Opinion ID: 884026
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: review of sanctions

Text: Rule 37(b)(2), M.R.Civ.P., provides, in relevant part: If a party ... fails to obey an order to provide or permit discovery, ... the court in which the action is pending may make such orders in regard to the failure as are just and among others the following: .... (C) An order ... dismissing the action.... After concluding that the Estate failed to obey its clarification order, the District Court dismissed the Estate's complaint with prejudice. We review the District Court's dismissal of the Estate's complaint pursuant to Rule 37(b)(2)(C), M.R.Civ.P., to determine if the court abused its discretion. See Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319. Acknowledging both the discretionary nature of a trial court's decisions on sanctions for discovery abuse and the availability of the dismissal sanction under Rule 37, M.R.Civ.P., the Estate argues that dismissal was an abuse of the District Court's discretion under these facts. It relies on the District Court's statement accompanying the clarification order that, in the event the Estate failed to provide the expert-related information to the County, the court would reopen the Estate's expert witness depositions. The County, on the other hand, relies on Eisenmenger, and Landauer v. Kehrwald (1987), 225 Mont. 322, 732 P.2d 839, in urging us to accord proper deference to the District Court's dismissal with prejudice. The County also contends that the instant case presents a more compelling case for the dismissal sanction than Eisenmenger. Eisenmenger and Landauer clearly stand for the proposition that we generally defer to the decision of the district court regarding the appropriate sanction for discovery abuses. See Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319; Landauer, 732 P.2d at 840. Those cases, however, are factually distinguishable from the present case and do not mandate a conclusion that the sanction of dismissal was properly applied here. In Eisenmenger, a broken suture following surgery caused the plaintiff to have a stroke and suffer other severe complications. The plaintiff filed a medical malpractice claim against the doctor and hospital and a products liability claim against Ethicon, Inc. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1315. In 1988, Dr. Olcott, who later became Ethicon's expert witness, reviewed the Eisenmenger case and generally advised Ethicon's counsel of his opinions regarding the doctor and hospital's possible culpability in the case based on certain acts and decisions. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319. In June of 1990, Ethicon responded to a detailed discovery request from the plaintiff. Despite the plaintiff's request that Ethicon set forth the factors it contended contributed to the broken suture and the plaintiff's resulting stroke, Ethicon failed to disclose the opinions provided by Dr. Olcott two years earlier. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319. Indeed, Ethicon did not disclose Dr. Olcott as a potential expert witness until August of 1991. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the doctor and hospital approximately six months later. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1320-21. Ethicon did not make Dr. Olcott available for deposition until one month after the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the doctor and hospital. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1321. The plaintiff then deposed Dr. Olcott, and his testimony supported a theory that the doctor or the hospital could have caused the broken suture. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1315. The plaintiff subsequently moved the district court for sanctions against Ethicon pursuant to Rule 37, M.R.Civ.P., for its failure to disclose this relevant information in discovery requests dating back to 1988. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1315. The district court determined that Ethicon made a knowing concealment of the expert's testimony and stated that, had Dr. Olcott's testimony been available, it was very doubtful that the doctor and hospital's motion for summary judgment would have been granted. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1315. Concluding that the plaintiff had suffered extreme prejudice due to Ethicon's discovery abuses, the district court entered a default judgment against Ethicon on the issue of liability. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1315. In reviewing the propriety of the default sanction, we set forth at some length the record before us regarding Ethicon's failure to timely disclose Dr. Olcott's opinions, update discovery responses or make Dr. Olcott available for deposition. On the basis of that record, we determined that severe prejudice had already occurred to [the plaintiff], and the [district] court had few options for appropriate and meaningful sanctions against Ethicon. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1321. We also determined that the record supported the district court's finding that Ethicon's failure to respond to discovery requests was willful and in bad faith and caused severe prejudice to the plaintiff on an issue central to the case. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1321. We held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in entering a default judgment on the issue of liability against Ethicon. Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1321. Thus, in Eisenmenger, the plaintiff was foreclosed from seeking compensation from two potentially responsible parties due to Ethicon's knowing concealment of Dr. Olcott's opinion. As a result of Ethicon's egregious conduct, the plaintiff was severely prejudiced. See Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1321. Under such extreme circumstances, no other sanction could have remedied the severe prejudice suffered by the plaintiff. Here, we are not confronted with the extreme and irreparable circumstances which existed in Eisenmenger. Certainly any incidental prejudice to the County due to delay and the necessity of repeated motions does not rise to the level of extreme prejudice suffered by the plaintiff in Eisenmenger. Moreover, unlike Eisenmenger, sanctions other than dismissal were available in this case to remedy the limited prejudice to the County. Indeed, the District Court provided for one such sanction when it stated that it would reopen the Estate's expert witness depositions as an alternative to the Estate providing the ordered expert-related information. In addition, upon reopening the depositions, the District Court could have