Opinion ID: 1192522
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Imposition of a New Duty

Text: Here, OMI contends that an embracery tort does not impose any additional duties on a defendant/witness because a witness has a preexisting duty to avoid contact with jurors imposed on the witness by the criminal embracery statute, by the trial judge's admonition against juror contact, and by the ethical rules for attorneys. OMI reasons that when a reasonable duty already exists on a defendant, then Kansas law has no reason not to impose tort liability; thus, it should do so in this case. See Foster v. Lawrence Memorial Hosp., 809 F. Supp. 831, 838 (D. Kan. 1992). In Foster, the plaintiffs' son was injured and treated at Lawrence Memorial Hospital by Dr. Geist. Dr. Geist made some personal notes concerning the treatment he rendered. When their son died, the plaintiffs brought a medical malpractice action in federal court against Dr. Geist and Lawrence Memorial Hospital. After finding out that he might be sued, Dr. Geist prepared a chronology of events using his personal notes. He then threw away his personal notes. After becoming aware of this conduct, the plaintiffs amended their complaint, alleging that Dr. Geist negligently or intentionally destroyed his notes in violation of his common-law or statutory duty as set out in K.A.R. 100-24-1. Dr. Geist filed a motion for partial summary judgment on this claim, arguing that Kansas does not recognize a cause of action for intentional or negligent spoliation of evidence. Geist contended that he did not owe a duty to the plaintiffs to keep the notes intact because he did not agree to keep the notes, nor does K.A.R. 100-24-1 require a physician to keep personal notes. On the other hand, the plaintiffs contended that Geist owed them a duty based on the special doctor/patient relationship which existed between Geist and the victim of malpractice. Further, the plaintiffs contended that K.S.A. 60-427 (physician-patient privilege statute), the physician's code of ethics, and K.A.R. 100-24-1 all impose a duty on Geist to keep the notes. The Foster court pointed to the Koplin case in which this court stated: `We conclude that absent some independent tort, contract, agreement, voluntary assumption of duty, or special relationship of the parties, the new tort of `intentional interference with a prospective civil action by spoliation of evidence' should not be recognized in Kansas.' 809 F. Supp at 837. Based on this language, the Foster court concluded that the Kansas Supreme Court would recognize the tort of spoliation if the defendant already owes an independent duty to the plaintiffs to preserve the evidence and this duty is not a new common-law duty imposed on the defendant as a part of the tort. The court then found that K.A.R. 100-24-1 imposed an independent duty on Dr. Geist to retain the records of patients he treats. As such, it was a factual question for the jury to determine whether Dr. Geist breached this duty and committed the tort of spoliation of evidence. Thus, the court denied Dr. Geist's request for partial summary judgment on this issue. 809 F. Supp. at 838. Later, the district court held that the plaintiffs could not assert a claim for spoliation of evidence because they did not claim any damages which were distinct from the underlying medical malpractice claim. See Foster v. Lawrence Memorial Hosp., 818 F. Supp. 319, 322 (D. Kan. 1993). Thus, OMI argues that a new duty which is intolerably burdensome is not created by recognizing the embracery tort. According to OMI, the policy reason in Koplin which prevented this court from recognizing a spoliation tortthat the defendant did not owe a preexisting duty to the plaintiff to protect the evidence and that it would be too burdensome to impose such a new duty on the defendantis not implicated here. Here, OMI asserts that the defendant already owed a preexisting duty to refrain from juror contact imposed by the criminal embracery statute, the trial judge's admonition against juror contact, and the attorney ethical rules. Howell concedes that he does have a duty to refrain from improper jury contacts which is imposed on him by the criminal embracery statute, the trial judge's admonition against juror contact, and the attorney ethical rules. However, Howell contends that he only owes this duty to refrain from improper juror contact to the court, not to an adverse litigant. In support of this argument, Howell addresses each of the factors which impose a duty on him to refrain from juror contactthe criminal embracery statute, the judge's admonitions, and the attorney ethical rulesand evaluates whether these factors impose a duty on him which he owes to the court or to an adverse litigant such as OMI. First, Howell contends that the Kansas criminal embracery statute (K.S.A. 21-3815) imposes a duty on him which he only owes to the court, not to the litigants, because the purpose of such a statute is to protect the integrity of the court. See State v. Torline, 215 Kan. 539, 527 P.2d 994 (1974) ([O]ur [embracery] statute appears to have been designed to achieve twin goals of protecting a judicial officer in specific proceedings and to prevent a miscarriage of justice in cases which are or may be brought before such judicial officer.) See also State v. Reed, 213 Kan. 557, 560, 516 P.2d 913 (1973) (holding that K.S.A. 1972 Supp. 21-3806, which makes it an offense to corruptly influence a witness, is primarily designed to prevent the corrupt interference