Adams v. Reed

57 P.3d 505, 138 Idaho 36, 2002 Ida. App. LEXIS 69
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 9, 2002
DocketNo. 27769
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 57 P.3d 505 (Adams v. Reed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Reed, 57 P.3d 505, 138 Idaho 36, 2002 Ida. App. LEXIS 69 (Idaho Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

LANSING, Judge.

This is a personal injury action that was dismissed by the district court as a sanction for plaintiffs’ failure to make timely responses to discovery requests or to comply with pretrial orders. We affirm.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Ron Adams and Tamara Kugler Adams, husband and wife, were tenants in a house owned by Reed. After the Adamses had vacated the house, a dispute arose regarding ownership of property that had been left on the premises. In March 1999, when Tamara returned to the house to retrieve the disputed property, Reed was present and an altercation ensued. Tamara alleged that Reed hit her in the face and pushed her into a door, causing injury to her shoulder and mouth. On April 19, 1999, the Adamses filed a complaint alleging that Reed’s actions permanently injured Tamara’s shoulder and caused her to lose a tooth. Reed promptly filed an answer and counterclaim in which he denied the Adamses’ allegations and asserted that he had sustained injuries inflicted by Tamara.

On December 2, 1999, the district court issued a pretrial order scheduling the trial for February 15, 2000 and a pretrial conference for January 31, 2000. The pretrial order also required that the parties disclose their expert witnesses by December 17, 1999 and complete discovery by January 1, 2000. On January 24, 2000, twenty-three days after the deadline for expert witness disclosure, the Adamses for the first time disclosed the identity of their expert witnesses. One day later, Reed moved to exclude the testimony from those experts. In the alternative, Reed requested a continuance of the trial to allow sufficient time to depose the witnesses. On January 31, 2000, at the hearing on Reed’s motion, the parties stipulated to non-binding mediation, so the trial date was vacated. Later that day, the Adamses’ attorney died. The Adamses obtained new counsel, and on February 15, 2000, the district court ordered the parties into mediation. The court said that Reed’s motion to exclude witnesses would be rescheduled in the event that mediation faded.

Despite the district court’s order, no mediation occurred, and on September 15, 2000, the district court issued a notice of intent to dismiss the lawsuit due to inactivity. On October 2, 2000, the Adamses’ attorney responded with an affidavit in which he asked the district court to retain the case and stated that within the next thirty days he would schedule mediation. On October 12, 2000, Reed filed a motion for dismissal of the Adamses’ complaint pursuant to Idaho Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to prosecute. The Adamses did not respond to Reed’s motion to dismiss but filed a motion to compel Reed to participate in mediation. At a hearing on October 30, 2000, the district court denied Reed’s motion to dismiss and ordered the parties to mediate by November 29, 2000. The district court noted that no progress had been made in the case without the court’s intervention, and warned that any further delays or violations of court orders would result in reconsideration of Reed’s motion to dismiss. In November, the case was assigned to a new district judge. The mediator, who was selected by the parties, can-celled the mediation process because the [38]*38Adamses neither provided their share of payment for his services nor submitted a position paper as the mediator requested.

On January 12, 2001, the district court issued a new order governing discovery and further proceedings. That order set a trial date of June 19, 2001 and a pretrial conference date of June 4, 2001. It also required the disclosure of all expert witnesses by March 6, 2001, completion of discovery responses by May 4, and submittal of a joint pretrial memorandum by May 29, 2001.

On March 7, 2001, Reed’s attorney moved to dismiss the action as a sanction for non-response to discovery requests. On March 8, 2001, the Adamses served a disclosure of their intended expert witnesses, and a week later, on March 15, 2001, named an additional expert, a financial expert who was to testify regarding future damages.

On March 19, 2001, the district court heard arguments on Reed’s motion to dismiss. The judge listened to the audio recording of the hearing of October 30, 2000 before the district judge who was formerly assigned to the ease. Instead of ruling on Reed’s motion to dismiss, however, the district court once again ordered the parties into mediation within thirty days. The court said that it would revisit the pending dismissal motion if mediation proved unsuccessful. The district court concluded the hearing by admonishing the Adamses for their repeated failures in the discovery process, and ordered them to immediately provide Reed with copies of all records requested during discovery. The parties participated in mediation in early April, but could not resolve the litigation.

On April 20, 2001, one month after the district court’s order to produce records, the Adamses provided Reed with copies of the requested materials. On May 18, 2001, Reed’s attorney filed a motion to compel the Adamses to produce medical records from Dr. Robert Porter and physical therapist Dave Little. Reed asserted that the Adams-es had identified Porter and Little as expert witnesses, yet had failed to produce any records of their treatment. That same day, Reed’s attorney also filed three motions in limine requesting that the district court exclude any evidence of Tamara’s claimed dental injury or physical therapy because no records regarding the dental injury or physical therapy had been produced, to exclude any evidence of pharmacy bills because the relevant pharmacy records had not been produced, and to exclude the testimony of the Adamses’ financial expert because the expert was not timely disclosed.

Three days later, on May 21, 2001, Reed filed a second motion to compel discovery, requesting the production of records from Drs. Sandison and Johnson regarding their treatment of Tamara since 1999 and requesting records relating to a surgery performed on Tamara at the Magic Valley Regional Medical Center. Reed also filed a fourth motion in limine to preclude the testimony and records of Dr. Porter on the grounds that the Adamses had not produced any of Dr. Porter’s records.

On May 28, 2001, having received no input from the Adamses regarding the ordered joint pretrial memorandum, Reed filed a separate pretrial memorandum. Three days later, the Adamses filed their pretrial memorandum. Forty-five minutes before the June 4, 2001 pretrial conference was scheduled to begin, Reed’s attorney received the Magic Valley Regional Medical Center records, via fax, from the Adamses’ attorney. As a result, Reed’s attorney withdrew the motion to compel those records. Additionally, Reed’s attorney acknowledged that she had found some of Dr. Porter’s records within her file and she therefore withdrew that motion to compel. Regarding the remaining motions to compel, the Adamses’ attorney stated that he did not intend to present any testimony from Dr. Sandison or Dr. Johnson relating to treatment that occurred after 1999. Based on this representation, the district court ruled that neither Porter nor Johnson would be allowed to testify to post-1999 treatment.

Addressing Reed’s motions in limine, the district court excluded the testimony of Adamses’ financial expert and physical therapist due to untimely disclosure, and excluded the pharmacy and physical therapy records due to inadequate production of the documents. The court also barred mention of the alleged dental injury at trial because neither [39]

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Bluebook (online)
57 P.3d 505, 138 Idaho 36, 2002 Ida. App. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-reed-idahoctapp-2002.