controversial or
22 not. It's already obvious you don't want to
23 share the documents in advance.
24 MR. CASH: That's correct.
25 MR. BATES: So we'll do them one
65
1 Q Okay. Let me ask about cell
2 phones. Does the bank issue cell phones to
3 its employees to use?
4 A Generally, no. We have a
5 bring-your-own-device policy.
6 Q Okay. Does the bank consider
7 that text messages sent from cell phones in
8 the course of doing business are actually
9 bank records?
10 A I'm not sure when you say "does
11 the bank consider." You know, that may be
12 outside my realm of expertise to know what
13 we consider communication. Yeah. I can't
14 answer your question.
15 Q Well, when you say people bring
16 their own device, are you saying that people
17 in the bank are permitted to use their
18 personal phones to text customers in the
19 furtherance of company business? Is that
20 allowed?
21 A No. We have a policy that
22 communication with customers should not take
23 place with text.
24 Q Okay. Nevertheless you're aware
25 that it occurs, right?
132
1 A I can't speculate why she may not
2 have been aware.
3 Q Should she have been aware of the
4 policy on this date?
5 A Yes, she should have.
6 Q Okay.
7 MR. BATES: Let me interrupt.
8 Mr. Cash, is this a redacted document?
9 MR. CASH: I'm going to produce
10 more than what I'm showing, but I grayed out
11 the areas that I'm just not interested in
12 asking about to make it clearer to the
13 witness what it is we are and aren't talking
14 about.
15 MR. BATES: I object to you
16 producing only a portion of the document you
17 want to ask the witness a question about.
18 MR. CASH: Well, it's a stream of
19 texts. So if the texts aren't relevant to
20 the case, you would never get them.
21 MR. BATES: You know what?
22 You're asking questions about particular
23 portions of a conversation without having
24 the entire conversation disclosed, and that
25 is fundamentally not correct.
133
1 MR. CASH: Okay. All right. I'm
2 going to go on with my questions.
3 MR. BATES: Again, I object to
4 your producing part of a document to ask a
5 witness questions where the witness doesn't
6 have the opportunity to examine the context
7 in which the comments are made.
8 MR. CASH: No. I disagree.
9 Q (By Mr. Cash) All right. I'm
10 going switch to different texts at this
11 point because she's referring to Larry,
12 Larry Strain. Are you familiar with Larry
13 Strain?
14 MR. BATES: Object. I don't see
15 where it identifies Larry's last name.
16 Q (By Mr. Cash) Mr. Adams, are you
17 familiar with Larry Strain?
18 A Yes.
19 MR. PRATHER: We need to take a
20 break real quick.
21 MR. CASH: No. We just did take
22 a break.
23 MR. PRATHER: Mr. Cash, we're
24 taking a break. Okay? We're taking a
25 break.
File and source
- File
- gov.uscourts.flnd.190491.52.1.pdf
- Size
- 33,820 bytes
- SHA-256
- ac9e567f9a189d8afa3e6b8551090317e1c2abaaeda6ce6e54b60205824f77ff
- Original
- No public link identified.