Opinion ID: 2051792
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Dismissal as a Sanction for Fraud On the Court

Text: Having decided that committing fraud on the court is conduct that trial justices have the authority to punish and that the trial justice was acting within his discretion when he concluded that plaintiffs had committed fraud on the court in this case, we now review whether this trial justice abused his discretion by dismissing plaintiffs' complaints with prejudice. Specifically, we must decide whether the trial justice erred in imposing the ultimate sanction of dismissing the offending parties' claims with prejudice instead of administering some lesser punishment. In considering this question, we are mindful that the court's inherent powers must be exercised with restraint and discretion. Chambers, 501 U.S. at 44, 111 S.Ct. at 2132, 115 L.Ed.2d at 45. We are of the opinion that the sanctions available to a trial court in these situations are analogous to those available for comparable violations of Rules 11 and 37. Under Rule 37(b), trial justices may punish violations of this rule and sanction misconduct by awarding attorneys fees and other costs, dismissing a complaint (or one or more claims therein), defaulting an offending party, striking claims or defenses, or precluding a party from introducing certain evidence. Insurance Company of North America v. Kayser-Roth Corp., 770 A.2d 403, 411 (R.I.2001). A motion justice possesses the authority to impose any of these sanctions for discovery violations, in the exercise of his or her sound discretion, id., and we do not believe that fraud on the court should warrant less severe sanctions than those that are available for discovery violations. Moreover, when reviewing the imposition of sanctions  especially sanctions that are available in the alternative  we have stated that [t]his [C]ourt is not likely to reverse on the basis of abuse of discretion when a rule provides for alternative sanctions and the trial justice selects the sanction that he or she deems the most appropriate for the particular case. Id. (quoting Senn v. Surgidev Corp., 641 A.2d 1311, 1319 (R.I.1994)). See also State v. Musumeci, 717 A.2d 56, 60 (R.I.1998) (holding that the trial justice is in the best position to determine the harm    and can best assess the possibility of mitigating that harm, his or her ruling    [therefore] will not be overturned absent a clear abuse of discretion). As we previously have stated, we also believe that Rule 11 violations and their attendant sanctions provide analogous precedents that can inform our review of a trial court's exercise of its inherent powers under the Aoude standard. See Peerless Industrial Paint Coatings Co. v. Canam Steel Corp., 979 F.2d 685 (8th Cir.1992) (discussing Rule 11 and the commission of fraud on the court). As a general proposition, an appellate court will reverse a trial court's imposition of a sanction for a litigant's misconduct only if the trial court `based its ruling on an erroneous view of the law or on a clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence.' Id. at 686-87. See also Sargent v. Saunders, 136 F.3d 349 (4th Cir.1998) (holding that a district court's imposition of sanctions under Rule 11 is reviewed for an abuse of discretion); American Inmate Paralegal Assoc. v. Cline, 859 F.2d 59 (8th Cir.1988) (holding that the court will review the appropriateness of a Rule 11 sanction under an abuse of discretion standard). Therefore, by analogy to Rule 11 jurisprudence, we will not reverse a trial justice's imposition of a sanction for fraud on the court unless the trial justice has abused his discretion in imposing that sanction. We note also that, in accordance with the fraud-on-the-court decisions discussed below, Rule 11 provides trial courts with broad authority to fashion necessary sanctions against attorneys and parties. These sanctions have a twofold purpose: to deter repetition of the harm, and to remedy the harm caused. Sargent, 136 F.3d at 352-53. In effectuating this dual goal, a trial court has the discretionary authority to fashion what it deems to be an appropriate sanction, one that is responsive to the seriousness of the violation under the circumstances and sufficient to deter repetition of the misconduct in question. These sanctions can range from the dismissal of an action to the denial of a motion that lacks an adequate factual foundation. Gemisys Corp. v. Phoenix American, Inc., 186 F.R.D. 551, 556 (N.D.Cal.1999). Therefore, when faced with a Rule 11 violation, a trial justice possesses the authority to dismiss the action provided that he or she believes that this particular sanction is the best remedy to effectuate the dual purposes of Rule 11 in light of the nature of the violation. As the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court noted in the Rockdale case, a trial justice's finding that a litigant has committed fraud on the court and his or her selection of the appropriate sanction for that fraud necessarily involve case-by-case, fact-intensive determinations. Many other jurisdictions have deemed dismissal an appropriate sanction for presenting false evidence to the court, for destroying evidence, or for otherwise impeding the discovery process by offering false or misleading testimony, or by falsifying past deposition testimony. See, e.g., Rockdale Management Co., 638 N.E.2d at 32 (collecting cases  see especially, Nichols v. Klein Tools, Inc., 949 F.2d 1047 (8th Cir. 1991)). We agree that the above-cited misconduct could, in the discretion of the trial justice, warrant the ultimate sanction of dismissal, depending on the gravity of the misconduct and its effect on the integrity of the judicial process in any given case. But Lett and Giuliano further argue that, even if the trial justice did not err in finding that they both had committed fraud on the court, he erred in imposing the sanction of dismissal instead of some lesser sanction. The trial justice specifically stated that, under the circumstances, he did not believe that an alternative sanction, other than dismissal, was warranted; and given the trial justice's findings concerning the motive for plaintiffs' misconduct  preventing the Journal from questioning Giuliano in front of the jury, and thereby unfairly hampering the presentation of its defense  we are unable to conclude that he abused his discretion in doing so. A trial justice must have broad discretion to choose the appropriate response to any fraudulent conduct committed by litigants. Although trial justices should consider whether a less drastic sanction than dismissal would be appropriate  depending on the circumstances of the individual case and the gravity of the fraudulent conduct at issue  we will not require them to impose less drastic sanctions if the punishment they have imposed was justified in any given case. It is generally inadvisable to bind a trial justice's hands on discretionary matters such as selecting the appropriate sanction for a litigant's misconduct. See Kayser-Roth Corp., 770 A.2d at 411. [3] Trial justices must be free to fashion appropriate remedies to address misconduct that occurs in the course of litigation before them. Although a trial court should exercise its inherent powers with restraint, we will not reverse a trial justice's dismissal of a case for fraud on the court absent an abuse of discretion. Here, the trial justice believed that plaintiffs had lied under oath when they swore that Giuliano was unable to testify at the trial of this case. Discerning no abuse of discretion in the court's meting out the ultimate civil sanction for that capital civil offense, we decline to reverse the dismissal of Lett's and Giuliano's complaints.