Court Opinion

ID: 9857838
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:03:04.533539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:46:37.079747
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Justice (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
Use of summary judgment procedures in lieu of the procedures available and rule 134, Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure, seems to me to have prevented an adequate determination of whether a plaintiff’s refusal to answer discovery questions on grounds of self-incrimination can result in judgment against him. This procedural mistake (or devise) on the part of the defendant seems to me to make much of the analysis in Justice Rawlings’ dissent premature.
When a party refuses to subject himself to discovery procedures the other side has an appropriate remedy. Rule 134, R.C.P. provides full power in the court to consider the situation and take appropriate action. Actions by the court authorized in rule 134(b)(2), R.C.P. include ordering the matters subject to inquiry to be taken to be established, prohibiting the recalcitrant party from supporting or opposing designated claims or defenses, prohibiting introduction of certain evidence, striking pleadings, staying proceedings until the order is obeyed, dismissing the action or any part of it, or entering judgment by default.
Of course, all these things must be done in a manner consistent with constitutional mandates including Amendments 5 and 14 to the Constitution of the United States. The procedures contemplated in rule 134, R.C.P. allow for orderly determination of what, if anything, can or should be done when a party “takes the 5th” during the course of discovery proceedings. Substitution of a motion for summary judgment changes the issues and effectively eliminates much of the discretion lodged in the court by rule 134, R.C.P. Such action should not be tolerated.
As Justice Rawlings’ dissent makes plain, the consequences of asserting 5th Amendment rights in discovery proceedings con“stitute'a complicated field. See 4 Moore, Federal Practice, section 26.22(5). I would reverse the summary judgment and remand this case for procedure under rule 134, R.C. P. and for such other action as would be consistent therewith.