Scipione v. Advance Stores Co.

294 F.R.D. 659, 2013 WL 5550374, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147619
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedOctober 8, 2013
DocketNo. 8:12-cv-687-T-24AEP
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 294 F.R.D. 659 (Scipione v. Advance Stores Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scipione v. Advance Stores Co., 294 F.R.D. 659, 2013 WL 5550374, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147619 (M.D. Fla. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

ANTHONY E. PORCELLI, United States Magistrate Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant Advance Stores Company, Inc.’s Motion to Impose Sanctions on Plaintiff for Committing Fraud on the Court and Discovery Violations (“Motion”). (Dkt. No. 42.) Plaintiff filed a Response (Dkt. No. 55) in opposition to the Motion, and Defendant filed a Reply (Dkt. No. 59). On May 28, 2013, the Court conducted an evidentiary hearing on the matter. Defendant asserts that Plaintiff set in motion an unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the Court’s ability to impartially adjudicate this matter by hiding from Defendant evidence of pre-existing medical conditions, prior injuries, medical care, and post-accident injuries. (Dkt. No. 42 at 1.) As such, Defendant asserts that, pursuant to the Court’s inherent authority or alternatively pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(b)(2) and (c)(1), Plaintiffs case should be dismissed with prejudice. (Id. at 19.) In response, Plaintiff in essence argues that although she did not provide adequate discovery responses, she never intended to mislead Defendant or defraud the Court. (Dkt. No. 55 at 2.) For the reasons that follow, I find that Plaintiff recklessly acted in bad faith during the discovery phase of this matter, warranting monetary and other sanctions.

I. Background

Plaintiff initiated this action following a pm-ported slip-and-fall at an Advance Auto Parts Store. (Dkt. No. 2.) Plaintiff alleges that on February 23, 2011, she slipped and fell in “an oily substance on the pavement” in the parking lot at Defendant’s auto parts [661]*661store at Park Boulevard, Pinellas Park, Florida, and, as a result, seeks damages related to an alleged injury of her left knee. (Id.) On October 13, 2012, the Court entered a Case Management and Scheduling Order (Dkt. No. 26), in which the Court set a discovery deadline of February 1, 2013, and a dispositive motion deadline of March 1, 2013. During the discovery phase of this case, the following relevant events occurred: (1) on September 18, 2012, Defendant served Plaintiff with the 1st Set of Interrogatories; (2) on October 10, 2012, Plaintiff provided Defendant with a Supplemental Rule 26 Initial Disclosure (Dkt. No. 42, Ex. No. 2); (3) on October 19, 2012, Plaintiff provided Defendant with Responses to the 1st Set of Interrogatories (Dkt. No. 42, Ex. No. 1); (4) on November 14, 2012, Plaintiff provided Defendant with Supplemental Responses to the 1st Set of Interrogatories (Dkt. No. 42, Ex. No. 3); (5) on November 15, 2012, Plaintiff was deposed (Defendant’s Hearing Ex. No. 4); (6) on December 13, 2012, Defendant served Plaintiff with the 2nd Set of Interrogatories (Dkt. No. 42, Ex. No. 5); (7) on February 1, 2012, Defendant filed a Motion to Compel Discovery Responses (Dkt. No. 34); and (8) after conducting a hearing on February 20, 2013, the Court entered an Order (Dkt. No. 40) granting Defendant’s Motion to Compel and directing Plaintiff to identify additional medical providers as requested by Defendant.

II. Findings of Fact

Despite multiple efforts by Defendant to obtain relevant discovery, Plaintiff failed to appropriately provide responsive information. Significantly, given that Plaintiff alleged in this ease an injury to her left knee, Plaintiff failed to provide responsive information about prior- and post-incident medical treatment on her left knee related to four events: (1) a September 25, 2008 examination of Plaintiff by Dr. Chirag Patel, M.D., which involved X-rays on Plaintiff’s left knee; (2) a workers’ compensation claim related to a fall at work in October 2009, which required an MRI of Plaintiffs left knee and some type of occupational therapy; (3) a fall at Plaintiffs home in August 2011, which required an MRI of Plaintiffs left knee, as well as surgery on Plaintiffs left knee by Dr. Wendell Bulmer, D.O.; and (4) Dr. Bulmer opining, upon review of another MRI in April 2012, that a lesion on Plaintiffs left knee represented a new injury, resulting in further treatment by Dr. Gary Levine, D.O. and Dr. Katz1 (collectively “four events”). Indeed, information about the four events should have been provided by Plaintiff in response to Interrogatory No. 11 of Defendant’s 1st Set of Interrogatories, served on September 18, 2012, which requested the following:

List the names and business addresses of all physicians, mental health professionals, medical facilities, or other health care providers by whom or at which you have been examined or treated in the past 10 years; and state as to each the dates of examination or treatment and the condition or injury for which you were examined or treated.

(Dkt. No. 42, Ex. No. 1 at 5.) However, in response to Interrogatory No. 11, Plaintiff provided no information regarding any of the four events. (Dkt. No. 42, Ex. No. 1 at 11-12.)

Additionally, in response to Interrogatory No. 10 of Defendant’s 1st Set of Interrogatories Plaintiff itemized her past medical expenses, as follows:

$ 612.00 Sunshine City Emergency Physician
$42,870.97 St. Petersburg General Hospital
58.46 Babat, Katz & Honeycutt, M.D.S., P.A. $
Bay Sports Orthopedic Specialists $20,550.00
Tampa Bay Imaging $ 1,850.00
Back & Neck Pain Clinic $ 2,355.00
TOTAL TO DATE AND CONTINUING: $68,897.23

(Id., Ex. No. 1 at 11.) Notably, the medical providers identified as medical expenses in [662]*662response to Interrogatory No. 10 were the only medical providers identified by Plaintiff in response to Interrogatory No. 11. (Id., Ex. No. 1 at 11-12.) However, the medical expenses itemized by Plaintiff in response to Interrogatory No. 10 were materially inconsistent with the medical expenses itemized by Plaintiff on October 10, 2012, in her Supplemental Rule 26 Initial Disclosure. Specifically, in the Supplemental Rule 26 Initial Disclosure, Plaintiff listed the following additional medical providers, as bolded below:

Town & Country Hospital $ 15,811.47
St. Petersburg General Hospital $ 42,870.97
Back & Neck Pain Clinic $ 6,617.00
Sunshine City Emergency Physician $ 612.00
Pathology Associates $ 285.00
James G. Hankerson, M.D., P.A. $ 1,680.00
Sunstar Emergency Medical Services $ 600.80
Bay Sports Orthopedic Specialists $ 22,775.00
Ruffolo Hooper & Associates, MD $ 118.00
Babat, Katz & Honeycutt, M.D.S., P.A. $ 58.46
Tampa Bay Imaging $ 1,850.00
Gulf to Bay Anesthesiology $ 1,716.00
Medical Specialists of Tampa Bay $ 22,007.46
TOTAL AND CONTINUING: $117,002.16

(Id., Ex. No.

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Bluebook (online)
294 F.R.D. 659, 2013 WL 5550374, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scipione-v-advance-stores-co-flmd-2013.