Allen v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., No. 2005-CA-01106-SCT.

• Decision Date: 27 July 2006
• Docket Number: No. 2005-CA-01106-SCT.
• Citation: 934 So.2d 1006
• Parties: Craig ALLEN v. NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

934 So.2d 1006

Craig ALLEN v. NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION.

No. 2005-CA-01106-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 27, 2006.

Teresa Earley Harvey, Madison, Samuel Jay Rosenthal, attorneys for appellant.

Kenneth David McLean, Senatobia, George H. Ritter, Jackson, attorneys for appellee.

Before COBB, P.J., CARLSON and GRAVES, JJ.

CARLSON, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Because the trial court dismissed his tort lawsuit for damages because of his repeated failure to disclose in discovery his prior back injury and workers' compensation claim, the plaintiff has appealed to us. Finding no error by the trial court, we affirm its judgment of dismissal.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE TRIAL COURT

¶ 2. Craig Allen was an assistant conductor for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). In 2001, Allen suffered a spinal injury while unloading baggage on the job in Jackson, and he thereafter sued Amtrak pursuant to the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), 45 U.S.C. §§ 51 et seq., in the Circuit Court for the First Judicial District of Hinds County. During discovery, Amtrak asked Allen if he had ever suffered a similar injury or filed a workers' compensation claim. In separate responses to Amtrak's inquiries propounded via interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and deposition questions, Allen denied that he had ever suffered a previous back injury or filed a workers' compensation claim.

¶ 3. Later, after the close of discovery, Amtrak learned that Allen not only had in fact previously suffered disc injuries to his lower back in the same location, but that Allen had also filed a claim and received a workers' compensation award for that earlier injury. This earlier injury had occurred in 1993 when Allen, a former police officer, was struck by a car while directing traffic. Because of Allen's false responses, given under oath, Amtrak filed for sanctions in the form of a motion to dismiss under the provisions of Miss. R. Civ. P. 37. Allen responded with a sworn affidavit, stating that the incident and injury were so minor, he had "honestly completely" forgotten about them. At the hearing on the Rule 37 motion, Allen's attorney noted that Allen was present if the trial judge needed to personally question him, but the judge found such interrogation unnecessary. The trial court found Allen's omission to be willful conduct which prejudiced Amtrak and found the deterrent value of Rule 37 could not be achieved by a less harsh result than that of dismissal. The trial court thus granted Amtrak's motion and dismissed Allen's case with prejudice.

¶ 4. On appeal to us, Allen complains that (1) there was insufficient evidence of willfulness or bad faith on his part to justify a dismissal of his lawsuit; (2) the FELA provides a clear preference for credibility determinations to be made by the fact-finder (jury); and, (3) Allen's due process rights were violated when he was not permitted to testify at the hearing before the trial judge.

DISCUSSION

I. EVIDENCE OF BAD FAITH AND WILLFULNESS

¶ 5. Reviewing another case with similar facts concerning discovery abuse resulting in dismissal with prejudice, we stated:

The decision to impose sanctions for discovery abuse is vested in the trial court's discretion. The provisions for imposing sanctions are designed to give the court great latitude. The power to dismiss is inherent in any court of law or equity, being a means necessary to orderly expedition of justice and the court's control of its own docket. Nevertheless, the trial court should dismiss a cause of action for failure to comply with discovery only under the most extreme circumstances.

Such dismissals by the trial court are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard. When this Court reviews a decision that is within the trial court's discretion, it first asks if the court below applied the correct legal standard. If the trial court applied the right standard, then this Court considers whether the decision was one of several reasonable ones which could have been made.

Pierce v. Heritage Props., Inc., 688 So.2d 1385, 1388 (Miss.1997) (internal citations omitted). "This Court will affirm a trial court's decision unless there is a `definite and firm conviction that the court below committed a clear error of judgment in the conclusion it reached upon weighing of relevant factors.'" Id. (quoting Cooper v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 568 So.2d 687, 692 (Miss.1990)). One certainty is that we are to give great deference in these cases to the trial judge's exercise of discretion. "Trial courts have considerable discretion in discovery matters and decisions will not be overturned unless there is an abuse of discretion." Scoggins v. Ellzey Beverages, Inc., 743 So.2d 990, 995 (Miss.1999); (quoting Robert v. Colson, 729 So.2d 1243, 1245 (Miss.1999)).

