Opinion ID: 504669
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Denial of Sanctions

Text: 40 The Association lastly contends that the district court abused its discretion in denying its motion for sanctions against the government based on claimed deficiencies in the government's counsel. Specifically, the Association contends that the attorney for the government violated Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by dishonestly denying the allegations made by the Association in its complaint. Additionally, the Association argues that the government's attorney violated Rule 11 by not making a reasonable inquiry into the facts of the case before filing her answer. And finally, the Association contends that the government's attorney violated Rule 16 by being unprepared at the pretrial conference. We reject these contentions. 41 With regard to its first claim of attorney misconduct, it appears from the government's Answer that its attorney made only one denial--namely, that the IRS illegally revoked the Association's tax-exempt status. We have already determined, however, that this denial was correct. Consequently, the attorney did not engage in any dishonesty by making that representation. 3 42 The Association's argument that the government's attorney violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by not making a reasonable inquiry into the facts of the case before filing her answer is also without merit. The Association's contention appears to be that the attorney was required to come into possession of and read all of the files in the IRS's control during the sixty-day period in which she had to file her answer. 43 As the district court suggested, however, an attorney for one government agency (here, the Justice Department) may not be able, even with the exercise of due diligence, to obtain files in the hands of another government agency before the answer is due. This fact of litigation has been recognized by other courts as well. See Ashburn v. United States, 740 F.2d 843, 845-46, 850 (11th Cir.1984). 44 In the instant case, it appears that the attorney for the government was unable to procure the files from the IRS in time to respond knowledgeably to many of the allegations made in the Association's complaint. Consequently, she took the permissible tack of stating in her answer that she had insufficient knowledge of the disputed facts to admit or deny them. See FED.R.CIV.P. 8(b). The district court's decision to deny sanctions on this ground was accordingly not an abuse of discretion. 45 The Association's final argument for sanctions is that the attorney for the government was unprepared when she arrived at the scheduled pretrial conference knowing nothing about the case and refus[ing] to discuss it at all. There is no record to support this claim in this court, and, consequently, we cannot determine the correctness of the district court's ruling. Moreover, even if we had such record, this is an issue, the resolution of which, would be particularly within the discretion of the district court.