Pevsner v. Frederick

656 So. 2d 262, 1995 WL 366340
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 21, 1995
Docket94-3134
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 656 So. 2d 262 (Pevsner v. Frederick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pevsner v. Frederick, 656 So. 2d 262, 1995 WL 366340 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

656 So.2d 262 (1995)

N. Henry PEVSNER, M.D., Petitioner,
v.
Gertrude Ellen FREDERICK and Allstate Insurance Company, Respondents.

No. 94-3134.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

June 21, 1995.

*263 Patrick B. Flanagan of Flanagan & Maniotis, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.

Philip M. Burlington of Caruso, Burlington, Bohn & Compiani, P.A., and F. Kendall Slinkman, P.A., West Palm Beach, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

Petitioner, a nonparty defense witness in the personal injury action below, seeks certiorari review of an order imposing sanctions against him for discovery violations. The order awards the plaintiff attorney's fees and costs incurred (to be paid by petitioner) as a result of the petitioner's refusal to answer questions during his deposition and his failure to appear for re-deposition. The order expressly stated that it was not holding the petitioner in contempt and includes no finding that the petitioner's disobedience was wilful. After the petition was filed, the trial court entered an order setting the amount of the costs and attorney's fees to be paid by the petitioner in accordance with the order under review, pending the outcome of these proceedings on the petition. We grant the petition and quash both orders,[1] concluding that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in ordering sanctions against a nonparty for a discovery violation in the absence of a finding of contempt.

Rule 1.380(b)(1), Florida Rules of Civil Procedure (1994), provides for sanctions in the event that a nonparty deponent fails to comply with an order of the court requiring him to be sworn or to answer questions:

If a deponent fails to be sworn or to answer a question after being directed to do so by the court, the failure may be considered a contempt of the court.[[2]]

The rule does not expressly provide for the imposition of any other type of sanction if (as is the case here) the deponent is found not to be in contempt. The sanctions available under subsection (b)(2) of the rule are limited in their application to the parties or their agents. The petitioner argues that in the absence of a finding of contempt, the rule does not authorize any sanctions against a nonparty deponent. Our research did not reveal any Florida case that interprets subsection (b)(1) of the rule.[3]

In Florida Physicians Insurance Reciprocal v. Baliton, 436 So.2d 1110 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), which admittedly dealt with a different subsection of rule 1.380(b), this court concluded that trial courts are limited to imposing those sanctions that are expressly provided for in the rule. Under this rationale, the sole sanction available for a nonparty deponent's failure to obey an order compelling his deposition is contempt. This result is compatible with M.S.S. v. DeMaio, 503 So.2d 1384, 1386 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987), in which the Fifth District Court of Appeal quashed an order that dismissed a minor's complaint (a subsection (b)(2) sanction) due to her nonparty parent's refusal to answer certain questions during their depositions. The court cautioned that the only sanction available was to find the parents in contempt under rule 1.380(b)(1).

Because the order below does not comply with the terms of rule 1.380(b)(1), insofar as it imposes a sanction on a nonparty after *264 refusing to find that nonparty in contempt, it constitutes a departure from the essential requirements of the law and must be quashed on certiorari review. In re Eisenberg, 466 So.2d 1221, 1223 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985) (probate rules); State v. Battle, 302 So.2d 782, 783 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974) (rules of criminal procedure).

DELL, C.J., and GLICKSTEIN, J., concur.

FARMER, J., concurs specially with opinion.

FARMER, Judge, concurring specially.

During the course of pretrial discovery, the trial court entered an order compelling answers to deposition questions by Dr. Pevsner, a person designated by defendant to be called to testify as an expert witness.[4] Dr. Pevsner then failed to appear at the deposition, and plaintiff moved to hold him in contempt and impose "sanctions," or remedies under rule 1.380(b)(2)(A)-(E).[5] The trial court disclaimed any contempt finding but granted the monetary remedy, namely attorney's fees and costs. It is that order that Dr. Pevsner has asked us to review.

In practice it is generally understood that the party designating an expert witness in civil actions becomes responsible for the expert's conduct as a witness, particularly as to scheduling and availability. Consequently, it is generally the designating party's burden to insure the expert's timely appearance for deposition or trial testimony. The necessary implication of party responsibility for the conduct of the expert in complying with discovery requirements would seem to be that the failure to do so can or should result in some imposition, such as the payment of costs and fees incurred or, more drastically, a loss of the right to call the expert to testify. The applicable rules, as we shall see, bear out that conclusion.

I note that there is no requirement in the civil rules directly obligating a party to call an expert witness; although of necessity it may be impossible to prove a critical fact without one. When substantive law makes it tacitly, if not explicitly, necessary to have an expert establish a fact in issue,[6] the choice of the particular specialty and expert are left entirely to the party who has the burden of establishing the fact in issue. We contrast this with fact witnesses, as to whom events — i.e. the transactions and occurrences in suit — determine the identity of witnesses and the necessity for their testimony.

There is now an identifiable commercial market for expert witnesses, with very intense competition in some specialties. That is certainly true in several medical disciplines. With the competition of the market comes the ability of the buyer to select the sellers whose products are the subject of the competition. That right of choice includes the right to bargain for contractual provisions requiring the expert witness to comply with the discovery processes and any orders of the court, so that the contracted services do not become unavailable by reason of the conduct of the expert. An inevitable consequence of that reality is that experts may be expected to bargain for the costs of compliance into the their contract with the party hoping to benefit from their services.

Rule 1.280(b)(4) addresses the procedure for the disclosure of expected expert witnesses *265 and provides for discovery of the facts they may know and the opinions they may hold. Subdivision (b)(4)(A) of the rule specifies that the court may control pretrial depositions of experts pursuant to subdivision (b)(4)(C), which in turn provides in relevant part:

"(C) Unless manifest injustice would result, the court shall require that the party seeking discovery pay the expert a reasonable fee for time spent in responding to discovery under subdivisions (b)(4)(A) and (b)(4)(B) of this rule; and concerning discovery from an expert obtained under subdivision (b)(4)(A) of this rule the court may require * * * the party seeking discovery to pay the other party a fair part of the fees and expenses reasonably incurred by the latter party in obtaining facts and opinions from the expert." [e.s.]

This rule obviously requires payment of expert fees from party to party, not from expert to party.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
656 So. 2d 262, 1995 WL 366340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pevsner-v-frederick-fladistctapp-1995.