Court Opinion

ID: 9739116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:09:03.501087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:10.080115
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
Our decision is postured entirely on procedure. For benefit of the Bar and Bench, these additional facets are presented:
1. Had the default judgment withstood the test of law, a hearing on damages to be awarded Aberle against Ringhau-sen was vital and was set below by the trial court. Due to this appeal, it never took place.
2. Aberle was an over-the-road truck driver. He suffered a severe injury to his back while unloading cargo in South Dakota on July 16, 1990.
3. Orchestrated by Ringhausen, a contract was entered into by two Minnesota corporations and one South Dakota corporation. Ringhausen was president and signed on behalf of both Minnesota corporations.
4. Since his injury date, Aberle has not worked; he has been virtually penniless since his injury and his wife and children have gained sustenance through food stamps.
5. Ringhausen’s sister, at his askance, was established as president of South Dakota Express, Inc.
6. At the bottom of this litigation, Aberle finds himself without worker’s compensation, a possible fraudulent transfer of the two Minnesota corporations into the South Dakota corporation, and Ringhausen claiming South Dakota has no personal jurisdiction over him. Furthermore, the two Minnesota corporations filed for bankruptcy.
To say the least, it is a civil quagmire within a legal jungle. Boggy ground complicated by reluctancy to produce.
Notwithstanding the technical aspect above, this case involves real live people. Today, in the law practice we see onerous interrogatories, produced by computers, often reflected in hundreds of interrogatories with subparagraphs and corresponding questions, dazzling the overworked attorney into a state of bewilderment and frustration. An attorney is turned into a detective to ferret out information to impale his own case. It can be costly effort and paralyze a single practitioner. Sometimes the attorney has the information, sometimes not. But like the tromp, tromp, tromp of the troops on a forced march, the discovery rules, SDCL 15-6-33(a) and SDCL 15-6-34(b) proceed ever onward. These rules express counsel . shall serve a written response ...” and “shall serve ... answers and objections within thirty days after the service of the request.” Here, however, there were only 28 interrogatories and a request to produce 13 pieces of evidence. At first blush, these certainly seem reasonable in nature. Notwithstanding, Ringhau-sen was reticent and resistant to produce.
Interrogatories are often abused in the practice of law. I fully appreciate that objections may be made to same. This requires a great deal of valuable time and expense for the recipient of immaterial interrogatories. Certain courts have refused to establish sanctions against an opponent who has not answered the interrogatories. One of the first cases I could find was Hodge v. Alabama Water Co., 205 Ala. 472, 88 So. 585 (1921). There, the unanswered interrogatories shed no light on any material issue in the case and the trial court, it was held, had not erred in refusing to enter judgment against the defendant for failure to answer. Accord: Anderson v. Stanwood, 178 Or. 306, 167 P.2d 315 (1946). It has been ruled, in California, see Laguna Auto Body v. Farmers Ins. Exchange, 231 Cal.App.3d 481, 282 Cal.Rptr. 530 (4th Dist.1991) that in providing punishment for actions described [in discovery rules] the Legislature has imposed a duty on parties to be forthright and honest in their attempts to reach the merits of their action. It appears that the courts are unwilling to impose sanctions on parties where the information, which one party *185compels the other to discover or find, is not discoverable information. This was so held in In re Marriage of Economou, 224 Cal.App.3d 1466, 274 Cal.Rptr. 473 (3rd Dist.1990). It was likewise held in Economou that discovery sanctions cannot be imposed to punish the offending party or to bestow an “unwarranted windfall” on the adversary. The Economou court cited to Deyo v. Kilbourne, 84 Cal.App.3d 771, 149 Cal.Rptr. 499 (2nd Dist.1978). In Deyo, it was held that the materiality of questions propounded to a particular claim or a defense should be considered as a factor in assessing the propriety of entering a dismissal or a default judgment for failure to answer. In other words, a good trial judge should look at what is being asked and its materiality before a default judgment is entered. Simply because, says this writer, a party does not answer the interrogatories, should not entitle a propounder to an automatic default judgment. An opposing parties’ right to demand information should be subject to a number of restrictions. As an example, a party could legitimately invoke the privilege against self-incrimination. Another restriction is simply that the information requested is not information which is available. You simply cannot disclose something of which you have not. Another restriction is that the requested information is so extensive that it cannot be assembled within the time allowed. There are many horror stories in the State of South Dakota concerning interrogatories which are told, oft over, by practicing lawyers and trial judges in this state. Interrogatories can subvert justice, rather than serve it.
In sum, interrogatories can be a great avenue towards bringing a case to settlement but they can also be abused to a point where a small law office can be brought to its knees by the use of computers. A trial judge should be wary of these 15 to 25 member law firms who exert unbearable pressure upon a one or two man law firm, asking the one or two man law firm to be a detective or a magician in answering questions which do not bear upon the guts of the lawsuit.
Judge Dobberpuhl is a seasoned trial judge and would have no part of Ringhau-sen’s civil disobedience. As the majority points out, there were lesser sanctions (other than striking the answer and defaulting Ringhausen on liability). It is very difficult for me to posit that Judge Dobberpuhl has clearly abused his discretion, especially in light of our holdings in Matter of Estate of Donahue, 464 N.W.2d 393 (S.D.1990) and Davis v. Kressly, 78 S.D. 637, 107 N.W.2d 5 (1961): A claimed abuse oí discretion is measured by the “objective reasonableness standard,” i.e., not if an appellate court would have made an original like ruling, but rather if a judicial mind, in view of the law and the circumstances of a particular case, could reasonably have reached such a conclusion. A turning point in my mind was the failure to set a specific date for compliance. However, Ringhausen, faced with sanctions, just one day before a hearing on sanctions did tender some response to (a) interrogatories and (b) motion to produce. Therebefore, he had produced nothing. It is generally recognized that a defendant should “... not be defaulted for failing to answer interrogatories or other discovery questions within the time allowed by law if answers [have] been filed at some point in the proceedings, even though the response [is] tardy.” John E. Theuman, Annotation, Judgment in Favor of Plaintiff in State Court Action for Defendant’s Failure to Obey Request or Order to Answer Interrogatories or Other Discovery Questions, 30 A.L.R.4th 9, 51 (1984). I notice that Judge Dobberpuhl ordered Ringhausen to pay $300.00 in terms on December 3, 1991. As of January, 1992, Ringhausen had not paid the $300.00. In the horse world, a horse is “ringy" if he won’t behave.