Schutts v. Bentley Nevada Corp.

• Decision Date: 07 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. CV-N-95-0624-ECR.,CV-N-95-0624-ECR.
• Parties: Mark SCHUTTS, Plaintiff, v. BENTLY NEVADA CORPORATION, a Nevada corporation; John Doe and Mary Does I-X, individuals; Black and White Corporations I-V, corporations; and Able & Baker companies I-V, other entities, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Nevada

966 F.Supp. 1549

Mark SCHUTTS, Plaintiff, v. BENTLY NEVADA CORPORATION, a Nevada corporation; John Doe and Mary Does I-X, individuals; Black and White Corporations I-V, corporations; and Able & Baker companies I-V, other entities, Defendants.

No. CV-N-95-0624-ECR.

United States District Court, D. Nevada.

May 7, 1997.

As Amended May 28 and June 5, 1997.

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Joe E. Colvin, Reno, NV, for Plaintiff.

Charles S. Zumpft, Brook & Shaw, Minden, NV, for Defendants.

ORDER

EDWARD C. REED, Jr., District Judge.

Introduction

Presently before the court for decision is the Motion for Attorney Fees and Sanctions (Doc. # 35) filed by Defendant Bently Nevada Corporation. Bently Nevada seek to recover the costs of this litigation from Plaintiff Mark Schutts and his lawyer, Mr. Joe E. Colvin.

Defendant Nevada Bently cites as the source of the court's power to impose penalties in the form of fee-shifting awards and other sanctions two statutes, 28 U.S.C. § 1927 and 42 U.S.C. § 12205, and Fed. R.Civ.P. 11. In addition to these two sources of the court's power to sanction litigious misconduct, the court also possesses inherent authority to curb abuses of its processes. See Chambers v. NASCO Inc., 501 U.S. 32, 46, 111 S.Ct. 2123, 2133-34, 115 L.Ed.2d 27 (1991) (citing Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper, 447 U.S. 752, 100 S.Ct. 2455, 65 L.Ed.2d 488 (1980); Link v. Wabash R.R. Co., 370 U.S. 626, 630-31, 82 S.Ct. 1386, 1388-89, 8 L.Ed.2d 734 (1962) (finding such authority not in statutes or rules but in the "control necessarily vested in courts to manage their own affairs"); Ex parte Burr, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 529, 531, 6 L.Ed. 152 (1824) (upholding power of court to discipline attorneys who appear before it); Anderson v. Dunn, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) 204, 227, 5 L.Ed. 242 (1821) (noting "universal acknowledge[ment]" of judicial power to enforce courtroom decorum and to force submission to the court's "lawful mandates"); United States v. Hudson, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 32, 34, 3 L.Ed. 259 (1812) (declaring existence of "certain implied" judicial powers, such as the contempt power, necessary to the exercise of all other judicial authority)).

I. Facts and Prior Proceedings

Plaintiff Mark Schutts was employed by Defendant Bently Nevada Corporation from June 11, 1984 through August 31, 1994 at Defendant's place of business in the town of Minden, Nevada. On March 21, 1994, Mr. Schutts paid a visit to one Mark Beavers at the latter's residence. Mr. Schutts was apparently convinced that Mr. Beavers had defrauded one Debbie DeBraal, with whom Mr. Schutts had a close relationship, of a certain automobile. In the course of confronting Mr. Beavers with his suspicions, Mr. Schutts struck Mr. Beavers on the side of the head with an automatic pistol, knocking Mr. Beavers to the ground. Mr. Schutts then pressed the gun's barrel against Mr. Beavers' temple, saying, "I am going to blow your fucking brains out if you don't give me back the car."

Mr. Schutts was arrested in connection with this incident. He was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon, battery with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, and aiming a firearm at another human being. Mr. Schutts informed his supervisors at Bently Nevada of the incident the following day, March 22, 1994. On March 30, 1994 Plaintiff was notified by Jim Schmid, a supervisor at Bently Nevada, that Mr. Schutts was being suspended with pay through June 11, 1994, at which time his employment with Defendant Bently Nevada would terminate. Mark Schutts subsequently entered a plea of guilty on two of the criminal charges against him, and on September 28, 1994, a judgment of conviction against Plaintiff was entered in the Ninth Judicial District Court for Douglas County Nevada, for carrying a concealed weapon and for aiming a firearm at a human being, in violation of Nev.Rev.Stat. § 202.350 and Nev.Rev.Stat. § 202.290, respectively.

