Court Opinion

ID: 9766654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:56:05.460249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:24.493253
License: Public Domain

JACK SMITH, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The plaintiff sought affirmative relief in the trial court for various misrepresentations made to her by her former lawyers with regard to their employment contract and the fee arrangement under the contract. She also requested that the trial court, by declaratory judgment, determine a reasonable fee for the lawyers’ services, under the alleged circumstances. By seeking affirmative relief through the courts, a plaintiff can properly be forced to choose between the claim of privilege and the abandonment of her lawsuit. See Henson v. Citizens Bank of Irving, 549 S.W.2d 446 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1977, no writ); Dewitt and Rearick, Inc. v. Ferguson, 699 S.W.2d 692 (Tex.App.—El Paso 1985, no writ). Once the trial court correctly determined that the questions were relevant to a material issue in the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s decision to persist in her fifth amendment *881claim of privilege was essentially a choice to abandon her lawsuit.
The plaintiff in this case was ordered by two trial judges to answer the deposition questions. Appellant’s deposition was taken under the supervision of the trial court on July 2, 1985. The visiting judge, Honorable Andrew Jefferson, ordered her at that time to answer the questions propounded which pertained to her participation in the murder of her mother and father. She refused. The defendants filed a motion to compel which was heard on August 2,1985, by the presiding judge of the 280th District Court, Honorable Thomas Phillips. Judge Phillips heard arguments on the motion and concurred that the questions were discoverable and entered an order compelling the plaintiff to answer, advising plaintiff that he intended to dismiss her lawsuit with prejudice if she failed to comply. After another hearing on August 16, 1985, on the defendants’ motion for sanctions, the trial court dismissed plaintiff’s lawsuit, with prejudice, by order of August 20, 1985.
The majority opinion appears to place the onus of determining the most prudent trial strategy for a plaintiff on the shoulders of the trial judge. The plaintiff here refused to comply with the orders of the trial court with clear notice as to the repercussions of her disobedience. She could have nonsuit-ed the case to avoid the dismissal with prejudice. She could also have amended her pleadings to eliminate her allegations of excessive and unreasonable attorneys’ fees. The plaintiff had options which she chose not to exercise. It did not then become the responsibility of the trial court to afford the plaintiff any additional alternatives or solutions to her predicament.
Under these circumstances, the trial court was authorized to dismiss the suit with prejudice. Tex.R.Civ.P. 215-2(b)(5). The majority accedes that the choice of appropriate sanctions is for the trial court. Its holding that the sanctions imposed exceeded the limits of the trial court’s discretion, however, amounts to the substitution of this Court’s judgment for the trial court’s. Such usurpation of the trial court’s judgment in the area of discovery sanctions has been disavowed by this Court. Southern Pacific Transportation Co. v. Evans, 590 S.W.2d 515 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1979, writ ref'd n.r. e.); Evans v. State Farm, 685 S.W.2d 765 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1985, writ ref’d n.r.e.). Here, the appellant chose the time to file her suit, she chose the forum in which to file her suit, and she chose to have her suit dismissed with prejudice even though she had been advised of the consequences and had other alternatives. The record contains no indication that the trial court acted either arbitrarily or unreasonably in imposing the sanction of dismissal with prejudice.
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.