required the Estate to pay the expenses incurred by the County as a result. See Rule 37(b), M.R.Civ.P. Finally, Ethicon's knowing concealment in Eisenmenger was far more egregious than the Estate's inadequate Rule 26 disclosure and response to the District Court's clarification order in this case. In Eisenmenger, Ethicon totally concealed Dr. Olcott's opinion ( see Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1321) and, as a direct result, the plaintiff was foreclosed from pursuing a viable claim against the doctor and hospital. Here, the Estate disclosed the identity of its expert witnesses and the general topics on which they are expected to testify at trial. Thus, although the Estate's conduct in this case clearly violated the court's order of clarification and is strongly disapproved, it does not rise to the level of discovery-related misconduct present in Eisenmenger. Since neither the nature or extent of discovery abuse nor the resulting prejudice is of the magnitude of that present in Eisenmenger, Eisenmenger does not compel a conclusion that imposition of the dismissal sanction was appropriate here. In Landauer, the plaintiff filed a claim against the defendant to recover lost rental income. The defendant served requests for production of the plaintiff's federal and state income tax returns for specified years. Landauer, 732 P.2d at 839. When the plaintiff did not provide the returns, the defendant filed a motion to compel production. The district court ordered the plaintiff to produce the returns within twenty days and the plaintiff failed to comply. Landauer, 732 P.2d at 840. The defendant again moved the court to compel production. The court ordered the plaintiff to provide the returns within ten days and warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal of his complaint with prejudice. Landauer, 732 P.2d at 840. The plaintiff timely produced his federal, but not his state, returns and the district court dismissed the plaintiff's complaint with prejudice pursuant to Rule 37(b), M.R.Civ.P. Landauer, 732 P.2d at 840. We determined that, under those circumstances, the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the plaintiff's complaint. Landauer, 732 P.2d at 841. Similar to the district court in Landauer, the District Court in this case warned in its initial post-remand order that if the Estate failed to comply, then the court will be left with no other alternative but to dismiss this case with prejudice or impose other appropriate sanctions. However, the Estate then moved the District Court to clarify that order and the court issued a clarification order wherein it modified its prior warning, at least with regard to the expert witness information, by requiring that the Estate provide the expert-related information or in the alternative this Court must reopen the depositions of [the Estate's] experts to answer questions about the basis of their opinions. The record before us demonstrates that the Estate provided two of the three categories of information set forth in the District Court's clarification order; it also provided part of the ordered expert witness information. Notwithstanding its specific warning of the sanction which would result from the Estate's failure to provide the ordered expert-related information, however, the District Court dismissed the Estate's complaint with prejudice. Thus, in both Landauer and the present case, the parties were expressly warned of the consequences for failure to comply with the court's discovery-related order. In Landauer, the district court imposed the consequence of which it had warned  dismissal with prejudice  and we determined that the court had not abused its discretion. See Landauer, 732 P.2d at 841. In this case, however, the District Court imposed consequences much more severe than those of which it had expressly warned. Landauer does not, therefore, compel a conclusion that the sanction of dismissal with prejudice was appropriate here. We reaffirm our policy that, in reviewing the imposition of Rule 37 sanctions, we generally must defer to the decision of the district court. See Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319. When parties fail to comply with court orders enforcing the rules of discovery, they must suffer the consequences. See Owen, 627 P.2d at 1236. The extent of the consequences imposed by a district court, however, should relate to the extent and nature of the actual discovery abuse and the extent of the prejudice to the opposing party which results therefrom. Moreover, where a court expressly warns of the consequences to follow from a party's failure to comply, the court should impose sanctions accordingly. Here, the Estate's failure to comply with ordered discovery was totally insupportable, but relatively limited, as was the prejudice to the County. Thus, the dismissal sanction bears little relationship to the nature and extent of the discovery abuse and the resulting prejudice in this case. Most importantly, the District Court's imposition of the ultimate sanction of dismissal was a marked, and significant, departure from the specific consequences of which it had elected to warn the Estate. Discovery abuse tactics, especially in this era of crowded dockets, deprive other litigants of an opportunity to use the courts as a serious dispute-settlement mechanism. See First Bank (N.A.)-Billings, 711 P.2d at 1386 (quoting G-K Properties v. Redevelopment Agency, Etc. (9th Cir.1978), 577 F.2d 645, 647). Rule 37, M.R.Civ.P., provides a necessary tool for district courts to manage crowded dockets. Dismissal of an action with prejudice, however, is the most severe in the spectrum of sanctions provided by statute or rule[;] ... [it] must be available to the district court in appropriate cases.... National Hockey League et al. v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc., et al. (1976), 427 U.S. 639, 643, 96 S.Ct. 2778, 2781, 49 L.Ed.2d 747, 751 (emphasis added). Such a severe sanction is inappropriate where, as here, the court has stated in its order that the sanction for noncompliance will be something other than dismissal. The District Court's frustration with the Estate's attorney is evident in its order of dismissal and entirely understandable. This case, only one of hundreds on the District Court's docket, has consumed a great deal of the court's resources for more than five years and the discovery phase apparently remains uncompleted. Under the record before us, however, we hold that the District Court abused its discretion in dismissing the Estate's complaint with prejudice. Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. TURNAGE, C.J., and TRIEWEILER and LEAPHART, JJ., concur.