Boren v. Rogers

Boren v. Rogers, 243 So.3d 448 (Fla. 5th DCA 2018)

Writs of certiori are rarely available in discovery disputes, because in most cases, the harm caused by an improper ruling on discovery can be corrected on appeal.  Here, however, the trial court denied the plaintiff the ability to conduct discovery about a decedent's prior estate planning documents.  Her entire argument was based on the idea that she was a beneficiary of these prior estate planning documents, and therefore she had standing to contest certain newer documents that she believed were the product of undue influence. Because the trial court simply granted the defendant's motion for protective order, without making a finding of good cause that the discovery not be had, the Court granted the petition for writ of certiori and quashed the protective order. It noted that the trial court's order was insufficient because the document request was seeking items that could be admissible at trial and were reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence. Because the plaintiff would need these documents at trial to establish that she has standing as a prior interested beneficiary of the trust, the trial court's order effectively eviscerated her claim.

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