with the administration of justice.). In further support of Howell's position that the embracery statute imposes a duty on him which he only owes to the court and not to adverse litigants, Howell points out that there are a number of other duties which attorneys and witnesses only owe to the courts or to the public but do not owe to adverse litigants. For instance, Howell cites to Lewis v. Swenson, 126 Ariz. 561, 617 P.2d 69 (Ct. App. 1980). In Lewis, a woman had previously filed a medical malpractice action against a doctor. The doctor hired Seidel as his attorney and Seidel hired Swenson as an expert witness for the defense. In response to a direct examination question asked by Seidel, Swenson mentioned the high cost of medical malpractice insurance. The trial court granted a mistrial. The woman died, and the person appointed as the woman's personal representative brought this action. The plaintiff sued the expert witness (Swenson) for intentionally or recklessly disclosing prejudicial information to the jury and sued the attorney (Seidel) for negligently failing to instruct the witness to refrain from disclosing prejudicial information to the jury. The plaintiff sought to recover as damages the money spent on the medical malpractice trial and the money originally claimed as damages in the malpractice action. The plaintiff's complaint alleged that the attorney, Seidel, owed a duty to the opposing party in the original lawsuit and to the court to prevent his expert witness from testifying about prejudicial and inadmissible information. Further, the complaint alleged that the expert, Swenson, owed a duty to the opposing party to refrain from mentioning information which the expert knew was prejudicial and inadmissible. The trial court granted the defendants' motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The Arizona Court of Appeals found that even if an attorney and a witness had a duty to refrain from presenting insurance information to the jury, this duty was owed only to the court, not to the adverse party. The court held that a breach of the attorney's or the witness' duty owed to the court would not give rise to tort action by the adverse party. Thus, using this case as an analogy, Howell contends that the criminal embracery statute imposed a duty on him to refrain from juror contact which he only owed to the court, not to the adverse litigant OMI. We agree. Further, Howell contends that the federal embracery statute could not have imposed a duty on him to refrain from contacting jurors which he owed to OMI because the federal courts do not recognize an implied civil action for embracery based on a violation of that statute. See Odell v. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 201 F.2d 123 (10th Cir. 1953), cert. denied 345 U.S. 941 (1953) (finding that federal embracery statute was passed in the interest of the public). This argument is irrelevant because the federal district court ruled that Kansas substantive law applies to Howell. If the federal court should later determine that Kansas law does not apply, the federal court can determine what the federal law is regarding embracery. Next, Howell contends that the district court's admonition against juror contact only imposed a duty on him which he owed to the court, not to the adverse party. In support of this argument, the defendant cites Hendrix v. Consolidated Van Lines, Inc., 176 Kan. 101, 269 P.2d 435 (1954). In Hendrix, the plaintiff sued Consolidated Van Lines for personal injury based on a car accident. The appellee in this case, American Automobile Insurance Company and Associated Indemnity Company (insurance companies) were not involved in the personal injury action in any way. However, in the 3 months before the personal injury trial, the insurance companies published, in two widely distributed magazines, a series of full-page ads which discouraged future jurors from awarding large damage awards so that insurance premiums would not rise. The plaintiff of the personal injury action filed a motion for the insurance companies to appear and show cause why they should not be held in indirect contempt of court, alleging that the companies' actions constituted jury tampering. The trial court found the insurance companies were not guilty of indirect contempt of court. The plaintiff appealed. The insurance companies filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that the contempt charged is criminal in nature, not civil, and that no appeal lies from a judgment of not guilty of criminal contempt. 176 Kan. at 106. While Hendrix is not directly on point, it discusses a judge's power to punish a nonparty for jury tampering through contempt proceedings. This court found that such punishment is criminal in nature because it is imposed to protect the government, the people, the administration of justice, and the dignity of the court; the punishment is not given to protect the adverse litigant. Thus, it makes sense that if a judge is admonishing (instead of punishing) a nonparty from participating in jury tampering, the admonition would also be entered to protect the government, the people, the administration of justice, and the dignity of the court, and not meant to protect the adverse litigant. Since this is the case, then the judge's admonition against juror tampering would only place a duty on the witness to refrain from jury tampering owing to the court and not to the adverse party. Finally, Howell concedes that as a witness/attorney, the attorney ethics