McKenzie v. Scheeler

• Decision Date: 02 December 1997
• Docket Number: No. 97-106,97-106
• Citation: 285 Mont. 500,949 P.2d 1168
• Parties: James R. McKENZIE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Valentine M. SCHEELER, Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

Page 1168

949 P.2d 1168

285 Mont. 500

James R. McKENZIE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Valentine M. SCHEELER, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 97-106.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs June 19, 1997.

Decided Dec. 2, 1997.

[285 Mont. 503] Terry Wallace, Missoula, for Appellant.

John R. Gordon, Reep, Spoon & Gordon, Missoula, for Respondent.

GRAY, Justice.

James R. McKenzie (McKenzie) appeals from the judgment entered by the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County, on its order dismissing his complaint with prejudice and from the District Court's subsequent order denying his motion to alter or amend the order of dismissal. We affirm.

We restate the issue on appeal as whether the District Court erred in dismissing McKenzie's complaint with prejudice for failing to comply with discovery procedures and scheduling orders.

BACKGROUND

On December 8, 1994, McKenzie, a Canadian citizen, filed a complaint against Valentine M. Scheeler (Scheeler) for damages allegedly resulting from a vehicle accident which occurred north of St. Ignatius, Montana, on December 9, 1992. The complaint alleged that McKenzie had suffered property damages, personal injuries, pain and suffering, emotional stress, medical expenses and loss of wages as a result of the accident. After Scheeler answered the complaint, the District Court issued an order directing McKenzie to consult with Scheeler regarding the scheduling of pretrial matters and submit a proposed scheduling order by June 23, 1995. When McKenzie failed to submit a proposed order, Scheeler filed his own proposed scheduling order and the court adopted it. The scheduling order set deadlines for amending pleadings, providing expert witness disclosure statements, exchanging lay witness and exhibit lists, completing discovery and filing pretrial motions. The order also designated dates by which a settlement conference would be held and a pretrial order would be filed.

Scheeler served McKenzie with interrogatories and requests for production of documents on April 17, 1995, which included requests for medical records regarding any injury or medical condition McKenzie suffered from prior to the December 9, 1992, accident; records of medical expenses incurred by McKenzie as a result of the accident; copies of all documentary evidence McKenzie expected to offer at trial; copies of McKenzie's income tax returns for a ten-year period; and copies of prescriptions and prescription receipts for any drugs McKenzie purchased or used during the year prior to the accident. McKenzie did not respond until November 13, 1995. In addition to his failure to serve the discovery responses within the 30-day time limit provided in Rules 33(a) and 34(b), M.R.Civ.P., McKenzie's responses to many of the interrogatories and requests for production admittedly were incomplete, erroneous or otherwise inadequate. During his deposition in January of 1996, McKenzie stated he would produce additional medical, employment and financial records. He eventually provided Scheeler with several additional documents in June of 1996, but the documents did not include the medical records and tax returns Scheeler had requested in April of 1995.

The District Court's scheduling order required the parties to conduct a settlement conference by March 25, 1996. The settlement conference was not held and, when the court noted that a settlement master report had not been filed, it ordered the parties to file a status report. McKenzie's status report stated that the case was behind schedule, in part, because of his inability to provide the complete information Scheeler had requested. McKenzie requested the court to modify the scheduling order to reopen discovery, which originally was to have been completed by February 1, 1996.

Scheeler's status report outlined McKenzie's failure to respond adequately to the requests for production of medical and financial documents. Scheeler also pointed out that McKenzie had failed to meet the deadlines contained in the court's scheduling order for serving Scheeler with expert witness disclosure statements, lay witness lists and exhibit lists. Additionally, Scheeler reported that McKenzie had not arranged for a settlement conference or even proposed a settlement master; nor had he submitted a proposed pretrial order to Scheeler. Scheeler advised the District Court that he was reluctant to agree to an extensions of the time frames set out in the scheduling order and requested that, in the event the court extended those time frames, specific deadlines be set which would result in dismissal of the complaint if not met by McKenzie.

