Court Opinion

ID: 9491473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:15:04.532732+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:45.737650
License: Public Domain

*1042CANBY, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The position of the majority is understandable; district courts must be able to manage their dockets, and conduct such as that of Sanders’ counsel cannot be tolerated. Dismissal, however, “is so harsh a penalty it should be imposed as a sanction only in extreme circumstances.” Thompson v. Housing Authority, 782 F.2d 829, 831 (9th Cir.1986). Although Sanders’ counsel was guilty of multiple failures, they all occurred at once as part of his general failure to be ready for the pretrial conference and trial. This is not a case where the court was met with repeated instances of dilatory behavior over a span of time, see id. at 832, nor has the litigation been inordinately delayed. In these circumstances, I believe that dismissal with prejudice was an abuse of discretion.
The dismissal was entered by the court sua sponte, whieh means that counsel should have been warned that a dismissal was imminent. See Oliva v. Sullivan, 958 F.2d 272, 274 (9th Cir.1992). A boilerplate warning in a preprinted order, distributed before any problem has arisen, does not advise counsel that dismissal is imminent.
The district court correctly pointed out that counsel’s failure to meet the schedule caused expense to Union Pacific and disruption of the court’s calendar. Monetary sanctions, however, can alleviate the first problem. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 16(f). A dismissal does not cure the disruption of the court’s calendar; it simply punishes. But it punishes Sanders, who has done no wrong, because of his attorney, who has. Monetary sanctions could be imposed on counsel alone.
The district court stated that “this case does not involve certain public policy considerations that would favor that the case be disposed of on its merits.” It is true that public agencies are not involved as they were in Dahl v. City of Huntington Beach, 84 F.3d 363 (9th Cir.1996), but there is a strong national policy behind the Federal Employers Liability Act, which is that railroads whose fault causes injury to its workers should be required to pay compensation. That policy is disserved by depriving Sanders of his day in court in order to punish his lawyer. I would therefore reverse and remand for the imposition of other sanctions.