46 C.F.R. § 502.205 Interrogatories to parties.
Title 46 - Shipping
(a) Service; answers. (1) Any party may serve, pursuant to subpart H of this part, upon any other party written interrogatories to be answered by the party served or, if the party served is a public or private corporation or a partnership or association, by any officer or agent, who shall furnish such information as is available to the party. Any party desiring to serve interrogatories as provided by this section must comply with the applicable provisions of §502.201 and make service thereof on all parties to the proceeding. (2) Each interrogatory shall be answered separately and fully in writing under oath, unless it is objected to, in which event the reasons for objection shall be stated in lieu of an answer. The answers are to be signed by the person making them, and the objections signed by the attorney making them. (3) The party upon whom the interrogatories have been served shall serve a copy of the answers, and objections if any, on all parties to the proceeding under the schedule established pursuant to §502.201. The presiding officer, for good cause, may limit service of answers. (b) Objections to interrogatories. All objections to interrogatories shall be resolved at the conference or meeting provided for under §502.201(f) or, if circumstances warrant, by such other procedure as the presiding officer may establish. Written replies to objections to interrogatories shall be permitted only to the extent that the discovery schedule previously established under §502.201(d) is not delayed. (c) Scope, time, number and use. (1) Interrogatories may relate to any matters which can be inquired into under §502.201(h), and the answers may be used to the same extent as provided in §502.209 for the use of the deposition of a party. (2) Interrogatories may be sought after interrogatories have been answered, but the presiding officer, on motion of the deponent or the party interrogated, may make such protective order as justice may require. (3) The number of interrogatories or of sets of interrogatories to be served is not limited except as justice requires to protect the party from annoyance, expense, embarrassment, or oppression. (4) An interrogatory otherwise proper is not necessarily objectionable merely because an answer to the interrogatory involves an opinion or contention that relates to fact or the application of law to fact, but the presiding officer may order that such an interrogatory need not be answered until after designated discovery has been completed or until a prehearing conference or other later time. (d) Option to produce business records. Where the answer to an interrogatory may be derived or ascertained from the business records of the party upon whom the interrogatory has been served or from an examination, audit or inspection of such business records, or from a compilation, abstract or summary based thereon, and the burden of deriving or ascertaining the answer is substantially the same for the party serving the interrogatory as for the party served, it is a sufficient answer to such interrogatory to specify the records from which the answer may be derived or ascertained and to afford to the party serving the interrogatory reasonable opportunity to examine, audit or inspect such records and to make copies, compilations, abstracts or summaries. [Rule 205.] [49 FR 44369, Nov. 6, 1984; 49 FR 47394, Dec. 4, 1984]
Title 46: Shipping
PART 502—RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE
Subpart L—Depositions, Written Interrogatories, and Discovery
§ 502.205 Interrogatories to parties.
