Court Opinion

ID: 9757582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:48:31.079107+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:41.277228
License: Public Domain

FARRELL, Associate Judge,
concurring.
I agree with my colleagues’ rejection of the District’s argument in behalf of a set-off for *1082expenses and with their resolution of the issue of attorney’s fees. I further agree that the trial court’s cancellation of the real estate taxes due on the property was improper, but I would rest that determination explicitly on an abuse of discretion, rather than on a conclusion that the trial court exceeded its “jurisdiction” in nullifying the back taxes as a sanction.
The trial court’s November 23, 1992 order is clear: “by way of sanction, ... no real estate taxes are [to be considered] owed with respect to the property that is the subject of this action.” The trial court nullified the tax arrearage attached to the property because of the District’s failure to make timely discovery under Super.Ct.Civ.R. 37 of the amount of taxes then due. In effect the court treated “the matter[ ] regarding which the [discovery] order was made” — namely, whether taxes were due on the property and, if so, in what amount — as “established for the purposes of the action.... ” Rule 37(b)(2)(A).1
The choice of sanction for a discovery violation lies within the trial court’s sound discretion, and this court is reluctant to second-guess that decision. But in this ease the judge’s cancellation of the tax liability was greatly disproportionate to the government’s foot-dragging in discovery, and ignored lesser remedies available such as the threat of contempt. See Rule 37(b)(2)(D). As the Supreme Court has stated, “[T]axes are the life blood of government, and their prompt and certain availability an imperious need.” Bull v. United States, 295 U.S. 247, 259, 55 S.Ct. 695, 699, 79 L.Ed. 1421 (1935). The anti-injunction statute, D.C.Code § 47-3307 (1990 repl.), reflects this principle. It is unnecessary for us to decide, however, whether that statute deprived the trial court of “jurisdiction” to deem the non-existence of a tax liability conceded as a discovery sanction.2 At the least, the statute makes clear that any such nullification of a tax is an extreme remedy available only as a last resort. The trial judge here, for example, could have directed the District to supply the missing tax information by a date certain under pain of contempt. That sanction would have been far more commensurate with its laggardness in discovery than cancelling a decade’s worth of real estate taxes.
My colleagues are thus correct that the judge retains discretion on remand “to fashion an appropriate discovery remedy short of ‘cancellation’ of the taxes.” Ante at 1080 (emphasis added). The latter remedy is not open to him, at least so long as others are available.

. Having cancelled the real estate taxes due as a discovery sanction, the judge then logically went on to grant summary judgment to appellees on that point. The District noted a timely appeal from that judgment, and thus the issue is properly before us of whether the judge abused his discretion in his choice of sanction.

. D.C.Code § 47-3307 provides that ‘‘[n]o suit shall be filed to enjoin the assessment or collection by the District of Columbia or any of its officers, agents, or employees of any tax.” The proceedings in this case are difficult to describe as such a “suit.” The District sued to quiet title on the subject property; appellees counterclaimed to have the tax deed declared void, and were successful. On remand they sought to learn in discovery what taxes were due on the property, if any, and the sanction arose from the District's noncompliance with that request. My colleagues, in holding that § 47-3307 denied the trial court power altogether — jurisdiction—to treat the absence of a tax liability as conceded, cite Crenshaw County Private Sch. Found. v. Connally, 474 F.2d 1185 (5th Cir.1973), cart. denied, 417 U.S. 908, 94 S.Ct. 2604, 41 L.Ed.2d 212 (1974). But that case involved a suit to enjoin the IRS from withdrawing the plaintiff's tax-exempt status. The proceedings were thus “directly involved with the assessment and collection of taxes from [plaintiff] and those making contributions to it”; if the injunction were issued, "any assessment or collection of ... increased taxes [would] be prohibited.” Id. at 1188. Whether treating a party's assertion that no taxes are due as conceded upon violation of discovery is tantamount to a suit to enjoin the assessment or collection of taxes is by no means obvious, nor need we decide the issue here.