Pierce v. Heritage Properties, Inc., 93-CA-00241-SCT

Citation688 So.2d 1385
Decision Date27 February 1997
Docket NumberNo. 93-CA-00241-SCT,93-CA-00241-SCT
PartiesStephanie Tyner PIERCE v. HERITAGE PROPERTIES, INC., American Fan Retail Associates, Inc., and Halsey Enterprises Company, Ltd.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Mississippi

John D. Price, Natie P. Caraway, Wise Carter Child & Caraway, Jackson, for appellant.

William A. Patterson, McCoy Wilkins Stephens & Tipton, Jackson, Gary K. Silberman, Jackson, Robert C. Boyd, Boyd & Akin, Jackson, John P. Sneed, Joseph A. Ziemianski, Phelps & Dunbar, Jackson, for appellees.

Before PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN and McRAE, JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

This is an appeal of an order of the Circuit Court of Hinds County dismissing Stephanie Tyner Pierce's lawsuit against Heritage Properties, Inc. (Heritage), American Fan Retail Associates, Inc. (American), and Halsey Enterprises Company, Ltd. (Halsey). After an eight-day trial, a jury returned a verdict in the amount of $500,000 for Pierce against the appellees. However, the trial court overturned the jury verdict based on improper closing argument by Pierce's counsel. The court ordered a new trial, but during discovery, it was revealed that Pierce had given false testimony and withheld information. As a result, the trial court dismissed Pierce's cause of action with prejudice.

Pierce objected, claiming that the court abused its discretion in dismissing her case with prejudice. The defendants/appellees maintained that Pierce's presentation of false testimony under oath was sufficient to justify a dismissal of her case. Because we find that the trial court's sanction against Pierce was warranted to protect the integrity of the judicial process due to Pierce's abuse of the discovery process and presentation of false testimony, we hereby affirm the trial order of dismissal with prejudice.

FACTS

The appellant, Stephanie Tyner Pierce, was renting an apartment at Northtown Apartments in Jackson, Mississippi in February of 1987. On February 19, 1987, Pierce was in bed with Read Bush when a ceiling fan located above her bed fell onto Pierce from the place where it had been installed in the ceiling, causing her personal injuries.

Pierce sued several defendants, including Heritage, American, and Halsey, under theories of negligence, breach of warranty, and strict liability. After an eight-day trial in September 1991, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Pierce against Heritage, American, and Halsey, in the amount of $500,000 for personal injury, primarily a knee injury, and dismissed the other defendants, Stuart C. Irby Company, Heritage Construction Company, Inc. and Milner Electric Company, Inc. The remaining three defendants filed motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and motions for a new trial, based on charges of improper closing argument and racially motivated jury selection by Pierce's counsel. On December 3, 1991, the trial court vacated the original judgment and granted a new trial based on improper and prejudicial closing argument by Pierce's counsel.

During the discovery of the cause sub judice, and at the first trial, Pierce maintained, under oath, that she was in the apartment alone when the accident occurred. Sworn answers to interrogatories reveal that Pierce asserted that there was no other eyewitness to this accident, because no one was in the apartment with her. She reiterated this several times over a five-year period in various responses to interrogatories, in deposition testimony, and at trial.

To the contrary, the defendants discovered after the first trial that the plaintiff was not alone when the accident occurred. After the jury verdict was rendered, defense counsel received an anonymous telephone call stating that the plaintiff was not alone on the evening of the accident. Two weeks after the trial court granted a new trial, and knowing that the defendants were aware that the plaintiff had perjured herself, plaintiff's counsel sent a letter to the defense, stating that Pierce was now identifying Read Bush as a witness to the accident. Bush's deposition was taken, and he confirmed his presence that night, making him a material fact witness. However, prior to this identification, Bush was never identified or brought to the attention of defense counsel or the court.

American and Heritage filed motions for dismissal. Halsey also moved for dismissal or, in the alternative, monetary sanctions. Pierce responded by acknowledging that she gave false testimony. However, she stated in a second deposition that her purpose in not telling the court about Bush earlier was not to deceive the trial court. Instead, Pierce insisted that she did not want her parents to know that she had a male companion in her apartment at night.

The trial court reviewed the arguments, motions, and memoranda of counsel and concluded that Pierce's intentional presentation of false testimony warranted the sanction of dismissal with prejudice, with costs assessed to Pierce.

DISCUSSION

Pierce contends that the circuit court erred and abused its discretion by imposing the sanction of dismissal with prejudice, thereby barring her from any recovery for injuries caused when the ceiling fan fell on her. Specifically, the appellant argues that the trial court misapplied Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b)(2) by imposing the "death penalty" and dismissing her lawsuit.

