Syrowik v. Bilmar Hotel, Inc., 94-00264

• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: FRANK
• Citation: Syrowik v. Bilmar Hotel, Inc., 666 So.2d 554 (Fla. App. 1995)
• Decision Date: 22 November 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-00264,94-00264
• Parties: 20 Fla. L. Weekly D2572 Anita SYROWIK, Appellant, v. BILMAR HOTEL, INC., a Florida corporation d/b/a Bilmar Beach Resort, Appellee.

Page 554

666 So.2d 554

20 Fla. L. Weekly D2572

Anita SYROWIK, Appellant, v. BILMAR HOTEL, INC., a Florida corporation d/b/a Bilmar Beach Resort, Appellee.

No. 94-00264.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Second District.

Nov. 22, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 22, 1996.

F. Robert Santos of Santos & Dutton, P.A., Tampa, for Appellee.

FRANK, Acting Chief Judge.

Anita Syrowik claimed she was injured at the Bilmar Hotel when a door opened by a maid struck her. She has appealed, pro se, from an order dismissing her complaint with prejudice. In concluding to affirm the trial court's disposition of this matter, we are not unmindful of the generally held view in this district that the "sanction of dismissal of a party's action is a drastic remedy which should be used only in extreme situations." Martin v. Laidlaw Tree Service, Inc., 619 So.2d 435, 438 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993) (citing Momenah v. Ammache, 616 So.2d 121 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)). The circumstances surrounding the instant proceeding describe and, indeed, by any measure, go beyond an extreme situation ordaining the result reached by the trial court.

The uncontroverted record of events in the trial court, which we need not recount in extensive detail, occurred in the period beginning with the filing of Ms. Syrowik's complaint on March 21, 1989, and ending on August 23, 1993, the date of its dismissal. A condensed history of that which transpired in the trial court discloses Ms. Syrowik's failure to appear for the taking of her deposition, her unwillingness to submit to an independent medical examination, repeated motions for sanctions seeking to remedy her defiant refusal to cooperate in prosecuting the...