Lafleur v. Teen Help, No. 02-4160.
| Decision Date | 03 September 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-4160.,No. 02-4161.,No. 02-4177. |
| Parties | Debbie Lafleur, for herself and Sarah M. Gann, a minor, by and through her Guardian Ad Litem, Debbie LaFleur, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Teen Help, a partnership; Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs, a corporation; Resource Realizations, a corporation; R&B Billing, a corporation; Dixie Contract Services, a corporation; Teen Escort Services, a corporation; Robert B. Lichfield; Karr Farnsworth; Brent M. Facer; Jay Kay; David Gilgrease, Defendants-Appellees. Stanley Goold, III; Stanley Goold, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Teen Help, a partnership; Paradise Cove; Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs, a corporation; Resource Realizations, a corporation; R&B Billing, a corporation; Dixie Contract Services, a corporation; Teen Escort Services, a corporation; Brian Viafanua; Newton Pratt; Robert B. Lichfield; Karr Farnsworth; Brent M. Facer, Defendants-Appellees. Nadia Doubinin, for herself, and Alex Doubinin, a minor, by and through his Guardian Ad Litem, Nadia Doubinin, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Teen Help, a partnership; Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs, a corporation; Resource Realizations, a corporation; R&B Billing, a corporation; Dixie Contract Services, a corporation; Teen Escort Services, a corporation; Youth Programs International, a corporation; Ken Kay; Robert B. Lichfield; Karr Farnsworth; Brent M. Facer, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Thomas M. Burton, West Jordan, UT, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Fred R. Silvester and Spencer Siebers of Silvester & Conroy, L.C., Salt Lake City, UT, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before KELLY, ANDERSON, and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.
We consider these three cases together because they are all based on similar facts, they all name substantially the same defendants, and the same attorney represents all plaintiffs. In each case, the respective plaintiffs' claims were dismissed by the district court and all plaintiffs appeal. Our jurisdiction arises from 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm the judgments entered in all three cases.1
Defendants operated residential facilities for treatment of teenagers with behavioral and other problems. Each of the parent-plaintiffs had a teenaged child who was placed in a facility. Plaintiffs claim that the children were abused there. The LaFleur and Doubinin plaintiffs aver that they had been deceived about the abusive treatment techniques prior to placing their children in defendants' facilities. The Goold plaintiffs charge that the minor Goold was transported against his will to a facility at the direction of his mother, from whom the senior Goold had to wrest custody in order to free his son.
The plaintiffs filed suit invoking diversity jurisdiction and alleging various causes of action based on the treatment of the teenaged plaintiffs.2 The Goold and Doubinin cases were assigned to magistrate judges for pretrial proceedings, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 626(b)(1). Each case ultimately was dismissed.
Plaintiff Debbie LaFleur, acting for herself and on behalf of her daughter Sara M. Gann, appeals the district court's order dismissing her case on the ground that she failed to engage local Utah counsel or to have her California attorney admitted pro hac vice in the Utah federal court. Ms. LaFleur also complains that the district court erred in dismissing her original complaint, but because we affirm the district court's decision to dismiss the case for her failure to obey the order to hire local counsel, we do not address her claim of error in the decision to dismiss her original complaint. We conclude that even if dismissing the original complaint was improper, the case properly was dismissed for an independent reason.
The Utah Federal District Court Rules govern attorneys' admission to practice in that court. It is incumbent upon an attorney to obtain admittance to practice. DUCivR 83-1.1(a). A nonresident attorney may be admitted pro hac vice, but must associate local counsel. DUCivR 83-1.1(d) & (e). "The court, on its own initiative, may impose sanctions for violation of [the] civil rules," including dismissal where extraordinary circumstances are present. DUCivR 1-2. Moreover, federal district courts have the inherent power to manage their business "so as to achieve the orderly and expeditious disposition of cases." Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. 32, 43, 111 S.Ct. 2123, 115 L.Ed.2d 27 (1991) (quotation omitted). Among these inherent powers is the ability to select an appropriate sanction. Id. at 44-45, 111 S.Ct. 2123. "`We review a court's imposition of sanctions under its inherent power for abuse of discretion.'" Martinez v. Roscoe, 100 F.3d 121, 123 (10th Cir.1996) (quoting Chambers, 501 U.S. at 55, 111 S.Ct. 2123). We review the district court's underlying findings of fact for clear error. See Dahl v. United States, 319 F.3d 1226, 1228-29 (10th Cir.2003) ().
