legends · 4 min read ·
Deposition of Mr. Alan Teague
In a legal deposition, a claimant describes the second Tuesday that was not on the calendar.
**In the matter of Teague v. Coldharbour Property Management.**
**Deposition of Alan Teague, taken at the offices of Reeve & Associates.**
**Examining counsel: Ms. Chidi. Defending counsel: Mr. Farrow. Court reporter present.**
· · ·
Q. Mr. Teague, please state your full name for the record.
A. Alan Joseph Teague.
Q. And you are the claimant in this action?
A. I am.
Q. You allege that on the fourteenth of March you were injured in the common parts of the building at 9 Wharf Lane when a ceiling panel fell.
A. I do.
Q. Tell me what you remember.
A. It was a Tuesday. I came in from work at about six. I took the lift to my floor, the fourth. I stepped out onto the landing and there was a noise above me, a kind of crack, and the panel came down on my shoulder.
Q. Was anyone with you?
A. No.
Q. A neighbour?
A. No one. I called the management company from the landing.
Q. At what time did you make that call?
A. About a quarter past six.
Q. The defendant's records show a call logged at 18:15 on the fifteenth of March.
A. That's wrong.
Q. You say the fourteenth.
A. I say the fourteenth.
Q. Mr. Teague, I have to put this to you. The fifteenth is the date of the call. The panel fell on the fifteenth. The defendants' incident log, the engineer's report and your own GP's note all give the fifteenth.
A. Then they're all wrong.
Q. Are you suggesting that three separate records contain the same error?
A. I'm saying it was a Tuesday. The fourteenth was a Tuesday. The fifteenth was a Wednesday.
Q. I see. Mr. Farrow, any objection?
MR. FARROW: None.
Q. Mr. Teague, I'm going to hand you a calendar.
A. I don't need it.
Q. Please look.
A. ...
Q. For the record, the witness is looking at a calendar for March of last year. Mr. Teague, what day was the fourteenth?
A. A Wednesday.
Q. Thank you.
A. But I'm telling you it was a Tuesday.
Q. I'm not disputing that you remember it as a Tuesday.
A. No. You don't understand. There were two days. Two Tuesdays, one after the other. I went to bed on a Tuesday, I got up on a Tuesday, I went to work, I came home, the panel fell. It happened on the second one. The one that wasn't on the calendar.
MR. FARROW: Counsel, I think we may need to pause. My client—
Q. I'll continue, if Mr. Teague is comfortable.
A. I'm comfortable. I've been trying to tell somebody for a year.
Q. Tell me about the extra day.
A. It's the same as the ordinary day. The same bus, the same people. But the colours are a little flat. And there's no one on the pavement who has a shadow. Not a lot of people at all, in fact. A few. They walk past you and none of them looks at you. Everyone I know is there, but they say the wrong thing. My wife said good morning at breakfast and then said it again, in the same tone, ten minutes later, and she didn't know she'd said it.
Q. And the panel?
A. It fell because it was meant to. I think that's the only thing that happens on the second Tuesday. Someone, somewhere, drops something on someone. I think it's what the day is for.
Q. Mr. Teague, I'm going to ask you directly. Why are you bringing a claim for an injury sustained on a day that, on your own account, did not exist?
A. Because I'm still on it.
*[Pause of nine seconds.]*
Q. I'm sorry?
A. I'm still on the second Tuesday. I never came out. I've been going through the days since and I can tell you every one, I can tell you it's Thursday. But under the Thursday there's the Tuesday. It's like a stain coming through a wall. I'm sitting in this room, this room is real, I know it's real, the water in the jug is real, but it is also a Tuesday afternoon, and when I look at the clock behind you, Ms. Chidi, it says ten past six.
Q. It is ten past two.
A. For you.
*[Mr. Farrow requests a recess. Granted.]*
*[Court reporter's note: at the close of the recess, the clock behind the examining counsel was found to be stopped at 6:10. It was a battery clock. The battery was checked and was fully charged. The deposition resumed, with Mr. Teague absent. His chair was found to be unoccupied. His jacket was on the back of it, and the water glass beside it was dry, with a ring of condensation on the table, as though it had been standing there a long time.]*