Clone Component Distrib., Inc. v. State

In Clone Component Distrib., Inc. v. State, 819 S.W.2d 593 (Tex. App. 1991), the court held that the requirement of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure that a deposition be taken "'before a person authorized to take oaths' was satisfied by the court reporter's being in the vocal and aural presence of the deponent through the use of the telephone." Id. at 598. To be "before" someone means to be "in the presence of" the person. 2 The Oxford English Dictionary 63, 64 (2d ed. 1989); Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language 197 (1981). When two people talk to each other on the telephone, they are within each other's vocal and aural presence. Appellants fail to explain why a deposition, which consists solely of the recording of the deponent's spoken words, requires anything more than the vocal and aural presence of the deponent. Id. Accordingly, the court determined that the deponent need not be in the physical presence of the court reporter administering the oath.