On October 2, 1995, Mr. Schutts instituted this action through the filing of a civil complaint (Doc. # 1), alleging unlawful employment discrimination. He claimed that he was fired by Bently Nevada because he suffered from depression. He claimed that his assault on Mr. Beavers was a product of his depression, and that therefore he had been fired "because of" a mental disability, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Defendant Bently Nevada filed its Answer (Doc. # 4) to the Complaint on November 2, 1995, and served it upon plaintiff's counsel on November 14, 1995. In early February 1996 Bently Nevada served various discovery requests upon plaintiff's counsel. At the end of March 1996, defense counsel wrote plaintiff's counsel to remind him that Plaintiff's responses to the discovery requests were long overdue, and to warn him that failure to comply with those requests within ten days would force defense counsel to seek the court's assistance. In the same letter, defense counsel, Mr. Charles S. Zumpft, indicated he considered the entire action frivolous: In Mr. Zumpft's view, Plaintiff had committed violent criminal acts, for which he had been lawfully discharged. Mr. Zumpft encouraged plaintiff's counsel, Mr. Colvin, to dismiss the case before additional time and money were wasted on Plaintiff's "baseless" claim.

Plaintiff's counsel apparently ignored Mr. Zumpft's March 25 letter, because on April 29, 1996, Bently Nevada filed a motion to compel discovery (Doc. # 12). Plaintiff failed to respond to this motion, and the court by Minute Order in Chambers filed May 23, 1996 (Doc. # 13) ordered Plaintiff to respond to the motion to compel discovery, and to provide the court with some explanation for his failure to comply with the local rules of practice of this court concerning motion practice.

On June 7, 1996, Plaintiff's counsel, Mr. Joe Colvin, filed an affidavit (Doc. # 14) opposing Bently Nevada's motion to compel. In his affidavit Mr. Colvin stated (a) that he and defense counsel had previously agreed to allow Plaintiff until April 18, 1996 to respond to Defendant's discovery requests, (b) that in mid-April 1996 he had been laid low with a "severe" back injury which kept him from his professional duties, and (c) that he had on May 28, 1996 responded to Bently Nevada's discovery requests on behalf of his client, Mr. Schutts.

In its Reply (Doc. # 21) in support of its motion to compel, filed on June 19, 1996, Bently Nevada acknowledged Plaintiff's counsel's health problems, but pointed out that Mr. Colvin's spinal condition should not have prevented him from at least informing defense counsel of the reason for the delay in complying with Defendant's discovery requests, or from seeking additional time. In addition, Bently Nevada reminded Plaintiff's counsel that Plaintiff had still not made the initial disclosures of information required by LR 26-1(a)(2).

The court granted Defendant's Motion to Compel (Doc. # 12) by Minute Order in Chambers (Doc. # 19) filed June 26, 1996. The court ordered Plaintiff to comply fully with Defendant's discovery requests, and to make the required Rule 26 disclosures, within ten days. The court also awarded Bently Nevada its litigation expenses incurred in moving to compel discovery, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 37, in the amount of $1312.50.

On July 3, 1996, defense counsel, Mr. Zumpft, again wrote plaintiff's counsel, Mr. Colvin. In this letter Mr. Zumpft attempted to highlight what he perceived as the fatal flaws in Plaintiff's case, including Defendant's position that Plaintiff was fired from his job purely because he attacked another man with a gun, in violation of company policy, to say nothing of Nevada's penal laws. Mr. Zumpft advised Mr. Colvin that based upon the record assembled at that time he had every confidence that Bently Nevada would prevail on summary judgment, and suggested that Mr. Colvin encourage his client, Mr. Schutts, to abandon his ADA claim. Finally, Mr. Zumpft informed plaintiff's counsel that in the event Bently Nevada prevailed on summary judgment, he, Mr. Zumpft, would seek an award of attorney's fees.

Defense counsel's cordial campaign against the protraction of what he considered Plaintiff's futile and wrongheaded ADA claim proved useless; on August 26, 1996, Bently Nevada filed its motion for summary judgment (Doc. # 24). Bently Nevada argued, and produced evidence in support of its argument, that it had terminated Plaintiff's employment not "because of" any of Plaintiff's alleged mental health problems, but (1) because Mr. Schutts had committed a crime, and had engaged in physically violent behavior and had made violent threats, in violation of written company policy and (2) in order to protect Bently Nevada and its employees from what it perceived as a substantial risk that Plaintiff might again engage in acts of violence.

The court agreed with Defendant, and granted summary judgment in favor of Defendant Bently Nevada, on the following grounds:

It is simply not debatable that employers may discharge employees who commit acts of misconduct. Newland v. Dalton, 81 F.3d 904, 906 (9th Cir.1996); Collings v. Longview Fibre Co., 63 F.3d 828, 832 & n. 4 (9th Cir.1995). An employee who commits an act of misconduct may be fired, whether he or she is disabled within the meaning of the ADA, or an astronaut or Olympic athlete. Federal and state statutes which bar discrimination do not insulate disabled employees from discharge for acts for which a non-disabled employee could certainly be fired. Aggravated battery with a deadly weapon constitutes egregious misconduct for which employees are responsible regardless of any alleged disability. Newland, ibid.

Plaintiff admits in his affidavit filed in support of his opposition to summary judgment that he did attack Mark Beavers with a gun. Defendant has provided considerable evidence that it fired Plaintiff because of this act of violence. Plaintiff produces not a shred of evidence which casts any doubt upon Defendant's...