Court Opinion

ID: 9687550
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:34:39.874668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:28.637407
License: Public Domain

SACKETT, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur with the majority in all respects. I write specially to further clarify my position. This case is far broader than a question of a continuance. It goes to the heart of the court’s responsibility to maintain and encourage civility and reasonable behavior among lawyers.
It is disappointing that plaintiff imposed on defendant’s forbearance in failing again and again to obtain and share the medical report plaintiff agreed to produce, and then saw fit to resist the motion for continuance defendant sought for an independent medical evaluation because plaintiff had not timely produced the report.
The dissent characterizes this case as our finding the trial court abused its discretion in denying a continuance in a case that had been pending for almost three years. The dissent also finds the trial court correctly considered the age of the case in refusing to grant the motion. I would have no problem accepting the dissent’s position if the delay had been caused by the party seeking the continuance. It was not. The majority of the delay was caused by plaintiff.
One party to a lawsuit should not be allowed to obtain the other’s cooperation and then throw that cooperation in their face. I recognize the need for efficient disposition of lawsuits, but the real question here is whether the result was just. I find it was not.
VOGEL, J., joins this special concurrence.
STREIT, J., dissents.