Case Name: Carlos and Nora RODRIGUEZ v. BOLLINGER GULF REPAIR
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 2008-05-21
Citations: 985 So. 2d 305
Docket Number: No. 2007-CA-1476
Parties: Carlos and Nora RODRIGUEZ v. BOLLINGER GULF REPAIR.
Judges: (Court composed of Judge CHARLES R. JONES, Judge DENNIS R. BAGNERIS, SR., and Judge ROLAND L. BELSOME).
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 985
Pages: 305–311

Head Matter:
Carlos and Nora RODRIGUEZ v. BOLLINGER GULF REPAIR.
No. 2007-CA-1476.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
May 21, 2008.
Rehearing Denied June 25, 2008.
David W. Bernberg, Henna Ghafoor, The Law Office of David W. Bernberg, L.L.C., New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiffs/Appellants.
Bradley J. Schlotterer, Stephen C. Ha-nemann, Kean Miller Hawthorne D’Ar-mond McCowan & Jarman, L.L.P., New Orleans, LA, for Defendant/Appellee.
(Court composed of Judge CHARLES R. JONES, Judge DENNIS R. BAGNERIS, SR., and Judge ROLAND L. BELSOME).

Opinion:
DENNIS R. BAGNERIS, SR., Judge.
| t This is an appeal by Carlos Rodriguez (a.k.a. Ramon Caldera) and Nora Rodriguez from an October 5, 2007, judgment of the trial court that granted a motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims against defendant, Bollinger Gulf Repair, L.L.C. ("Bol-linger Gulf Repair") with prejudice. For the reasons stated more fully herein, we hereby affirm the trial court judgment.
FACTS
On January 10, 2005, Carlos Rodriguez ("Plaintiff') filled out an employment application with HUTCO, Inc. (labor contractor for Bollinger Gulf Repair). On this application, Plaintiff identified himself as "Carlos Rodriguez," who was born on "August 14, 1952," and had a Social Security number of "xxx-xx-6784." He was hired based on this application, and thereafter began working for HUTCO, Inc. and Bol-linger Gulf Repair. A few weeks later, on January 22, 2005, Plaintiff allegedly had an unwitnessed accident, and filed suit in the name of "Carlos Rodriguez."
In December 2006, the District Director of the Social Security Administration ("Director") in Massachusetts obtained information that there were htwo individuals claiming the same Social Security number — one lived in Louisiana and the other lived in Massachusetts. As a result, the Director asked the Carlos Rodriguez who lived in Massachusetts "hereinafter, Carlos Rodriguez" to come to the Social Security Administration's office, and requested that he bring several original documents and his brother to establish his identity. Carlos Rodriguez complied with this request and met with the Director on December 31, 2006. Subsequent to the meeting, the Director wrote a letter to HUTCO, Inc. whereby he stated that he was "sure" that the gentleman in Massachusetts was the correct person with Social Security number xxx-xx-6784. Specifically, the letter stated, in pertinent part:
On December 31, 2007 I interviewed Carlos Rodriguez. He had a Massachusetts picture ID, and his birth certificate. I verified this information with records on file for every one who files for a Social Security card. I am convinced that the person lawfully entitled to use SSN [xxx-xx]-6784 is the gentleman I interviewed. I am sure of this because Mr. Rodriguez has a representative payee to administer his funds. This individual is his brother. I compared the names of their parents on the birth certificate and the names of the parents on the brother's Social Security record and they match.
Thereafter, counsel for Bollinger Gulf Repair scheduled a deposition of Carlos Rodriguez to take place in Boston, Massachusetts. At his deposition in Massachusetts, Carlos Rodriguez testified that his Social Security Number is xxx-xx-6784, his date of birth is August 14, 1952, and that he was only married one time, and that was to Evelyn Gonzalez Rodriguez. He testified that they were later divorced in 1977. Carlos Rodriguez also testified that he remembers his car getting broken into sometime in 1994, and his personal identification was stolen. He testified that since that time, he has had problems with someone trying to use his identity.
| aShortly after returning from the deposition in Boston, Plaintiff conceded by way of "Supplemental and Amending Answers to Interrogatories" that his real name is Ramon Caldera and that he used the name "Carlos Rodriguez" as an alias for at least five years preceding the subject accident. The text of Interrogatory Number 10, Plaintiffs answer, and Plaintiffs supplemental answer are as follows:
INTERROGATORY NO. 10:
Please state your full name and present address, all residences over the past ten years, any nicknames or aliases, your citizenship, your place and date of birth, and your Social Security No.
