Roberts v. Wortz

2017 Ark. App. 349, 525 S.W.3d 485, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 369
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedMay 31, 2017
DocketCV-15-1012
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 349 (Roberts v. Wortz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roberts v. Wortz, 2017 Ark. App. 349, 525 S.W.3d 485, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 369 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

RAYMOND R. ABRAMSON, Judge

| jPhilip Roberts appeals the Sebastian County Circuit Court’s dismissal of his complaint with prejudice. On appeal, Roberts argues that the circuit court abused its discretion in dismissing his complaint for failing to supplement his discovery responses. We disagree and affirm.

This case has an extensive procedural history that involves two criminal prosecutions against Roberts in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. We begin by discussing the first criminal case. Specifically, on June 29, 2000, a federal jury convicted Roberts of two counts of willfully failing to file income tax returns for the 1993 and 1994 tax years in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203. The district court sentenced Roberts to sixteen months’ imprisonment and a one-year term of supervised release. Roberts was released from prison on December 19, 2001.

|2On November 28, 2006, Roberts’s car collided with Ed Dell Wortz’s vehicle. On January 24, 2013, Roberts filed a complaint in the Sebastian County Circuit Court against Wortz for negligence arising out of the car accident. 1 Among other damages, Roberts asked for loss of future income and loss of earning capacity. The court set a discovery deadline for October 19, 2014, and a trial date for December 8, 2014.

On February 13, 2014, Roberts responded to Wortz’s written discovery request that Roberts “list all lawsuits, civil, and criminal, in which [he had] ever been involved as a party.” Roberts responded that he had been a party in a divorce proceeding and “a criminal-lawsuit -with the [Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ] in 2000 in the Western District of Arkansas.”

After Roberts had served Wortz with the response, on June 25, 2014, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas filed a criminal indictment against Roberts for interfering with the administration of the IRS by impeding or obstructing the duties of an IRS agent in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a). Roberts did not supplement his discovery response with the new indictment.

On October 24, 2014, Roberts filed a motion in limine in his civil lawsuit against Wortz requesting the court to exclude evidence of his 2000 tax conviction. He argued that the conviction is inadmissible under Arkansas Rule of Evidence 609 because ten years had elapsed since the conviction. He further asserted that the conviction would result in embarrassment, annoyance, and unfair prejudice to him. Also on October 24, 2014, Roberts Isfiled a motion in limine asking the court to exclude from evidence his IRS file, which showed his outstanding tax lien. He asserted that the file was irrelevant to his negligence claim and could reveal inadmissible and prejudicial evidence regarding his 2000 tax conviction. Roberts did not reference his 2014 criminal indictment in either motion.

On November 21, 2014, Wortz filed a motion to dismiss Roberts’s complaint. She informed the court that she had independently learned that Roberts had an interest in Spinal Health <& Wellness Research Center,-LLC, and that Roberts had failed to disclose his interest in response to her discovery request for disclosures of any entities in which he has or had an interest. On December 4, 2014, the court issued a letter denying Wortz’s motion to dismiss. The court stated:

It appears to me there was in fact a discovery violation, however inadvertent it might have been. It also appears on the surface to be one that would likely have no impact on the issues to be tried. On the other hand this is according to each of you a multi-million dollar case that has been in litigation for years. I understand [Wortz’s counsel]’s desire to investigate the matter fully 'and to not be forced into a situation where he is forced to take [Roberts]’s word on the matter without further inquiry on his part. Because the violation does not appear to have resulted from a sinister plan on. behalf of [Roberts] or his witness, I will not dismiss the complaint nor will I prohibit evidence from being presented to support [Roberts]’s economic damage claim as requested in the motion.

On December 5, 2014, the court entered an order resetting the jury trial from December 8, 2014, to July 13, 2015.

On June 1, 2015, the circuit court entered an order denying Roberts’s motion in limine to exclude his tax records. The court found that Roberts’s tax records were relevant to his claim for loss of income. The court granted Roberts’s motion in limine to exclude his prior tax conviction.

UOn June 22, 2015, Roberts appeared for a change-of-plea hearing concerning the June 2014 federal indictment, Roberts informed the court that he wanted to enter a plea agreement, but he asked the court to continue the hearing until after his civil suit against Wortz had concluded. Roberts’s criminal attorney stated that Roberts’s civil attorney had asked him to make the request because he was “concerned how a felony conviction would ... impact [the civil] trial.” He also noted that if Roberts prevailed in the civil suit, he would receive a substantial recovery and could use the funds to satisfy his tax liability. The court denied Roberts’s request, and Roberts entered a guilty plea.

On June 30, 2015, Roberts filed a motion for clarification of evidentiary rulings in the civil litigation. Roberts again argued that the evidence regarding his tax lien was inadmissible.

Following the entry of Roberts’s guilty plea, Wortz’s attorney independently learned of the proceedings from a local newspaper, and on July 6, 20Í5, Wortz filed a second motion to dismiss Roberts’s complaint alleging that Roberts had willfully and fraudulently concealed the June 2014 indictment and his guilty plea by failing to supplement discovery requests. Wortz pointed out that on February 13, 2014, Roberts had responded that he had been involved only- in a divorce proceeding and the 2000 criminal proceeding; however, after the federal government had filed the indictment on June 24, 2014, Roberts failed to supplement his response. Wortz argued that Roberts’s intent to conceal the 2014 indictment was highlighted by Roberts’s motions in limine, filed four months after the federal government had indicted him, which requested the court to exclude his IRS tax file and his 2000 tax conviction. She further alleged that Roberts had attempted to postpone his criminal | Rtrial until the civil trial concluded in further efforts to conceal the proceedings from Wortz. She stated that Roberts’s concealment was a “flagrant violation of the rules regarding discovery and the duties of parties and those acting- on their behalf to act with candor and honesty before the courts of the State of Arkansas.”

On July 7, 2015, Roberts filed a motion to' continue the July 13, 2015 ■ trial daté based on his need for immediate heart surgery. On July 8, 2015, the court continued the trial date.

On July 23, 2015, Roberts responded to Wortz’s motion to dismiss denying any effort to conceal his 2014 criminal indictment and his guilty plea.

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. App. 349, 525 S.W.3d 485, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roberts-v-wortz-arkctapp-2017.