Opinion ID: 196719
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The District Court's Power to Dismiss

Text: 17 Serafino argues that the legitimate exercise of one's Fifth Amendment privilege can never justify dismissal of a civil claim--a contention not without force. The Supreme Court has stated that the Fifth Amendment guarantees ... the right of a person to remain silent unless he chooses to speak in the unfettered exercise of his own will, and to suffer no penalty ... for such silence. Spevack v. Klein, 385 U.S. 511, 514, 87 S.Ct. 625, 627, 17 L.Ed.2d 574 (1967) (quoting Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 8, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 1493-94, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964)) (emphasis added). The concept of penalty includes the imposition of any sanction which makes assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege 'costly.'  Id. at 515, 87 S.Ct. at 628 (quoting Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 614, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 1232-33, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965)). 18 Unconstitutional penalties for the invocation of the privilege have included disbarment of a lawyer, see Spevack, 385 U.S. at 516, 87 S.Ct. at 629; forfeiture of jobs by public employees, see Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 278, 88 S.Ct. 1913, ----, 20 L.Ed.2d 1082 (1968) and Uniformed Sanitation Men Ass'n v. Commissioner of Sanitation, 392 U.S. 280, 284-85, 88 S.Ct. 1917, 1919-20, 20 L.Ed.2d 1089 (1968); and imposition of substantial economic sanctions, see Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70, 82-83, 94 S.Ct. 316, 324-25, 38 L.Ed.2d 274 (1973). While automatic dismissal of a civil action could fall neatly within this category, see Wehling v. Columbia Broadcasting Sys., 608 F.2d 1084, 1087-88 (5th Cir.1979), we cannot agree that dismissal is always impermissible. See id. at 1087 n. 6 ([T]he district court is not precluded from using dismissal as a remedy to prevent unfairness to the defendant.). 19 The Supreme Court has indicated that the assertion of the privilege may sometimes disadvantage a party. See Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 318, 96 S.Ct. 1551, 1557-58, 47 L.Ed.2d 810 (1976) (allowing adverse inferences to be drawn from a civil party's assertion of the privilege); Flint v. Mullen, 499 F.2d 100, 104 (1st Cir.1974) ([N]ot every undesirable consequence which may follow from the exercise of the privilege against self-incrimination can be characterized as a penalty.). We think that in the civil context, where, systemically, the parties are on a somewhat equal footing, one party's assertion of his constitutional right should not obliterate another party's right to a fair proceeding. In other words, while a trial court should strive to accommodate a party's Fifth Amendment interests, see United States v. Parcels of Land, 903 F.2d 36, 44 (1st Cir.1990), it also must ensure that the opposing party is not unduly disadvantaged. See Gutierrez-Rodriguez v. Cartagena, 882 F.2d 553, 577 (1st Cir.1989) (affirming district court's refusal to allow defendant to testify at trial when he asserted Fifth Amendment privilege during discovery). After balancing the conflicting interests, dismissal may be the only viable alternative. 5 20 We reiterate that the balance must be weighed to safeguard the Fifth Amendment privilege: the burden on the party asserting it should be no more than is necessary to prevent unfair and unnecessary prejudice to the other side. See S.E.C. v. Graystone Nash, Inc., 25 F.3d 187, 192 (3d Cir.1994); Wehling, 608 F.2d at 1088. As correctly delineated by the district court in this case, the Fifth Amendment privilege should be upheld unless defendants have substantial need for particular information and there is no other less burdensome effective means of obtaining it. See Black Panther Party v. Smith, 661 F.2d 1243, 1272 (D.C.Cir.1981), vacated mem., 458 U.S. 1118, 102 S.Ct. 3505, 73 L.Ed.2d 1381 (1982) (enunciating similar balancing approach). Having determined that the district court could, within its discretion, dismiss this case, and that it utilized the proper balancing test, we now evaluate the balancing itself for abuse of discretion. See Parcels of Land, 903 F.2d at 44.