The district court found that Ms. LaFleur's attorney, Thomas M. Burton, was a resident of California. At a hearing on defendants' motion to dismiss, the district court asked Mr. Burton if he was a resident of Utah or California, to which Mr. Burton responded, LaFleur App. at 187. When asked again, Mr. Burton said, Id. The district court tried one more time: Id. Mr. Burton's answer was, Id. Whereupon, the district court made the findings that Mr. Burton was a resident of California and Ms. LaFleur had not obtained local Utah counsel, in violation of the local rule and an earlier court order. Id. at 187-88. In addition to his statements at the hearing, Mr. Burton stated in a proof of service appended to his motion for reconsideration that he "reside[d] and [was] employed in Pleasanton, California." Id. at 142. Based on this evidence, we conclude that the district court's finding that Mr. Burton was a resident of California was not clearly erroneous.
Ms. LaFleur was on notice as of May 18, 2001, that defendants challenged Mr. Burton's authority to practice in Utah. LaFleur App. at 103-04 (). On December 17, 2001, the district court directed Ms. LaFleur and Mr. Burton to obtain local counsel within twenty days, or risk dismissal of the case. Id. at 128. Yet on July 3, 2002, they had not done so and, as a result, the case was dismissed. Id. at 190-91. In sum, Mr. Burton was found to be a resident of California, the district court's directive to obtain local counsel was quite clear, and Mr. Burton and his client had ample time to comply with the court's order. Under these circumstances, we find no abuse of discretion in the district court's choice of sanction.
Ms. LaFleur argues that other judges or magistrate judges in the Utah federal district court permitted Mr. Burton to represent plaintiffs in related cases against Teen Help. Therefore, she maintains that the doctrine of issue preclusion prevented the district judge in this case from finding that Mr. Burton was not authorized to practice in the Utah federal court. We reject this argument for two reasons. First, Ms. LaFleur's general claims are not supported by references to the record as required by Fed. R.App. P. 28 and 10th Cir. R. 28.2. We have reviewed the appendices filed in three of the cases on which Ms. LaFleur relies, Doubinin, Dochterman,3 and Goold, but we decline to search the records for supporting references. See United States v. Rodriguez-Aguirre, 108 F.3d 1228, 1237 n. 8 (10th Cir.1997). Ms. LaFleur's reference to an additional three unidentified companion cases is insufficient appellate argument.
Second, the doctrine of issue preclusion does not apply. Under Utah law, four criteria must be met, one of which is that the issue in the prior case was "competently, fully, and fairly litigated." Atiya v. Salt Lake County, 988 F.2d 1013, 1019-20 (10th Cir.1993) (citing Madsen v. Borthick, 769 P.2d 245, 250 (Utah 1988)). We are presented with no evidence that the issue was fully and fairly litigated in another case, so we decline to apply the doctrine. The district court's judgment is affirmed.
Plaintiffs Stanley Goold, Jr. and his son Stanley Goold, III (the Goolds), appeal the dismissal of their case as a sanction for failing to provide discovery. The basis of their complaint was that the younger Goold had suffered psychological injury due to his placement in defendants' facility, and the elder Goold had incurred substantial expenses in obtaining his son's release from the facility, as well as psychological injuries of his own. Defendants filed discovery requests for the son's psychological and school records and for the father's documentation of his expenses and injuries. In February 2000, the Goolds responded by saying the records were being compiled. Goold App. at e.g., 75, 124, 140. The magistrate judge held a hearing on November 21, 2000, on defendants' motion to exclude expert witnesses because the Goolds had not produced the necessary reports of their proposed experts or the documentation on which the reports were to be based, which was the same documentation defendants had requested. The magistrate judge extended the deadline for filing expert witness reports and imposed a sanction of $750 on the Goolds for requiring defendants to bring the motion. Thereafter, defendants filed a motion...
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