Opinion ID: 201098
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Material Misstatements.

Text: 55 Synopsys's exhortation that we should impose sanctions on ASC for material omissions in its appellate brief raises a close question. This exhortation relates largely to ASC's argument concerning the trial court's denial of its motion to amend the misrepresentation count. See supra Part III(C). Synopsys is correct in pointing out that ASC failed to mention in its brief that it had opted to withdraw its motion to amend before the district court denied that motion. We have indicated before that brazen misrepresentations in an appellant's brief can justify the imposition of sanctions. Thomas v. Digital Equip. Corp., 880 F.2d 1486, 1491 (1st Cir.1989). Given that benchmark, we certainly possess the authority to sanction the omission here. See, e.g., id. (sanctioning an appellant for omitting material facts concerning discovery requests); Ortiz Villafane v. Segarra, 797 F.2d 1, 2 (1st Cir.1986) (sanctioning an appellant for falsely claiming that he had filed a motion to amend). 56 ASC's explanation is that the district court never formally ruled on its motion to withdraw the misrepresentation count, leading it to assume that the withdrawal had no legal significance. This is less an explanation than a lame excuse, and we find it wholly inadequate. We note, however, that Synopsys's other misstatement claims lack force. That is significant because the misrepresentation claim was a sideshow — not the main event — and the misleading omission was so easily exposed that it caused neither Synopsys nor this court an iota of extra work. Courts may, as a matter of discretion, decline to impose sanctions. See, e.g., Oakville Dev. Corp. v. FDIC, 986 F.2d 611, 615 n. 5 (1st Cir.1993). Under the circumstances of this case, we find that course advisable.