In light of the status reports, the District Court set a hearing for June 26, 1996, regarding the parties' scheduling and discovery disagreements. At the hearing, McKenzie's counsel admitted that McKenzie's discovery responses had been both late and inadequate, but asserted that he was experiencing some McKenzie delivered some of the requested documents to Scheeler by the August 15, 1996, deadline. Thereafter, Scheeler filed a timely "Notice of Insufficiency and Objection to Plaintiff's Tender of Discovery" stating that McKenzie still had not produced the complete medical records and income tax returns requested. The notice also summarized McKenzie's continued failure to provide full expert witness disclosure statements, a lay witness list, an exhibit list, a proposed pretrial order and a suggested settlement master, as required by the original scheduling order. Scheeler pointed out that McKenzie had not offered any explanation for failing to comply with either the discovery requests or the court's orders, and requested that the court dismiss the complaint.

difficulties in obtaining the information required because of McKenzie's Canadian residency. The District Court granted McKenzie until August 15, 1996, to provide the information Scheeler requested and stated that, if McKenzie failed to provide the necessary information by that deadline, it likely would impose sanctions, which could include dismissal of the action, for failure to comply with the scheduling order under Rule 16, M.R.Civ.P. The District Court further stated that Scheeler would have 10 days after McKenzie's response to object to any insufficient response and scheduled a hearing for September 4, 1996, to review the status of discovery matters. It also expressly ordered McKenzie to be present, personally and with counsel, at the September 4, 1996, hearing. The Minutes and Note of Ruling following this hearing reiterated that McKenzie was granted until August 15, 1996, to provide the requested information and that sanctions could be imposed if he failed to comply by that date.

Neither McKenzie nor his counsel appeared at the September 4, 1996, hearing as ordered by the District Court. Scheeler's counsel appeared and reiterated his objections to McKenzie's failure to comply with the original scheduling order and the court's June 26, 1996, order. The District Court entered a Note of Ruling in which it dismissed McKenzie's complaint, but specifically allowed 10 days within which McKenzie could move to set aside the dismissal order on a showing of good cause for his failure to respond or appear; alternatively, the court scheduled a hearing for September 13, 1996, at which, if he appeared with all the requested discovery documents, McKenzie could move to set aside the dismissal.

McKenzie's counsel appeared at the hearing on September 13, 1996, and apologized for his absence from the prior hearing, stating that he had misread the notice scheduling the September 4, 1996, hearing; McKenzie did not appear. McKenzie's counsel then moved the District Court to set aside its dismissal of the complaint, asserting that there had been no violations of the scheduling order and that, after reasonable and diligent efforts, he simply had been unable to locate the additional documents requested by Scheeler. The District Court subsequently entered a written order dismissing the action with prejudice for McKenzie's failure to comply with discovery requests, court-ordered pretrial scheduling procedures and scheduling orders, and denying McKenzie's motion to set aside the dismissal. McKenzie filed a Rule 59(g), M.R.Civ.P., motion to alter or amend the judgment dismissing his complaint, which the District Court denied, and McKenzie appeals.

DISCUSSION

Did the District Court err in dismissing McKenzie's complaint with prejudice for failing to comply with discovery procedures and scheduling orders?

It has long been the law in Montana that a party's abuse of discovery procedures which results in needless delay of a case should not be dealt with leniently; transgressors should be punished rather than patiently encouraged to cooperate in the discovery process. Smith v. Butte-Silver Bow County (1996), 276 Mont. 329, 332, 916 P.2d 91, 92-93 (citing Owen v. F.A. Buttrey, Co. (1981), 192 Mont. 274, 277-78, 627 P.2d 1233, 1235). Concerns related to crowded dockets and the responsibility to maintain fair and efficient judicial administration have shifted the traditional reluctance to impose discovery-related sanctions to a judicial intolerance of discovery abuses. Smith, 916 P.2d at 92.

Thus, the imposition of sanctions for failure to comply with discovery procedures is regarded with favor. Huffine v. Boylan (1989), 239 Mont. 515, 517, 782 P.2d 77, 78 (citations omitted).

This Court generally defers to the decision of a trial court regarding sanctions for failure to comply with discovery procedures because the trial court is in the best position to know whether parties are disregarding the rights of opposing parties in the course of litigation and which sanctions for such conduct are most appropriate. Smith, 916 P.2d at 93 (citing Dassori v. Roy Stanley Chevrolet Co. (1986), 224 Mont. 178, 180, 728 P.2d 430, 431). As a result, we review a district court's imposition of sanctions for failure to comply with discovery...