Arbitration & Mediation

Motion to Compel Lunch: Granted

By Victoria Pynchon

 Thanks to Roger Wood at the Association Law and Other Musings Blog for passing along the Order for Lunch issued by the Maricopa County Superior Court (.pdf) excerpted below.  Roger generously shared this truly glorious Order (and supporting opinion that you can read in the .pdf) over at Construction Law Musings today in response to my Guest Post there ("How to Get Sued"). 

Thanks Roger!  This didn't just make my day; it made my year!

Plaintiff's Motion to Compel Acceptance of Lunch Invitation

The Court has rarely seen a motion with more merit. The motion will be granted.

The Court has searched in vain in the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure and cases, as well as the leading treatises on federal and Arizona procedure, to find specific support for Plaintiff's motion. Finding none, the Court concludes that motions of this type are so clearly within the inherent powers of the Court and have been so routinely granted that they are non-controversial and require no precedential support.

The writers support the concept. Conversation has been called 'the socializing instrument par excellence' (Jose Ortega y Gasset, Invertebrate Spain) and 'one of the greatest pleasures in life' (Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence). John Dryden referred to'Sweet discourse, the banquet of the mind' (The Flower and the Leaf).

Plaintiff's counsel extended a lunch invitation to Defendant's counsel 'to have a discussion regarding discovery and other matters.' Plaintiff's counsel offered to 'pay for lunch.'  Defendant's counsel failed to respond until the motion was filed.

Defendant's counsel distrusts Plaintiff's counsel's motives and fears that Plaintiff's counsel's purpose is to persuade Defendant's counsel of the lack of merit in the defense case.

The Court has no doubt of Defendant's counsel's ability to withstand Plaintiff's counsel's blandishments and to respond sally for sally and barb for barb. Defendant's counsel now makes what may be an illusory acceptance of Plaintiff's counsel's invitation by saying, 'We would love to have lunch at Ruth's Chris with/on . . .' Plaintiff's counsel. 1
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1 Everyone knows that Ruth's Chris, while open for dinner, is not open for lunch. This   is a matter of which the Court may take judicial notice.

Read on by clicking on the .pdf above.

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on January 29, 2010 (boomark / email).