Court Opinion

ID: 9574400
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:04:41.222974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:28.632373
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result of the majority opinion. While I agree with the majority that a party “who gives an incorrect, yet, unsupple-mented, answer is properly subject to sanction,” I write separately to question the use of inherent powers, rather than the discovery rules, to justify the sanction imposed in this case. I would say that NDRCivP 37(d) is a preferable authorization for the sanction for a “complete” failure to timely disclose an item of evidence, like the premarital agreement in this case, when any reasonable interpretation of the relevant interrogatory clearly called for it.
There are limits to a court’s inherent powers where rules of civil procedure apply. See Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States, 487 U.S. 250, 254, 108 S.Ct. 2369, 2373, 101 L.Ed.2d 228 (1988) (holding that a court cannot rely on supervisory power to avoid the clear mandate of a procedural rule); United States v. One 1987 BMW 325, 985 F.2d 655, 661-62 (1st Cir.1993) (where FRCivP 37 proper mechanism for parties when discovery stalled, order striking appellant’s claim without Rule 37 analysis reversed). Compare Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. 32, 50-51, 111 S.Ct. 2123, 2136, 115 L.Ed.2d 27 (1991) (allowing use of inherent powers where procedural rules did not limit the nature of the sanction that could be imposed). When the discovery rules identify the sanctions that can be imposed, a court may not properly use its inherent powers to circumvent the NDRCivP’s specific directions.
NDRCivP 37(d) says: “If a party ... fails: ... (2) to serve answers or objections to interrogatories submitted under Rule 33, after proper service of the interrogatories; ... the court ... may make such orders in regard to the failure as are just, and among others it may take any action authorized under paragraphs (A), (B) and (C) of subdivision (b)(2).” A direct order by the court, as required for sanctions under NDRCivP 37(a) and (b), is not a prerequisite to imposition of a sanction under NDRCivP 37(d).
Unless there has been a complete failure to respond or object to the interrogatory set, this court in prior decisions has avoided discussing the potential application of NDRCivP 37(d). See Benedict v. St. Luke’s Hospitals, 365 N.W.2d 499 (N.D.1985) (failure to disclose intended reliance on certain published medical standards in an answer to supplemental interrogatory); Dewitz by Nuestel v. Emery, 508 N.W.2d 334, 339 (N.D.1993) (failure to make “a full, thorough and complete” supplemental answer to interrogatories about the substance of the testimony of the party’s expert). The majority opinion in this case avoids that analysis, too, by observing in footnote 4, with little discussion, that “a party’s evasive or incomplete answers to some interrogatories[ ] properly are addressed under Rule 37(a) and (b), not Rule 37(d).”
Rule 37(a)(3) says:
Evasive or incomplete answer. For purposes of this subdivision an evasive or incomplete answer is to be treated as a failure to answer.
The limiting clause in 37(a), “[f]or purposes of this subdivision,” contrasts with Rule *63937(d)’s concern with “total noncomplianee.” See FRCivP 37 advisory committee’s note on the 1970 Amendment to Rule 37(d), reprinted in Federal Civil Judicial Procedure and Rules at 153 (West 1994). Still, the distinction between “total noncompliance” and “an evasive or incomplete answer” is not absolute. It hardly matters when there is a full trial with the rejection sanction of a single item of undisclosed evidence, and not the extreme sanction of default or dismissal.
One commentator explains:
In the case of failure to answer interrogatories, or respond to a request for inspection, the question as to whether there has been a failure to answer is not always so easily decided. When no answers at all are forthcoming, the party served with the interrogatories or requests is obviously derelict and within the coverage of Rule 37(d). When the only response to a set of interrogatories was the statement “unable to respond,” the court held that such an answer was no answer at all and sanctiona-ble under Rule 37 as a refusal to answer. Short of this, however, are answers which have been served but are false, evasive or inadequate, not sworn, or late. Further, since normally interrogatories and requests are served in sets, the party served with the set may serve answers, but for one reason or another fail to answer one or more individual items. The nice distinction between conduct warranting sanctions under (d) and conduct requiring an order of the court under (a) before sanctions can be applied, has not always been made, but is often unnecessary because only rarely is an action actually dismissed, or a default judgment entered, without giving the delinquent party an opportunity to answer. This matter was made less important by the 1970 amendments, for while it seems that relief as to failure to answer or object to a particular interrogatory or request falls under Rule 37(d) and permits the immediate imposition of sanctions, the range of sanctions is much wider.
4A Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 37.05, pp. 37-125 et. seq. (2d ed. 1994) (footnotes omitted). In a case like this, where there is absolutely no reason for the interrogating party to seek an order to compel an answer, Lawrence’s spurious objection and claim of a non-existent privilege was more like “no answer at all” than an incomplete answer, when it failed to disclose a key item that Lawrence sought to rely on at the trial.
NDRCivP 37(d)(2) expressly refers back to 37(b)(2) for permissible sanctions under paragraphs (A), (B), and (C), but not (D) and (E). NDRCivP 37(b)(2)(B) specifically authorizes an order “prohibiting that [disobedient] party from introducing designated matters in evidence.” Other courts have approved a Rule 37(d) sanction for incomplete or evasive answers that are so obvious or willful that they justify sanction without a prior court order. See Fox v. Studebaker-Worthington, Inc., 516 F.2d 989, 992-93 (8th Cir.1975); Airtex Corp. v. Shelley Radiant Ceiling Co., 536 F.2d 145, 155 (7th Cir.1976) (“answers were evasive and incomplete and appear to have been framed to impede discovery rather than to facilitate it;” and “when, as here, the fact that answers to interrogatories are evasive or incomplete cannot be determined until further proceedings have been conducted to obtain the information later determined to have been withheld, the evasive or incomplete answers are tantamount to no answer at all, and rule 37(d) is applicable”); Barker v. Bledsoe, 85 F.R.D. 545, 548-49 (W.D.Okla.1979) (FRCivP 37(d) sanction prohibited plaintiff from using at trial any evidence, opinion, or inference arising from an autopsy where plaintiff failed to supplement “somewhat remiss” and late answers to interrogatories that failed to disclose autopsy report); Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. v. Eco Chem, Inc., 757 F.2d 1256 (Fed.Cir.1985) (“unable to respond,” no answer at all). The reasons for these decisions is that, otherwise, a deliberate abuse would go unpunished.
For these reasons, I would affirm the trial court’s refusal to enforce the premarital agreement on NDRCivP 37(d) grounds, rather than inherent powers of the trial court. In all other respects, I join in the majority opinion.