Court Opinion

ID: 9730396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:11:18.031695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:06.200266
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GEIGER, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. If our system of judicial dispute resolution is to function effectively, it is crucial that the parties availing themselves of that system deal with each other in good faith. The rules that govern pretrial discovery were conceived to provide each side with full disclosure of the underlying facts in a case so that both sides can realistically evaluate the case. The days of trial by ambush should be long past, and complete disclosure should be the norm. In the present case, there is no doubt that the plaintiffs failed to set out the claimed future medical treatment or its anticipated cost in answers to the defendant’s interrogatories. The trial court evaluated that omission at the hearing on a properly made motion to bar and determined that the plaintiffs’ conduct required the sanction of barring the testimony. It is the trial judge who has the responsibility of managing the trial call. (Amoco Oil Co. v. Segall (1983), 118 Ill. App. 3d 1002, 1012.) It is the trial judge who has day-to-day familiarity with the parties’ conduct in the case and who can best decide if the discovery rules’ spirit is being respected. This court should intervene only if the trial court has clearly abused its discretion either in evaluating compliance with discovery (see Webb v. Angell (1987), 155 Ill. App. 3d 848, 860), or in setting proper sanctions when it has determined that there are discovery violations (Kubian v. Labinsky (1988), 178 Ill. App. 3d 191, 196). Here, the majority would find that the trial judge abused his discretion. With that finding it may, in fact, be ruling that, as a matter of law, production of a medical report to the defendant’s insurance company prior both to filing of litigation and to the defendant’s retention of counsel satisfies subsequent discovery related to all items so produced. I believe that that ruling is well beyond the scope of the existing rules. I am aware of no authority that an insured should be charged with knowledge of information in the hands of his insurance carrier. I also am unaware of authority that considers an insurance company to be an agent for its insured. Further, the supreme court rules do not provide for a party in litigation to answer interrogatories by sending copies to an insurance company which is not itself a party to the litigation. This court should not create a rule of law that the transfer of information to a defendant’s insurer satisfies the requirements of discovery and renders a trial court’s decision to the contrary an abuse of discretion. If the majority does not intend to create a new rule of law, I believe that it is then reevaluating the facts in the case and concluding that the trial court was wrong in its determination of the good faith of the plaintiff. In that case, I believe that the court ignores the applicable standard of review. I would find that there is sufficient evidence to support the lower court’s determination that there was a lack of good faith and would affirm the court’s discovery sanction.