Court Opinion

ID: 9664581
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:21:51.499699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:07.400578
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. The offending conduct in this case, failure to timely deliver a subfile pursuant to discovery, may well have been inadvertent, or, at worst, neglectful. As best I can determine, it was not onerous to appellee and did not impede the progress of the trial. Yet the trial court struck the pleadings of the appellant, leaving it defenseless and vulnerable to claims for compensatory and punitive damages. Before the harshest sanction possible under the law is imposed there ought to be a stronger showing of culpability than I can glean from this record. Because I regard the penalty as seriously disproportionate to the offense, I respectfully dissent.