The decision to impose sanctions for discovery abuse is vested in the trial court's discretion. White v. White, 509 So.2d 205, 207 (Miss.1987). The provisions for imposing sanctions are designed to give the court great latitude. Id. at 207. 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. Palmer v. Biloxi Regional Medical Center, 564 So.2d 1346, 1367 (Miss.1990). Nevertheless, the trial court should dismiss a cause of action for failure to comply with discovery only under the most extreme circumstances. Hapgood v. Biloxi Regional Medical Center, 540 So.2d 630, 634 (Miss.1989); White, 509 So.2d at 209.

Such dismissals by the trial court are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard. Palmer, 564 So.2d at 1368. 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. Burkett v. Burkett, 537 So.2d 443, 446 (Miss.1989). 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. Id. 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." Cooper v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 568 So.2d 687, 692 (Miss.1990).

The trial court, in dismissing Pierce's case, relied on Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure 37(b)(2) and 37(e), along with its inherent power to protect the integrity of the judicial process. In summary, these rules give the trial court the power to impose just and appropriate sanctions for failure to comply with an order to provide or permit discovery.

The United States Supreme Court held in National Hockey League that when reviewing a dismissal by the district court, the Court's duty is to decide not whether it would have dismissed the action as an original matter, but whether the district court abused its discretion in so doing. National Hockey League v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc., 427 U.S. 639, 642, 96 S.Ct. 2778, 2780-81, 49 L.Ed.2d 747 (1976). In the underlying case for National Hockey League, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals relied upon several extenuating factors to reverse the district court's dismissal, including: (1) none of the parties had really pressed discovery until approximately one year after the commencement of the action; (2) the plaintiff's counsel took over the litigation after a consent decree was entered and had difficulty in obtaining some of the requested information; and (3) plaintiff's lead counsel had assured the district court that he would not knowingly and wilfully disregard the final deadline. National Hockey League, 427 U.S. at 641, 96 S.Ct. at 2780. The U.S. Supreme Court, in reversing the Third Circuit, held that these sorts of considerations, while important to evaluate and weigh in consideration of sanctions like dismissal, "cannot be allowed to wholly supplant the other and equally necessary considerations embodied" in Rule 37. Id.

"An implicit condition in any order to answer an interrogatory is that the answer be true, responsive and complete. A false answer is in some ways worse than no answer; it misleads and confuses the party." Smith v. Cessna Aircraft Co., 124 F.R.D. 103, 107 (D.Md.1989). In Smith, the dismissed plaintiff asserted that his ultimate production of the disputed documents dissipated any prejudice to the defendants, while the defendants pointed out that the plaintiff's perjury throughout discovery cast serious doubt on the credibility of the rest of his testimony, both during discovery and at trial. Id. at 105. The district court agreed with the defendants that the focus must be on the intentional nature, as well as the pattern, of the plaintiff's conduct, which included deliberately providing false responses in three discovery mechanisms: the answers to interrogatories, the request for production of documents, and the deposition testimony. Id. "Parties, like witnesses, are required to state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in answering written interrogatories." Hunter v. International Systems and Controls Corp., 56 F.R.D. 617, 631 (W.D.Mo.1972). Further, 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...

To continue reading

Request your trial
104 cases
  • Newsome v. Shoemake
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • September 7, 2017
    ...and firm conviction that the court below committed clear error." ' " Ferguson , 179 So.3d at 1064 (quoting Pierce v. Heritage Props., Inc. , 688 So.2d 1385, 1388 (Miss. 1997) (quoting City of Jackson v. Rhaly , 95 So.3d 602, 607 (Miss. 2012) )).¶ 44. The sole case upon which Marilyn Newsome......
  • Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Acuff
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • August 3, 2006
    ...not say the trial court's findings were manifestly wrong, we affirmed the dismissal. Id. at 995. ¶ 28. In Pierce v. Heritage Properties, Inc., 688 So.2d 1385, 1388 (Miss.1997), the plaintiff willfully concealed the existence of an eyewitness to her injury. We noted that willfulness or bad f......
  • Allen v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., No. 2005-CA-01106-SCT.
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • July 27, 2006
    ...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......
  • Lahmann v. Hallmon
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • October 22, 1998
    ...equitable relations between the parties in respect of something brought before the court for adjudication. Pierce v. Heritage Properties, Inc., 688 So.2d 1385, 1391 (Miss.1997) (quoting Keystone Driller Co. v. General Excavator Co., 290 U.S. 240, 245, 54 S.Ct. 146, 78 L.Ed. 293 ¶ 24. Lahman......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT