Carlucci v. Piper Aircraft Corp., Inc.

Decision Date12 November 1985
Docket NumberNo. 84-5576,84-5576
Citation775 F.2d 1440
PartiesClara CARLUCCI, individually and as Special Administrator of the Estate of Carlucci, Alberto, Deceased, Plaintiff, v. PIPER AIRCRAFT CORP., INC., a corp., Defendant, Francis A. Anania, Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Blackwell, Walker, Gray, Powers, Flick & Hoehl, James E. Tribble, Miami, Fla., for appellant.

Joseph W. Womack, Miami, Fla., A Ward Wagner, Mark Clark, Richard A. Kupfer, West Palm Beach, Fla., for plaintiff.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before FAY and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges, and HOFFMAN *, District Judge.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Francis A. Anania was attorney for the defendant, Piper Airlines, in this consolidated wrongful death action and was found by the court below to have acted in bad faith by inter alia, unilaterally terminating document production sessions ordered by the court and making conflicting representations as to the existence of certain documents. The district court gave Mr. Anania repeated warnings that his conduct was unacceptable and held out the possible imposition of sanctions in an attempt to secure his cooperation in the discovery process, but to no avail. Following settlement and entry of judgment for the plaintiff Carlucci on the claim underlying, the trial court issued a show cause order directing Anania to appear at a hearing to determine whether disciplinary action or sanctions should be imposed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 37. After holding the hearing and considering affidavits submitted on his behalf, the district court entered an order assessing Anania a $10,000 fine.

On appeal Anania presents us with four issues. He argues: 1) that the procedure followed by the court below imposing sanctions was in violation of the Local Rules of Disciplinary Enforcement enacted by the District Court for the Southern District of Florida; 2) that the imposition of sanctions was in violation of Anania's due process rights as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution; 3) that the findings of misconduct by the court below were not supported by legally sufficient evidence; and 4) that the amount of the sanction imposed was not supported by the record and was grossly excessive.

We find that as to issues 1), 2) and 3) there is no merit and we AFFIRM; as to issue 4) we must REVERSE AND REMAND solely to require the district court to provide support for the amount of fine or cost imposed as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 37.

I. Facts.

The facts that gave rise to this appeal are convoluted, constituting almost 2600 pages of record contained in twenty volumes. They accordingly must be set out at some length.

The initial pleadings in this case were filed in December of 1978. The subject of the lawsuit was the 1976 crash, in Ireland, of a plane manufactured by the defendant Piper Aircraft. In September of 1981 Clara Carlucci, representing the estate of her husband Alberto, a victim of the crash, filed requests for the production of a variety of documents in Piper's possession relating to the controversy. Piper, through Anania, objected to this request on several grounds, arguing that the documents were privileged and that production would impose an excessive burden. Carlucci filed a motion to compel discovery, and both sides submitted briefs on the issues to the district court. On December 31, 1981, the court, James C. Paine, J., entered an order listing categories of documents that were appropriate for production. Included were Piper's investigative reports. Those for accidents that occurred after the 1976 Ireland crash were expressly exempted from discovery.

Subsequent disputes between counsel impeded the production of any documents under the December 1981 order and required a hearing before Judge Paine on May 18, 1982. At that hearing, Anania was asked whether Piper, his client, had produced the requested accident reports. Anania replied:

Your Honor, I haven't produced any of the documents, because I was told such production would be unacceptable; and your honor, I see no practical reason to proceed with the compilation of all these documents if at some future time the plaintiff was going to reject it, and your honor was going to say go back and do it all over again.

At the end of the hearing, the court ordered Piper to produce the documents previously listed in the December 1981 order. Carlucci's counsel suggested meeting at Piper's plant in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to examine the originals of the documents and make copies of those needed. Piper agreed. The court instructed Carlucci's counsel to draft a proposed order containing the substance of the court's instructions to the parties at the hearing. This was done on June 2, with Piper submitting a letter on June 6 opposing the requirement that it produce the originals. Piper proposed to produce copies, and to make originals available for inspection if the copies were illegible. The district court's order was signed on June 11; it required the production of originals. Production was to begin on June 14 and to continue "until the production set forth herein is completed."

