Court Opinion

ID: 9796030
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:45:55.985104+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:44:30.983867
License: Public Domain

McFarland, C.J.,
concurring in the result: I join Justice Davis’ opinion which also concurs in the result.
I agree with Justice Davis that the relief granted in this case is appropriate. As Justice Davis explained, Kline’s failure to leave a *430complete set of records and investigative materials for the incoming Attorney General hampered his successor’s ability to determine his course of action with regard to the investigation. Accordingly, requiring Kline and his employees to provide the Attorney General with a full and complete set of all of the records and investigative materials gathered or generated by Kline and his employees in the abortion-related investigation while he was the Attorney General and during his tenure as the Johnson County District Attorney is warranted. However, I strongly disagree with characterizing this relief as a sanction imposed under our inherent power to sanction bad faith conduct.
First, as Justice Davis explains, the order directing Kline — a public official — to perform his duty and restore to tire present Attorney General copies of the records to which he is rightfully entitled is wholly consistent with the type of relief available in mandamus. Moreover, as the majority even notes, it is the very relief requested by the Attorney General. Lastly, as noted above, it is decidedly warranted under the facts of this case.
We must be mindful that our inherent power to sanction is to be exercised with restraint and caution. Knutson Mortgage Corp. v. Coleman, 24 Kan. App. 2d 650, 652, 951 P.2d 548 (1997). “Because inherent powers are shielded from direct democratic controls, they must be exercised with restraint and discretion.” Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper, 447 U.S. 752, 764-65, 65 L. Ed. 2d 488, 100 S. Ct. 2455 (1980); see Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. 32, 44, 115 L. Ed. 2d 27, 111 S. Ct. 2123 (1991) (“Because of their very potency, inherent powers must be exercised with restraint and discretion.”); see also United States v. McCall, 235 F.3d 1211, 1216 (10th Cir. 2000) (The bad faith exception to the rule prohibiting assessment of attorney fees in the absence of a statute “is drawn veiy narrowly and may be resorted to ‘only in exceptional cases and for dominating reasons of justice.’ ”); Dubois v. United States Dept. of Agriculture, 270 F.3d 77, 80 (1st Cir. 2001) (“[T]he power to sanction must be used with great circumspection and restraint, employed only in compelling situations.”).
In this case, the relief denominated as sanctions is the relief requested, warranted, and available in this mandamus action. Un*431der these circumstances, there is no compelling need, nor are there any dominating reasons of justice, to invoice our extraordinary inherent power to sanction. Cf., Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. at 50 (where bad faith conduct can be adequately sanctioned under other rules, the court ordinarily should rely on the rules rather than its inherent power to sanction). That being so, it is not appropriate to invoke our inherent power to order this relief.
Second, even if there were an extraordinary and compelling need to invoke our inherent power to sanction, doing so would have to be conditioned upon a finding that Kline acted in bad faith. In this case, however, the majority invokes our inherent power without making any finding that Kline engaged in bad faith conduct. It is well settled that a specific finding of bad faith is a prerequisite to the imposition of sanctions under the court’s inherent power. Roadway Express, Inc., 447 U.S. at 767 (a specific finding that the conduct at issue constituted bad faith must precede any sanction under the court’s inherent powers); see also Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. at 49 (recognizing that the Court held in Roadway Express that a finding of bad faith is a prerequisite to invocation of the court’s inherent power to sanction); Knutson Mortgage Corp., 24 Kan. App. 2d at 654 (quoting Roadway Express, Inc., 447 U.S. at 767) (“The Supreme Court made clear in Roadway that a specific finding as to whether counsel’s conduct constituted bad faith would have to precede any sanction under the court’s inherent powers.’ ”).
There is no finding that the conduct that the majority sanctions was committed in bad faith. Absent a specific finding of bad faith conduct, the court cannot impose sanctions under our inherent power.
Third, even if there was a finding of bad faith conduct, the sanction imposed bears no relationship to the majority of the conduct the court cites as the basis for the sanction. A sanction imposed under a court’s inherent power is punitive in nature and, thus, must necessarily be connected to and remediate the results of the bad faith conduct. As the United States Supreme Court has stated, “[a] primary aspect” of the requirement that inherent powers be exercised with restraint and discretion, “is the ability to fashion an *432appropriate sanction for conduct which abuses the judicial process.” Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. at 44-45.
While the sanction imposed by the majority requires Kline to provide copies of records and investigative materials to the Attorney General, the laundry list of Kline’s conduct cited by the court as justification for imposing the sanction bears virtually no relationship to Kline’s failure to leave the incoming Attorney General a full and complete set of the records and investigative materials. Instead, the majority’s grievances with Kline’s conduct focus on the perception that Kline and his subordinates have shown a lack of respect for the court and the rule of law, disregarded “the clear import of the court’s directions,” (287 Kan. at 422), persisted in the attitude and behavior previously identified as problematic in Alpha Med. Clinic v. Anderson, 280 Kan. 903, 128 P.3d 364 (2006), and maximized jeopardy to the balance between the patients’ privacy rights and law enforcement interests. Specifically, the conduct the majority identifies as justification for sanctions includes the following: evasive, ignorant and incomplete answers in the fact-finding process and during oral argument; deflecting responsibility and accountability for the actions of his subordinates; and orchestrated confusion concerning the extent of his control over Dr. McHugh.
In comparison, the only conduct mentioned by the majority that relates to the failure to leave a set of records for the incoming Attorney General is Kline’s taking of the Women’s Health Care Services of Wichita, P.A. (WHCS) records to Johnson County, the failure of Kline or Stephen Maxwell to correct the Status and Disposition Report to show the WHCS records were taken to Johnson County, and the failure to reveal that he had created summaries of the records. It must also be noted that the majority specifically declines to impose sanctions on Kline for the conduct of which CHPP complains — Kline’s handling of the records during the transfer from the Attorney General’s office to tire Johnson County District Attorney office and on access and dissemination of the records and their content once they were in Kline’s hands. 287 Kan. at 419.
This disconnect between the sanction imposed and the conduct that serves as the majority’s justification for sanction, coupled with *433the fact that the sanction the majority fashions could simply be ordered as relief in this mandamus action, reveals that the majority is more interested in reprimanding Kline for his attitude and behavior in the course of this litigation than in remediating the failure to leave a complete set of the investigation records for the incoming Attorney General. It appears to me that the majority invokes our extraordinary inherent power to sanction simply to provide a platform from which it can denigrate Kline for actions that it cannot find to have been in violation of any law and to heap scorn upon him for his attitude and behavior that does not rise to the level of contempt. This is the very antithesis of “restraint and discretion” and is not an appropriate exercise of our inherent power.
Lastly, I strongly disagree with the last paragraph of the majority opinion. In that paragraph, the majority notes that “further instances of Kline’s improper conduct . . . may yet come to light,” and warns that, if it does, such conduct may merit contempt, discipline up to and including disbarment, or other sanctions. 287 Kan. at 425. This vague statement seems to anticipate and encompass the discovery of additional past or future misconduct.
What is the point of this paragraph? Upon compliance with the simple requirements of the “sanction” imposed, the case is over, done, finished. I believe it is inappropriate to set forth, as if to threaten the respondent with, the various penalties that could be imposed if some past or future hypothetical misconduct should “come to fight” at a later date.