PLAINTIFF'S ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 10 (AS OF 6/12106):
I [Carlos Rodriguez] am presently residing in Lafayette, Louisiana, at 200 Lorie Avenue, Apartment A, 70507. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, I was living at 3660 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70122. I was born in Puerto Rico in 1952. My Social Security number is XXX-XX-6784.
PLAINTIFF'S SUPPLEMENTAL ANSWER TO INTERROGATORY NO. 10 (AS OF 9/5/07):
Plaintiff has been using the alias "Carlos Rodriguez" for the last nine years and has not worked using any other alias. Plaintiffs birth name is "Ramon Caldera." He was born on January 14, 1964 in Naraciabo, Venezuela. He arrived in the United States in 1996, and began using Social Security number XXX-XX-6784 in 1998.
Plaintiff Nora Rodriguez's married name is Naara Caldera. The use of "Nora" in these proceedings is a typographical error.
Thereafter, Bollinger Gulf Repair filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice due to the fact that Plaintiff has filed a lawsuit under a false name using a false identity. Following a hearing on the motion, the trial court granted the motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims with prejudice. Plaintiffs now appeal this final judgment.
DISCUSSION
On appeal, Plaintiffs sole assignment of error is that the trial court erred when it granted Bollinger Gulf Repair's motion to dismiss with prejudice because of the fact that Plaintiffs true identity did not alter any material facts surrounding the subject accident and injury. Plaintiff argues that "the fact that plaintiff-appellant's real name is Ramon Caldera is an insignificant element in the liability claim against defendant, and allowing this case to proceed forward will not subject defendant to any additional liability than it would have were this case originally filed under the name of Ramon Caldera."
Although neither the Louisiana Supreme Court nor this Court have addressed this issue, we do find two federal cases, Zocaras v. Castro, 465 F.3d 479 (11th Cir.2006) and Dotson v. Bravo, 321 F.3d 663 (7th Cir.2003), although not binding on this Court, persuasive in determining whether a trial court can dismiss a case with prejudice when a plaintiff files his/her complaint under a false name. In Zocaras, the plaintiff filed an excessive force § 1983 action against several arresting police officers for injuries he alleged he sustained when he was arrested. This lawsuit was filed under a false name — the same false name plaintiff gave when he was arrested. At some point in the litigation, it was uncovered that plaintiff filed the lawsuit using a false name; however, plaintiff still attempted to go forward with the case. In dismissing the case with prejudice, the Court stated:
A trial is not a masquerade party nor is it a game of judicial hide-n-seek where the plaintiff may offer the defendant the added challenge of uncovering his real name. We sometimes speak of litigation as a search for the truth, but the parties ought not have to search for each other's true identity....
Because courts must be able to preserve the integrity of the judicial process, we have no hesitation in concluding that a party who files Lsuit under a false name and proceeds with that deception right up to trial loses the right to seek judicial relief for the claims he was advancing.
Zocaras, 465 F.3d at 484-485.
In Dotson, the plaintiff brought a § 1983 suit against the city of Chicago and police alleging malicious prosecution and other state law claims. This lawsuit was also later dismissed with prejudice upon discovering that plaintiff had filed under a false name. As stated by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals:
Filing a case under a false name deliberately, and without sufficient justification, certainly qualifies as flagrant contempt for the judicial process and amounts to behavior that transcends the interests of the parties in the underlying litigation. The instant case represents precisely the situation where one party's conduct so violates the judicial process that imposition of a harsh penalty is appropriate not only to reprimand the offender, but also to deter future parties from trampling upon the integrity of the court. (Footnote omitted.)
Dotson, 321 F.3d at 668.
Our review of the case law leads this Court to find that the instant case represents precisely the situation where one party's conduct so violates the judicial process that imposition of a harsh penalty, as dismissing the case with prejudice, is appropriate. Plaintiffs list of egregious conduct includes: (1) lying about his true name, place and date of birth on his application in order to obtain a job at the Bollinger shipyard; (1) filing a civil lawsuit under a false name; (2) lying under oath about his true name and birth date in a deposition taken on July 25, 2006; and (3) serving answers, in June of 2006, to interrogatories propounded by Bollinger Gulf Repair containing lies about his true identity, date of birth, and his place of birth. Because courts must be able to preserve the integrity of the judicial process, this Court also finds that | fia party who files a suit under a false name and proceeds with that deception loses the right to seeks judicial relief for the claims he/she was advancing.
Accordingly, we hereby affirm the trial court judgment, which granted Bollinger Gulf Repair's motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims with prejudice.
AFFIRMED.
BELSOME, J., dissents with reasons.