Lock Haven.

Anania claims not to have received the court's order until the morning of June 14, the day in which discovery was to begin. Copies of the requested documents had been assembled during the previous week, but the originals were scattered throughout various offices at the Lock Haven plant; Anania claimed Piper was too short of manpower to devote additional personnel to the task of recollecting all of the original documents. He offered to produce originals for copies which were not legible, but Carlucci was unsatisfied. Attempts to reach Judge Paine telephonically failed, leading Anania to contact Judge Malcolm Muir of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Judge Muir agreed to resolve the dispute if Carlucci filed a written motion and brief and if Piper filed a reply brief within three days. Carlucci did not pursue this course. Anania terminated the Lock Haven discovery session after only one day of production and of document marking by returning to Miami without explanation. He now argues that he terminated the production session because he had underestimated the time necessary for production and had conflicting commitments in Miami. He further argues that Carlucci suffered no prejudice as a result of receiving copies at the Lock Haven session, since none were challenged on authenticity grounds when the originals were finally produced at later discovery sessions in Chicago and West Palm Beach.

Based on the difficulties encountered at the Lock Haven session, Carlucci filed her first motion to impose sanctions and to strike Piper's answer. Piper filed a request for a hearing and for a status conference. No hearing was held, but a transcript of the Lock Haven session and briefs from both parties were considered by the court. On November 17, 1983, Judge Paine entered an order finding that both Piper and Anania had acted in bad faith in failing to comply with the June 11, 1982 discovery order.

Defendant's counsel ... shares, in large measure, the blame for noncompliance with this Court's order, for it was he who oversaw the proceedings in Lock Haven. His conduct during that session deviated from what could be characterized as legitimate and vigorous representation of one's client. He was uncooperative, verbally abusive to Plaintiffs' counsel, and obstructive, effectively thwarting the discovery demanded by Court order. This Court finds that he acted in bad faith ....

This order referred specifically to Anania's response to Judge Paine on May 18, 1982, concerning production of Piper's accident investigation reports, stating that Piper had not produced "any of the documents." The court found this response to be in conflict with a subsequent representation that no such reports existed, for the prior representation was taken to imply that the documents did in fact exist.

The court ordered sanctions imposed on Piper, including the completion of production of original documents at a time and place convenient to Carlucci's counsel. A ruling on sanctions against Anania, as distinct from Piper, was expressly reserved, "pending Plaintiffs' submission of expenses, including attorneys' fees, incurred as a direct result of the Lock Haven proceedings of June 14th and June 15th, 1982." Carlucci did not file an accounting of these expenses.

Piper filed three separate motions in response to Judge Paine's order. (1) A motion for rehearing was filed on November 28. This motion was denied by Judge William J. Campbell, Senior United States Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. 1 (2) A motion for reconsideration was filed on November 30. It too was denied for failure to specify any factual error. Judge Campbell reviewed the Lock Haven transcript and concluded that Judge Paine's findings were correct; he characterized the motion for reconsideration as a "delaying tactic." (3) An emergency motion for a stay, filed December 1, was heard and denied by Judge Campbell. This Court affirmed Judge Campbell's denial on appeal in an order entered on December 5, 1983.

Chicago.

A second production session began in Chicago on December 5, 1983. It continued for ten days, though not without dispute. The parties filed several motions with Judge Campbell, who ruled on them promptly. On December 16, another hearing was held before Judge Prentice H. Marshall of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Piper's motion to quash various subpoenas. The motion was granted and, according to Anania, the court directed that future discovery disputes should be resolved in the District Court in Florida. The court below characterized this venue ruling as simply a "suggestion" and further noted that Judge Marshall continued the hearing until ...

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