Ruling on Motion to Compel
The court notes that the motion response from the Defendant does not address the reasoning raised by the Plaintiff for motioning to compel.
Plaintiff's Motion refers to a question addressed to the Plaintiff which did not receive an answer, and a second question aimed at an alleged contradiction in testimony on which the witness evaded answering by making a statement regarding prior court ruling instead.
The motion response provided by the Defense instead addresses a broader topic of the case, which is not directly relevant to this Motion to Compel.
The court agrees that the witness did not answer the first question ("Can you provide a concrete example of what you mean?").
On the second question ("Why do you now claim that these are administrative fees, in direct contradiction of your previous testimony and the Court's ruling?"), the witness only responded with a countering statement regarding "the Court's ruling" without answering the actual question.
In light of these considerations, the court
grants the Plaintiff's requested Motion to Compel.
Mr. Russel is hereby
ordered to answer the two previously mentioned questions within
the next 48 hours. Failure to comply may result in being charged with civil or criminal Contempt of Court. If extenuating circumstances may prevent a response within this time frame, the witness may request an extension from the court.
On the requested clarification
Plaintiff appears to be referencing this court's
ruling in this case from May 3rd, which clarified that the crimes listed in the original Industrial Regulation Act (which is the relevant version for the purposes of this case) were "[...] crimes committed by a property owner against the property.", not committed by a property.
The original Industrial Regulation Act also explicitly refers to the financial penalties associated to those section 4 crimes as "fine". There appears to be no ambiguity that those financial penalties were by law criminal fines, not fees.
The Defense may, of course, present any reasons why they should be considered fees after all, as part of future motions/objections or within their Closing Statement.
Lastly, it should be noted that
the May 10th ruling on Plaintiff's Motion to Compel did not rule the witness's answer objectively correct, but merely that it was an acceptable witness answer due to seemingly containing the witness's belief and information as they understood it and referring to actions taken prior to the court's interpreting May 3rd ruling.