Applegate v. United States

35 Fed. Cl. 47, 1996 U.S. Claims LEXIS 22, 1996 WL 87510
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedFebruary 29, 1996
DocketNo. 92-832L
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 35 Fed. Cl. 47 (Applegate v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Applegate v. United States, 35 Fed. Cl. 47, 1996 U.S. Claims LEXIS 22, 1996 WL 87510 (uscfc 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

MILLER, Judge.

This case is before the court after full briefing on Defendant’s Motion To Dismiss Plaintiffs and Issues. To be decided is whether plaintiffs’ failure to comply with defendant’s discovery requests, in light of the court’s orders directing compliance, warrants dismissal of plaintiffs and issues.

FACTS

The facts pertinent to defendant’s motion are gleaned from published and unpublished orders and opinions of the court, the parties’ motions, and transcripts of court proceedings over a four-year period. This summary is set forth solely to resolve the pending motion and does not constitute findings of fact for purposes of liability or damages.

Defendant’s motion was filed per instructions included in an order issued on August 18,1995. That order stated: “Should defendant still have incomplete or insufficient information regarding any plaintiffs claim, on or before December 15,1995, defendant shall file a motion to dismiss plaintiffs and/or issues from this action based on plaintiffs’ failure to provide information necessary to defend this action.” Applegate v. United States, No. 92-832L ¶ 3 (Fed.Cl. Aug. 18, 1995) (order granting defendant’s motion to compel). Based on a perception of continued non-compliance with the court’s orders on discovery, defendant filed its motion.

This case is a constitutional takings case first filed in 1992. Plaintiffs allege that actions by the Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) have led to the loss of value and use of their beachfront property in the Cape Canaveral, Florida area. The size of the ease has grown by leaps and bounds and now encompasses well over 300 plaintiffs and more than 300 parcels of land. The case involves complicated legal issues underlying both liability and damages.

Defendant first served interrogatories and document production requests on plaintiffs on January 11, 1995. Plaintiffs’ discovery responses were due on February 13, 1995. Defendant received plaintiffs’ objections on February 15, 1995. After an informal attempt to resolve the dispute, and with no resolution in sight, defendant filed its motion to compel on February 24, 1995, contending that plaintiffs refused to provide information regarding location of properties, interests held by each owner, identity of each person holding an interest, and the price paid for each property. Specifically, defendant argued that plaintiffs failed to answer defen[50]*50dant’s Interrogatory No. 8, which states: “For each Plaintiff, identify the amount of property that has been lost or taken since each Plaintiff purchased the property identified in Interrogatory No. 3. Attach copies of all documents relative to the response noted in your answer.”

During a status conference on February 27, 1995, defendant’s discovery requests and motion to compel were discussed. Although plaintiffs had not responded to defendant’s discovery requests, the court had basic knowledge of plaintiffs’ arguments since copies of plaintiffs’ objections and responses were appended to defendant’s motion to compel. The court characterized plaintiffs’ objections as “flimsy ... [and] totally without merit.” Transcript of Proceedings, Applegate v. United States, No. 92-832L at 7 (Fed.Cl. Mar. 21, 1995) (hereinafter “Tr.”). Defendant’s discovery requests were “so basic to any takings jurisdiction ... [and] of a very modest scope. It is absolutely essential to determine whether each plaintiff should even be in this court.” Id. at 16. The court concluded that “[b]ased on the objections to the documentary requests and the interrogatories that I have read, I can see no basis to oppose this motion.” Id. at 17.

Subsequently, by order dated February 27, 1995, the court bifurcated trial and directed plaintiffs to respond to defendant’s discovery requests:

1. On plaintiffs’ request and pursuant to RCFC 42(c), trial will be limited to the issues of law and fact relating to the right of plaintiffs to recover, reserving the determination of the amount of recovery, if any, to further proceedings. However, discovery, including depositions, shall proceed with respect to all issues, excluding discovery relating to expert valuation (damages) reports and testimony.
9. Pursuant to RCFC 77.1(a) and (b)(2), and having heard counsel during the status conference with respect thereto, the court deems that the advancement of the case is facilitated by ruling on Defendant’s Motion ... without awaiting a written response from plaintiffs. The court makes its ruling principally based on the objections that plaintiffs served with respect to defendant’s January 11, 1995 discovery requests. These objections are unfounded in fact or law for the reasons stated in defendant’s motion____

Applegate v. United States, No. 92-832L, ¶¶ 1, 9 (Fed.Cl. Feb. 27, 1995). Plaintiffs thereby were ordered to respond to defendant’s discovery requests by March 20, 1995. The court awarded defense counsel fees and costs on its motion.

In March 1995 plaintiffs responded to defendant’s Interrogatory No. 8, requesting identification of properties allegedly taken from each plaintiff, with the following answer for each plaintiff:

The amount of property lost or taken from Plaintiffs as alleged in the Complaint is equal to the difference between the mean high water line in October 1951 and the mean high water line today. Further, in addition to damages suffered as a result of the loss of Plaintiffs’ property by the encroachment of the mean high water line, additional property has been washed away and lost due to erosion. Finally, erosion has caused the State Coastal Construction Control Line to be moved westward, further damaging and impairing Plaintiffs’ valuable property rights by the imposition of severe regulatory restraints. All of the above losses and damages constitute a constitutional taking of valuable property rights.

The parties convened for another status conference on April 28, 1995, to discuss discovery matters and establish a protocol to ease the burden of litigating multiple claims. Issues arose regarding the extent to which plaintiffs were required to provide information on the damages sustained by each individual plaintiff. Defendant contended that plaintiffs had supplied “no information about any one plaintiff, or any group of plaintiffs [sic] damages.” Tr. at 31 (Fed.Cl. May 25, 1995). Defense counsel took the position that the Government was “entitled to know what plaintiffs have lost. They cannot credibly maintain that each plaintiff has lost the same damage — or incurred the same dam-age____ I need to know and I think I’m entitled to know what plaintiffs have lost.” [51]*51Id. at 32. Plaintiffs’ counsel offered that, towards satisfying defendant’s discovery requests, “I do believe quite sincerely that with the proper amount of work and some motion practice that we will actually fall upon a sort of rule of thumb formula to which you plug in the variances of each of these individual pieces of properties which will render us some pretty good ballpark figures on what the losses are.” Id. at 40. Defendant rejoined that any response based on application of a formula to the individual properties was unhelpful and of no greater significance or insight than responses previously received. Plaintiffs responded that “damages are a component of how much land has been lost” and therefore outside of the scope of discovery required for the bifurcated issue of liability. Id. at 44.

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Bluebook (online)
35 Fed. Cl. 47, 1996 U.S. Claims LEXIS 22, 1996 WL 87510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/applegate-v-united-states-uscfc-1996.