Opinion ID: 3052012
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court’s Exercise of its Authority

Text: The government contends that, even if the orders were authorized, both the March 2005 order and the enforcement orders were an abuse of the court’s discretion. We do not agree. Although a district court’s discretion to order pretrial discovery is not unfettered, the district court did not abuse its discretion here. [8] We first address the court’s orders insofar as they concerned expert disclosures and scientific reports, the disclosure UNITED STATES v. W. R. GRACE 5657 of which is governed by Rule 16(a). Subsections (a)(1)(G), (a)(1)(E)(ii) and (a)(1)(F) of Rule 16 require the government to disclose, at the defendant’s request, a summary of any expert witness testimony the government intends to use during its case-in-chief at trial as well as “the bases and reasons for those opinions”; documents within the government’s possession, custody or control that the government intends to use; and certain scientific reports. The March 2005 case management order expressly implemented those provisions by requiring the timely disclosure of the government’s expert witnesses and an expert report tailored to the issues on which each expert is expected to testify. The December 2005 enforcement order also clarified that expert disclosures must identify the documents or information that the expert reviewed in preparing his or her report, a condition well within Rule 16’s requirement that expert disclosures describe “the bases and reasons for those opinions.” The district court’s orders imposing and enforcing these expert witness disclosures were clearly within its Rule 16 authority and not an abuse of its discretion. Next, as to both expert and nonexpert witnesses, the government argues that requiring it to disclose its final list of witnesses a year before trial was unreasonable and that the district court’s exclusion of witnesses and reports not disclosed by December 5, 2005 was an inappropriate sanction. We reject the government’s objections for several reasons. [9] First, the district court’s March 2005 order set a relatively early deadline for the government to provide a final witness list in advance of the then-scheduled September 2006 trial. The record reflects that the court had good reason to impose such a deadline, however; the court believed that the deadline would bring the necessary focus and organization to ready the case for trial. The charged conspiracy reaches back nearly 30 years, the government now proposes to call more than 200 witnesses, there are many defendants and allegations, and millions of pages of documents have been produced 5658 UNITED STATES v. W. R. GRACE during discovery. Such a complex case poses special challenges to the parties in preparing for trial and to the court in managing the litigation. Moreover, the government itself had initially suggested a September 2005 trial date, indicating to the district court that the government could be prepared for trial by then. When asked in the March 2005 status conference whether the government could make its expert disclosures by the end of September, the prosecutor responded, “[t]hat would be good,” and when asked about a finalized list of witnesses and trial exhibits by the end of September, he said he “d[id]n’t have a problem with that.” The government also did not object to the disclosure deadlines set by the March 2005 order. Rather, when it filed its supposed “final” list in September 2005 it simply and unilaterally reserved its “right” to supplement the list up to the time of trial. Given the size and complexity of the case and the government’s acquiescence in the dates for final witness and document disclosures, the district court’s March 2005 order was reasonable and not an abuse of discretion.12 Second, the government mischaracterizes the enforcement orders as an exclusionary “sanction.” The enforcement orders were not imposed as a sanction; they simply enforce the earlier pretrial order requiring the timely identification of trial witnesses and documentary evidence. In March 2005, when the government told the court it was prepared to try the case that September, the government estimated it would be calling 60 to 80 witnesses; by the time it filed its witness list on September 30, the number of witnesses had grown to 233 and counting. At the December 2005 status hearing, the district court rejected the government’s arguments for expanding the list further, finding that the government “cannot now credibly claim that it is necessary to continue adding witnesses to an already unwieldy list.” Accordingly, it ruled that “the govern12 Notably, the district court did not take a rigid approach, effectively converting the September 30 deadline to a December 5 deadline by virtue of the December 2005 order. UNITED STATES v. W. R. GRACE 5659 ment’s presentation at trial will be limited to those witnesses that have been disclosed as of the filing of this Order [i.e., December 5, 2005],” later clarifying in the February 2006 order that this limitation applied only to the government’s case-in-chief, not to rebuttal witnesses. Given the many discussions the court had with counsel about the fluid nature of the government’s evolving case and the court’s expressed concerns that the government seemed unable to get its trial preparation under control, it could hardly have been a surprise that the court froze the witness list when and as it did. Third, even if we were to view the enforcement orders as a sanction, they still would not be an abuse of the court’s discretion. At the outset, we emphasize that we are addressing only the preclusive effect of the enforcement orders as they currently stand because, apart from this interlocutory appeal, the government has thus far sought no relief from the district court’s orders with respect to any particular excluded witness. We do not know whether the district court would be persuaded to allow the government to add or substitute