Opinion ID: 1388652
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: The Order of Dismissal and Denial of the Motion to Recuse

Text: At the December 15, 2006 hearing, Plaintiffs made a presentation as to the motion for in camera review. Defendants then made an hour-long PowerPoint presentation addressing the discovery orders related to Walls, the alleged abuses surrounding the email and tape production, Nick Anton, and the alleged attempt to pay Anton to conceal documents. In Defendants' presentation, Defendants repeatedly referred to the district court's four discovery orders involving Walls as though they were identical in scope and had all called for the production of a body of documents labeled the Walls documents. At the end of Defendant's presentation, the following exchange took place: THE COURT: Well, I want to know something right up front: Have you produced the 58 documents that were the original request that's generated the trip to the Eighth Circuit, have you produced them? MR. STARRETT [Plaintiffs' counsel]: To them? THE COURT: Well, hell, yes. Why would you ask a question like that? Hell, yes, to the defendant. MR. STARRETT: The answer  excuse me, Your Honor. I'm sorry. THE COURT: Yes. Did you? Have you? MR. STARRETT: Those have not all been produced to them because they are not all expert documents. There are other documents THE COURT: You didn't hear enough with four phone conferences, and I'm sorry you missed one, with three, four, I kept telling you to produce stuff, expert stuff. You ducked. You wove. You did everything to keep from producing them. You go to the Eighth Circuit. They tell you to produce them, and you still goddamn don't produce them. Now what the hell do you not understand? You must produce them. Jesus Christ, I don't want any more ducking and weaving from you on those 58 documents. That's unbelievable. That gives credence to everything I just heard from the defense. Now, tell me why else you don't think that I ought to dismiss this case because of Mr. Walls ducking and weaving, and Anton, at the direction of Mr. Barazi. You better tell me. I'm about ready to throw this thing out. When you tell me that you still haven't produced those goddamn 58 documents after four times, four times I've ordered you to produce them. You are abusing this Court in a bad way. Now tell me. MR. STARRETT: Well, may I start with the fact THE COURT: Yes. MR. STARRETT:  that you have not ruled four times to give them those 58 documents THE COURT: That's it. I'm done. I'm granting the defendant's motion to dismiss this case for systematic abuse of the discovery process. Mr. Harris, I direct you to prepare a proposed order with everything you've just put on that presentation. I'll refine it and slick it up. Mr. Barazi has abused this court, has misled you, has lied on his deposition. It's obvious he's lying about that e-mail. This case is gone. I'm dismissing it. What a disgrace to the legal system in the Western District of Missouri. Prepare the proposed order. We're done. We are done, done, done. What a disgrace. It's not your fault, it's your client. He's coached, he's ducked, and he's hid documents. We're done. Be in recess. Shortly after the hearing, Defendants tendered a proposed order, and Plaintiffs filed suggestions in opposition to the proposed order. On June 1, 2007, Plaintiffs filed a motion to recuse, and on June 4, 2007, in apparent anticipation of a 150-day deadline as set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58(c)(2)(B), Plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal. On June 14, 2007, the district court entered its written order of dismissal with prejudice and the clerk entered judgment. On June 29, Plaintiffs again filed a notice of appeal, and on August 17, 2007, the district court entered an order denying Plaintiffs' motion for recusal. Plaintiffs filed a timely notice of appeal following the district court's entry of that order. Currently pending before the district court is a motion by Defendants claiming over $2 million in attorney fees and costs. The district court has suspended action on that motion pending our resolution of these combined appeals. Currently pending in our court are the appeals from the district court's June 14 and August 17 orders. In its June 14 order of dismissal, the district court recited several of Plaintiffs representations regarding Walls's status and chronicled the discovery orders and Plaintiffs' responses to those orders. In particular, the district court found that Plaintiffs had represented to the court in a May 9, 2006 filing that Walls was a retained expert and had relied on retained-expert provisions of a protective order to secure Walls's access to Defendants' protected materials. The court also found that Plaintiffs subsequently characterized Walls as an employee, claiming certain materials were subject to attorney-client privilege. Ultimately, the district court concluded that Plaintiffs had lied to the court regarding Walls's status. The court also stated, This Court issued four orders compelling the production of the Chris Walls documents. Plaintiffs have failed to produce all fifty-eight Chris Walls documents. The court proceeded to note that the documents Plaintiffs produced to Defendants following our denial of mandamus relief were not the same as the fifty-eight documents on the privilege log. Regarding the tapes, the court found that Barazi had lied by claiming to have taped only two conversations with Shell officers. Regarding the emails, the court noted that, Plaintiffs have never produced a critical email and attachment in this litigation, which is an August 7, 2003 email.... Regarding Nick Anton, the district court found that Anton's absence from the July 6, 2006 hearing was a violation of a discovery order notwithstanding its earlier, apparent lack of concern with Anton's absence. The district court also relied upon the purported offer to pay Anton to withhold documents as evidence of Plaintiffs' willfulness and bad faith. The court stated: Plaintiffs also violated the Court's June 20, 3006 Order requiring the production of Nick Anton at the July 6, 2006 hearing. Mr. Barazi sat in the courtroom passively listening while his counsel misrepresented Mr. Anton's employment status and their ability to produce Mr. Anton to this Court. The evidence as to Mr. Barazi's offer to pay Mr. Anton to withhold unfavorable documents from discovery leads the Court to believe that the above violations are just the tip of the iceberg Chrysler, 186 F.3d at 1020-1022. Plaintiffs clearly made every effort to avoid compliance with the orders of this Court and the rules of discovery.