¶ 6. Allen argues on appeal, and argued at the trial court hearing on the matter, that his conduct was not willful, but rather that he merely forgot about his earlier injury and workers' compensation claim because this prior injury did not cause him much pain, did not cause him a significant loss of work, and did not diminish his ability to earn an income. Allen claims that the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing his lawsuit due to perceived discovery violations, while, on the other hand, Amtrak argues that under Miss. R. Civ. P. 37 and the court's inherent power to control its own docket, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting the motion to dismiss and that Allen's due process argument is procedurally barred because it was not raised in the trial court.

¶ 7. In addressing the issue of whether he willfully and in bad faith violated the discovery rules by not disclosing certain information, Allen does not argue that he actually disclosed all requested information to Amtrak, nor does he argue that his 1993 injury did not occur. In fact, Allen admits to the earlier injury and also to missing work and receiving worker's compensation awards for the earlier injury. Allen also admits that he failed to disclose any information in his discovery responses pertaining to the earlier injury. However, Allen argues that the record does not establish that his omissions were willful. Instead, Allen asserts that he innocently forgot about the incident. Because the trial judge dismissed his case with prejudice based on findings of bad faith and willfulness, Allen argues essentially that the punishment did not fit the crime and that other measures were available to the trial court to deal with what it found to be discovery violations. Amtrak argues that the trial court did not abuse its discretion with regard to this issue because the testimony and discovery responses from Allen were patently false and misleading and the result of willfulness and bad faith.

¶ 8. This Court has adopted the Fifth Circuit's four-part test for determining if a trial court, in dismissing a case with prejudice under Rule 37, has abused its discretion.¹

First, dismissal is authorized only when the failure to comply with the court's order results from wilfulness or bad faith, and not from the inability to comply. Dismissal is proper only in situation (sic) where the deterrent value of Rule 37 cannot be substantially achieved by the use of less drastic sanctions. Another consideration is whether the other party's preparation for trial was substantially prejudiced. Finally, dismissal may be inappropriate when neglect is plainly attributable to an attorney rather than a blameless client, or when a party's simple negligence is grounded in confusion or sincere misunderstanding of the court's orders.

Pierce, 688 So.2d at 1389 (quoting Batson v. Neal Spelce Assocs., 765 F.2d 511, 514 (5th Cir.1985) (internal citations omitted)). This Court found in Pierce that "the most severe sanctions provided by statute or rule must be available to a trial court in appropriate cases, not just to penalize those whose conduct may warrant such a sanction, but to deter those who might be tempted to engage in such conduct in the absence of a deterrent." Id. (relying on National Hockey League v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc., 427 U.S. 639, 643, 96 S.Ct. 2778, 2781, 49 L.Ed.2d 747 (1976)).

¶ 9. In granting the motion to dismiss, the trial court in this case relied on the Batson factors adopted by this Court in Pierce and found that all four factors had been satisfied and that the omission was willful conduct which caused the defendant prejudice. We review this four-part finding today looking only for an abuse of discretion by the trial judge.

¶ 10. Each party's version of the facts in this case naturally differs. Amtrak argues that the previous accident was significant and that Allen's failure to disclose it was deceit. Allen argues that the previous accident was not major and that he simply forgot about it during discovery because it was so minor. The information Amtrak obtained after the close of discovery revealed that, as a result of the 1993 accident, Allen had suffered a similar injury in the exact same spinal location (at vertebrae L4-L5 and at the L5-S1 joint) where his injury giving rise to this suit occurred. Allen was working as a police officer at the time and was struck by a car while directing traffic. Amtrak also learned that Allen had filed a claim with, and received an award from, the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission. Amtrak discovered medical records proving that, in 2000, Allen told his family physician about the 1993 incident. Amtrak pointed out that these medical records contradicted Allen's claim that the incident was insignificant because Allen told a doctor he quit the police force as a result of the severity of the injury. Amtrak also argues that Allen is unlikely to have forgotten something as significant as this 1993 accident when he was able to remember other seemingly smaller details about his work experience. Allen claimed in an...