one or more new witnesses for good cause. See, e.g., D. Mont. R. 7.3 (permitting a party to seek relief from the district court if it finds new evidence and can demonstrate good cause). Nonetheless, the government relies on United States v. Finley, 301 F.3d 1000 (9th Cir. 2002), for the proposition that the exclusion of witnesses can be imposed as a sanction only when the district court finds the violation of a disclosure order was “willful and motivated by a desire to obtain a tactical advantage.” Id. at 1018 (quoting Taylor v. Illinois, 484 U.S. 400, 415 (1988)). Because the district court made no such findings in this case, the government contends the exclusion orders cannot stand. Finley, however, like Taylor, involved a defendant’s right to present evidence, not the government’s, and has no bearing here. See Finley, 301 F.3d at 1018 (“Because the Supreme Court has recognized that ‘[f]ew rights are more fundamental than that of an accused to present witnesses in his own defense,’ Taylor, 484 U.S. at 408, courts should use 5660 UNITED STATES v. W. R. GRACE particular caution in applying the drastic remedy of excluding a witness altogether.”). Finally, the government argues that even if a court can legitimately compel the government to disclose its witness list, it cannot force the government to finalize that list on penalty of exclusion of later discovered witnesses, particularly a year before trial. Relying on United States v. Gatto, 763 F.2d 1040, 1046 (9th Cir. 1985), it contends the district court’s orders violated the separation of powers principle by improperly commandeering the government’s investigatory and prosecutorial functions. Of course, the orders did no such thing — as we have discussed, they dealt with managing the proceedings inside the courtroom, not with the government’s performance of its prosecutorial duties outside the courtroom. The government’s discretion to investigate and present its case does not override the district court’s authority to manage the trial proceedings — including by setting discovery and disclosure deadlines — and Gatto does not hold otherwise.13 The government’s reliance on Gatto is misplaced. That case involved a district court order requiring the government to provide discovery in accordance with Rule 16. Four weeks before trial and well after the discovery disclosure deadline had passed, the government belatedly learned that cooperating state officials had relevant documents that should have been produced to the defendants. Invoking its authority under both Rule 16(d)(2) and the court’s inherent supervisory power, the district court precluded use of the evidence during the govern13 Although Gatto has been bemoaned as “lay[ing] down an inflexible rule — the government has an absolute right to call its lately acquired witness whatever the consequences to the administration of justice in other respects,” United States v. Schwartz, 857 F.2d 655, 660 (9th Cir. 1988) (Hupp, J., concurring), we disavow that it did create such an “absolute rule,” as we explain in text. As the majority in Schwartz itself recognized, a district court may exclude documents or witnesses for failure to comply with the court’s pretrial or discovery orders. See Schwartz, 857 F.2d at 659. UNITED STATES v. W. R. GRACE 5661 ment’s case in-chief. Id. at 1043. On the government’s § 3731 appeal, we held that the court lacked authority under either its supervisory power or Rule 16. As to the former, we emphasized that the government’s delay in disclosure had not violated “any constitutional provision, federal statute, specific discovery order, or any other recognized right except perhaps [R]ule 16.” Id. at 1046. There was no need to resort to the court’s inherent supervisory power to create any other remedy for a violation of Rule 16 because the rule itself contains specific remedies for its violation. See id. As to Rule 16, we expressly held that the government’s failure to disclose the documents earlier did not violate the rule because the stateheld documents were not in the government’s actual possession. Id. at 1049. Unlike Gatto, here the government would violate Rule 16 if it were to call expert witnesses who were not timely disclosed. Therefore, the district court may properly rely on its Rule 16 authority where appropriate to enforce its orders. As to the disclosures not mandated by Rule 16, the court has inherent authority to enforce its specific discovery order, which the government would violate if it were to call undisclosed nonexpert witnesses. First, with respect to the expert disclosures, the district court’s March 2005 order was well within the bounds of Rule 16, as we have already discussed. The government did not object to the order, but instead reserved to itself a right to supplement its disclosures through the close of evidence at trial. The district court had the authority under Rule 16(d)(2) to reject this unilateral reservation of rights and enforce the discovery requirements mandated by the rule; it did not need to resort to its inherent authority. Second, as to the March 2005 order’s mandate to disclose nonexpert witnesses, who do not come within the express terms of Rule 16, nothing in Gatto — or in Rule 16 itself, as we have discussed in Section III(A) — precludes a district court from relying on its inherent authority to order such witness disclosures or to enforce its order. As Gatto expressly noted, the government had not violated “any . . . specific discovery 5662 UNITED STATES v. W. R. GRACE order.” Id. at 1046. Here there was such an order, and if it is violated, the district court may exclude evidence as a sanction. Although there are limits to the district court’s inherent authority, the district court here is well within its authority to manage its docket in enforcing a valid pretrial discovery order. See United States v. Talbot, 51 F.3d 183, 187-88 & n.5 (9th Cir. 1995)(distinguishing Gatto and upholding exclusion of government witnesses for violation of pretrial disclosure order).