IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA IN AND FOR CHEROKEE COUNTY ( HOMER A. FICTION, et al., ( ( Plaintiffs, ( ( -vs- No. 712321 ( ( MOUNTAIN CEMENT, et al., ( ( Defendants. (________________________________ DEPOSITION OF HOMER A. FICTION VOLUME I Monday, Oct 10, 1994 Reported By: Ralph B. Jones, CSR License #1231 1 1 BE IT REMEMBERED that on Monday, October 10, 2 1994, commencing at the hour of 11:00 a.m., at the 3 Law Offices of Nelson, Falmore, Moran & Morrison, 4 1234 West Ensign Street, Billings, Montana, before 5 me, Ralph B. Jones, a duly licensed Certified 6 Shorthand Reporter in the State of Montana, appeared 7 HOMER A. FICTION, 8 a witness called by the Defendants in the before 9 entitled action, who, having been duly sworn by the 10 Certified Shorthand Reporter to tell the truth, the 11 whole truth and nothing but the truth, testified as 12 follows: 13 EXAMINATION BY MR. MORRISON 14 Q. Have you taken any pills or medication 15 of any kind in the last 24 hours? 16 A. No. 17 Q. Have you had any alcohol in the last 24 18 hours? 19 A. Sure, but not this morning, though. 20 Q. Is there anything that you're aware of 21 that would impair your ability to testify today? 22 A. No. Do you have a bathroom? 23 Q. Have you talked with either Officer 24 Jones or Officer Smith since the accident? 25 A. Yes. 2 1 Q. Okay. Which one did you talk with? 2 A. Officer Perry Jones. 3 Q. When did you talk to him? 4 A. Two weeks ago. 5 Q. Did you call him? 6 A. No. He called me. Officer Smith's 7 been trying to call me, too. 8 Q. What did you and Perry talk about? 9 A. He wanted to know if I got my truck 10 fixed yet. I told him it would be a long time until 11 I have it back from the shop. 12 Q. How many chickens got lost after the 13 accident? 14 A. 150 chickens ran away, and about 50 15 stayed in the truck. Some of them came back the next 16 day, I don't know how many -- all the smart ones did. 17 Q. When did you first notice the cement 18 truck that hit you? 19 A. When it was on top of the hood of my 20 pickup. 21 Q. You didn't see it or notice it until 22 after the accident? 23 A. That's right, it came out of nowhere 24 and just smashed my pickup. It smashed it real bad. 25 Q. Did you know that the cement truck 3 1 was parked, with the engine off, and nobody was 2 driving it when the accident occurred? 3 A. No. Who says that? 4 Q. You are asking over $1,000,000 in 5 damages for the accident, is that correct? 6 A. Yes, but I wouldn't get all of the 7 money myself, my attorney would get about -- um, 8 I think he would get about $660,000 of the money 9 and I would get all of the rest of it. He came right 10 over to the scene of the accident real fast after he 11 heard the siren on the ambulance. 12 Q. Your attorney is Dewey Cheatem, right? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. Did he give you any instructions about 15 what to say during this deposition? 16 A. Sure, we talked about that more than 17 all of the other stuff. He made real sure that I 18 should say I still hurt real bad, but my girlfriend 19 says I seem just fine to her. She doesn't like me 20 driving around in her car, though. That makes her 21 madder than me wrecking old blue. 22 Q. Why did your attorney drop you off and 23 rush off after coming here with you this morning? 24 A. We heard about this other wreck on the 25 radio driving up to the building, and he said that 4