Free Motion to Dismiss - Rule 12(b)(1) - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:99-cv-04451-ECH Document 172-16 ELMER RENNER, FEBRUARY 28, 02/26/2007 Filed 2006

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Page 1 Page 2 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS1 PRESENT: (Continued) 2 2 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of JUSTICE, 3 JOHN H. and MARY E. BANKS, ) 3 Environment & Natural Resources Division, 4 ERROL L. and SUSAN H. STONE, ) 4 General Litigation Section, 5 asTmsteesoftheSUSANH. ) 5 (999 18th Street, 6 STONE TRUST, et al., ) 6 Suite 945, North Tower, 7 Plaintiffs, ) 7 Denver, Colorado 80202, 8 -vs)No. 994451 8 303-312-7327,) by: 9 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, )Consolidated with 9 MR. TERRY M. PETRIE, 10 Defendant. )No. tM-277L 10 -and11 11 U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, The deposition of ELMER RENNER, called 12 12 (477 Michigan Avenue, Room 659, 13 for examination, taken before ZONA B. MILLER, a 13 Detroit, Michigan 48231-1027, 14 Notary Pubfic within and for the County of Lake, 14 313-226-2215), by: 15 State of Illinois, and a Certified Shorthand 15 MR. GARY W. SEGREST, 16 Reporter of said state, 10th Floor, 155 North 16 Assistant District Counsel - Detroit District, 17 Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois, on the 28th day 17 appeared on behalf of the Defendant. 18 of February, A.D. 2006, at 1:00 p.m. 18 19 19 20 2O 21 21 REPORTED BY: ZONA B. MILLER, CSR No. 84-0428. 22 22 23 23 24 24 Page 2 Page 4 1 PRESENT: 1 (WHEREUPON, the witness was duly 2 MR. JOHN B. EHRET, 2 sworn.) 3 (20860 Greenwood Drive, 3 ELMER RENNER, 4 Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461, 4 called as a witness herein having been first duly 5 708-748-8975), 5 sworn, was examined and testified as follows: 6 appeared on behalf of the Plaintiffs 6 EXAMINATION 7 John H. and Mary E. Banks and the 7 BY MR. PETRIE: 8 Deponent. 8 Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Renner. How are 9 9 you? 10 SONNENSCHEIN, NATH & ROSENTHAL, 0 1 A. Fine. Thankyou. 11 (1301 K Street N.W., 11 Q. As I understand it, you have had the 12 Washington, D.C. 20005, 12 oppermnity to be deposed before? 13 202-408-6387), by: 13 A. Yes,! have. 14 MR. DREW W. MARROCCO, 14 Q. How many times would you estimate? 15 appeared telephonically on behalf of 15 A. Eight or ten times. 16 the Plaintiffs, Errol L. and 16 Q. And can you give us a general sense of 17 Susan H. Stone, as Trustees of the 17 the subject matter for what you were deposed 18 Susan H. Stone Trust; 18 about? 19 19 A. Surely. I was employed by a 2O 20 manufacturer of bulk material handling equipment. ~21 21 So most of my depositions given were relative to 22 22 product liability in that field or in personal 23 23 injury suits involving those products that we 24 24 manufactured or our competitors manufactured. I 1 (Pages 1 to 4) ESQUIRE DEPOSITION SERVICES - CHICAGO 312.782.8087 800.708.8087 FAX:312.704.4950

EXHIBIT 14

Case 1:99-cv-04451-ECH Document FEBRUARY 28, 2006 Filed 02/26/2007 ELMER RENNER, 172-16
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1 Q. You can go ahead and answer. 2 MR. EHRET: The Court has already ruled on 3 that subject. 4 BY MR. PETRIE: 5 Q. And you can still answer the question. 6 A. I don't know. Ask that question once 7 more. 8 Q. Certainly. What I'm trying to ask you 9 is, is the various -- using some of the various 10 forms of shore protection that you've described 11 that you placed on your property. What I was 12 lrying to understand was whether or not you know 13 or have any understanding about whether or not 14 that in turn increases erosion to the property 15 owners south of you? 16 A. I have no knowledge of that. 17 Q. Do you know, sir, whether or not the 18 Corps of Engineers has ever attempted to address 19 the erosion problem there in the area where you 20 live? 21 MR. EHRETz If you know. 22 BY THE WITNESS: A. I don't know of any. I have to -- I 23 24 attended a meeting one time. I don't know if it
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1 you think that the Corps of Engineers is who you 2 should be suing? 3 A. I had no idea of who was responsible 4 for it. 5 Q. And then I guess the second question 6 is, why did you wait 20-some years to decide to 7 sue the Corps? 8 A. I was approached by Mr. Ehret as a 9 possibility. ! 10 Q. Was there anything happeaing in those 11 20 years to cause you to hold off from bringing 12 the lawsuit? 13 A. No. 14 MR. PETRIE: Take a break. We've been going 15 a good while. 1 appreciate it. 16 Go off the record. 17 (WHEREUPON, discussion was had 18 off the record.) 19 (WHEREUPON, a recess was had.) 20 BY MR. PETRIE: 21 Q. Mr. Renner, towards the close of the 22 questioning there, before we took a break, you 23 were describing some of your understandings about 24 what causes the erosion, and you referred to the
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1 was put on by the Corps, but they were talking 2 about -- somebody was talking about installing a, 3 a, urn, offshore, way out in the lake, a big 4 pier -- a big pile of rocks or something to create 5 a -- I don't think that was the Cows of 6 Engineers. I don't know who did thai. 7 BY MR. PETRIE: 8 Q. Sir, I got another question in the same 9 regard, I guess. 10 If I understand your testimony here 11 correctly, you became aware of a problem with 12 erosion sometime in the '70s, early '70s, is that 13 right? 14 A. Yes. 15 Q. And this lawsuit that was brought by 16 you as part of -- along with a number of other 17 property owners here in what, 2000, I think, or 18 1999. Was he part of the original group set in 19 place in 1999 when this lawsuit was filed? That's 20 the span of like 20-odd-some years. What led you 21 to ultimately sue the Corps of Engineers? 22 A. I was losing my properly, and I didn't 123 do anything to be causing the loss. 24 Q. A couple of questions then. What made

1 high water level as part of the erosion, you 2 mentioned the littoral flow from north to south, 3 didn't know anything about the natural erosion. 4 Is there any other causes, from your 5 understanding, as to what might be causing the 6 erosion to your property? 7 A. To my property? 8 Q. Yes, sir? 9 A. I have no idea. 10 Q. We took a break. During the course of 11 that break, did you and Mr. Ehret have the 12 opportunity to discuss the substantive nature of 13 your testimony? 14 MR. EHRET: Objection. 15 BY MR. PETRIE: Q. Can you answer the question? 16 17 MR. EHRET: You can answer. 18 BY THE WITNESS: 19 A. No. 20 MR. PETRIE: No other questions. 21 EXAMINATION 22 BY MR. EHRET: 23 Q. I have some documents here which -24 this is John Ehret -- which are marked, and I 14 (Pages 53 to 56

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