Art. 1450.Use of Depositions

A deposition is not just a discovery tool; Article 1450 spells out when it can also serve as evidence. At trial or on a motion or interlocutory hearing, any part or all of a deposition may be used against a party who was present or represented when it was taken, or who had reasonable notice of it, so far as the testimony would be admissible under the Code of Evidence if the witness were there testifying live. Several specific rules fill out that general standard.

Any deposition can be used to contradict or impeach the deponent, regardless of who took it. The deposition of a party, or of someone who was an officer, director, or managing agent of a party organization, or a witness designated under Article 1442 or 1448 to speak for that organization, can be used by an adverse party for any purpose at all. Beyond that, any witness's deposition can be used by any party for any purpose if the court finds the witness unavailable, finds the witness lives more than a hundred miles from the courthouse or is out of state and the offering party did not cause that absence, or finds exceptional circumstances that make use of the deposition desirable in the interest of justice. If only part of a deposition comes into evidence, fairness lets an adverse party demand that any other part be introduced too, and any party may introduce other parts on their own.

Expert witnesses get a rule tailored to them. A party may use an expert's deposition for any purpose after giving notice to all counsel of record, but any one of them can object within ten days and force the expert's live testimony instead — at the cost of paying, in advance, that expert's fee and reasonable expenses for testifying live, subject to the court's approval. This right does not override the unavailability rule or the hearsay exception in the Code of Evidence, and a court can still allow the deposition to be used despite the objection if justice requires it under the circumstances.

Two final rules round out the article. Substituting parties in the case does not cut off the right to use depositions taken before the substitution, and depositions from a dismissed suit can be used in a later suit between the same parties over the same subject matter as if they had been taken in that later suit. Any conflict between this article and Code of Evidence Article 804 is left to the court's discretion to resolve.