rules imposed a duty on him to refrain from juror contact. However, Howell again contends that he only owed this duty to the court and not to the adverse party. In support of this argument, the defendant cites Nelson v. Miller, 227 Kan. 271, 607 P.2d 438 (1980). The defendants/attorneys in Nelson had previously filed a malpractice action against the plaintiff/doctor on behalf of a third party. Upon conclusion of the malpractice action, the doctor filed this action against the attorneys who filed the malpractice action, alleging negligence and malicious prosecution of a civil action. The district court granted the attorneys' motions to dismiss the action for failure to state a claim. The district court held that the doctor did not have a claim against the attorneys based on negligence because the attorneys had not been employed by the doctor. This court addressed whether the district court properly dismissed the doctor's claim based on negligence. In his petition, the doctor alleged that the attorneys were negligent because they failed to investigate the claim against him and because they continued to prosecute the claim knowing that it was unjust and without merit. In support of his negligence claim, the doctor pointed to DR 7-102(A) of the Code of Professional Conduct (now MRPC 3.1 [1995 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 308]), which prohibits an attorney from asserting claims which the attorney knows are groundless. This court pointed to the general rule that an attorney can only be held liable for negligence to a client who the attorney has a contract with or to a third-party beneficiary of the contract. Typically, an attorney is not liable for negligence to a nonclient or nonbeneficiary because the attorney's paramount and exclusive duty is to his or her client. 227 Kan. at 287. This court upheld the rationale that a lawyer's duty must be to his or her client alone and there is no room for any duty running to the client's adversary. 227 Kan. at 287. In affirming the district court's dismissal of the negligence claim, this court held that a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility does not alone create a cause of action against an attorney in favor of a third party. 227 Kan. at 289. Based on this case, Howell contends that if the Code of Professional Responsibility (now MRPC 3.5[b] [1995 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 317]), which prohibits attorney contact with jurors, imposed a duty on him at all while he was acting as a witness, it was a duty he owed to the court and not to the adverse litigant, OMI. However, OMI contends that Nelson is distinguishable. OMI points out that the defendant's duty as an expert witness, who was not representing a client, cannot be compared to the exclusive duty owed by an attorney to a client. OMI contends that the Code of Professional Responsibility imposed on the witness/attorney, Howell, a duty not to contact jurors which Howell owed to both the party who hired him and the adverse litigant. Thus, according to OMI, civil liability against Howell can be based on this duty. We do not agree. The attorney ethics rules do not impose a duty on a witness, owing to an adverse litigant, to refrain from juror contact. This is because most witnesses are not also lawyers and the attorney ethics rules would not apply to them at all; thus, the rules could not impose a duty on them. It is true that the ethics rules applied to Howell because he was not only an expert witness but was also an attorney. However, Howell was acting as a witness and all witnesses, whether or not they are attorneys, should owe the same duties to the adverse party. Since the ethics rules do not place a duty on the nonlawyer witness owing to the adverse litigant, then the rules should not place a duty on the attorney/witness owing to the adverse litigant. Any duty which the ethics rules impose on an attorney/witness is owed to the court. More importantly, an attorney's violation of the ethics rules cannot create a cause of action available to adverse litigants or even to clients. This is because the ethics rules do not impose a legal duty on the attorney owing to either a client or a third party. Occasionally, attorney conduct which violates an ethics rule may also violate an independent legal duty, and a cause of action may ensue. It is the violation of the independent legal duty, not the ethics rule, that gives rise to a cause of action. This is made clear by Rule 226, Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Scope of Rules, which states: Violation of a Rule should not give rise to a cause of action nor should it create any presumption that a legal duty has been breached. The Rules are designed to provide guidance to lawyers and to provide a structure for regulating conduct through disciplinary agencies. They are not designed to be a basis for civil liability. Furthermore, the purpose of the rules can be subverted when they are involved by opposing parties as procedural weapons. The fact that a Rule is a just basis for a lawyer's self-assessment, or for sanctioning a lawyer under the administration of a disciplinary authority, does not imply that an antagonist in a collateral proceeding or transaction has standing to seek enforcement of the Rule. Accordingly, nothing in the Rules should be deemed to augment any substantive legal duty of lawyers or the extra-disciplinary consequences of violating such a duty. Rule 226 (1995 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 249).