Shoreway Circle, Inc. v. Gerald Skoch Co.

637 N.E.2d 355, 92 Ohio App. 3d 823, 1994 Ohio App. LEXIS 10
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 27, 1994
DocketNo. 64510.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 637 N.E.2d 355 (Shoreway Circle, Inc. v. Gerald Skoch Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shoreway Circle, Inc. v. Gerald Skoch Co., 637 N.E.2d 355, 92 Ohio App. 3d 823, 1994 Ohio App. LEXIS 10 (Ohio Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

Porter, Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant, Shoreway Circle, Inc., appeals from the trial court’s dismissal with prejudice of its third amended complaint alleging legal malpractice. The complaint was dismissed for failure to provide discovery pursuant to Civ.R. 37(B) and (D). Plaintiff contends that the dismissal was contrary to the Civil Rules, since the court gave it no order, notice or warning that such a drastic remedy was to be applied, or, even if it had notice, it was entitled to a “second” chance. Plaintiff also assigns error in numerous discovery and pleading rulings made by the court leading up to the dismissal. For the reasons hereinafter stated, we find the appeal is not well taken and affirm the judgment dismissing plaintiff’s complaint.

We note that, from the outset of the case, there arose a series of disputes which quickly escalated into a full-scale paper war, enough to try the patience of any trial judge. Be that as it may, we will attempt to trace the unfortunate history of this case insofar as necessary to our ruling.

On July 15, 1991, plaintiff filed a twenty-five page, one hundred fifty-five-paragraph legal malpractice complaint against defendants, Gerald Skoch Co., L.P.A., and attorneys Gerald Skoch and Allan Churchmack. The complaint alleged malpractice in the representation of plaintiff in various leasehold transactions and litigation arising out of those transactions. Defendants moved to strike various paragraphs of the complaint as redundant, irrelevant, impertinent and scandalous under Civ.R. 12(E) and because plaintiff alleged more than $25,000 in damages contrary to R.C. 2309.01. Six briefs were filed on these threshold issues alone. On November 17, 1991, the court granted the motion to strike in certain respects accompanied by a written opinion.

Several amended complaints were filed culminating in plaintiff’s third amended complaint filed December 11, 1991. At a case management conference on December 16, 1991, a discovery cutoff of July 1, 1992 and a trial date of *825 September 28, 1992 were set. Defendants’ answer to the third amended complaint and counterclaim were filed on January 10, 1992. The same date, defendants served a request for the production of documents and a set of interrogatories.

The record is replete with a number of motions and counter-motions: to compel discovery, for default, to strike, to dismiss, in limine, for oral hearings, for sanctions, expenses and attorneys fees and motions for reconsideration of various rulings.

On April 8,1992, plaintiff’s motion to compel discovery was denied and plaintiff was ordered “to respond to defendant’s discovery requests forthwith.” On April 10, 1992, the court formally granted defendants’ motion to compel, requiring plaintiff to “comply with” defendants’ outstanding discovery requests (interrogatories and document production) by May 1, 1992, “or sanctions will be imposed including dismissal.” Plaintiffs request to stay discovery was denied. On April 30, plaintiff served its responses to the interrogatories and request for documents. Defendants found these responses evasive and incomplete.

Following unsuccessful informal efforts to obtain compliance, on July 2, 1992, defendants moved to dismiss for plaintiffs failure to provide discovery as ordered by the court. Plaintiff opposed the motion but made no effort to supplement or amend its responses.

On August 6, 1992, over plaintiffs opposition, defendants’ motion to dismiss was granted with prejudice. The court’s journal entry stated as follows:

“Defendant’s motion to dismiss granted. Plaintiff has demonstrated a pattern of refusal to comply with the most simple .requests for discovery. Plaintiff was cautioned that sanctions, including dismissal, would be imposed for failure to answer outstanding discovery by May 1, 1992 (See order Vol 1488 pg 570). The court, in reviewing the history of the case as well as attachments to pleading and copies of correspondence in the court file, finds that plaintiffs failure to comply with discovery requests to be willful, on-going and in bad faith. Plaintiff has been given ample opportunity to answer the interrogatories and refuses to answer same appropriately and in accord with the Court’s instructions. Russo v. Goodyear (1987), [36] Ohio App.3d 175 [521 N.E.2d 1116].”

On August 13, 1992, plaintiff moved the court for reconsideration of its dismissal, stating its grounds at page 2 of its supporting brief as follows:

“First, it is preposterous to dismiss a Case on such a flimsy basis. Second, does this Court think for one minute that the Plaintiff would not have amended its Responses if this Court ordered it to do so? What this Court has done is to make the same mistake as the Defendants: it has assumed that the Plaintiff has violated a Court Order which ordered the Plaintiff to do no more than to file its *826 Discovery Responses. The Plaintiff DID file its Discovery Responses. [Emphasis sic.]
“Now this Court has decided that the Plaintiffs ‘failure to comply with discovery requests to be willful, ongoing and in bad faith. Plaintiff has had ample time to answer the interrogatories and refuses to answer some appropriately and in accord with this Court’s instructions.’ Judgment Entry filed August 6, 1992. THIS IS ABSURD. Over and over again, the Plaintiff has offered to meet with the Defendants and this Court to resolve this discovery dispute — and everyone has refused. Moreover, the Plaintiff has timely responded in writing to every letter from the Defendants. How on earth does this conduct — evincing a good faith discovery dispute — arise to the level of bad faith? There is just no evidence of bad faith. How on earth does this Court convert its prior Order to reply into one telling the Plaintiff to ‘appropriately answer’ the Defendants’ Interrogatories? The plain fact is that the Plaintiff answered or objected to each and every Interrogatory. Where does this Court get the idea that a party has to ‘Answer’ an interrogatory?” (Emphasis sic.)

The trial court denied plaintiffs motion for reconsideration on August 24, 1992 and this appeal was timely filed. Defendants voluntarily dismissed their counterclaim without prejudice.

We will consider plaintiffs Assignments of Error VIII and IX in the first instance because we find them dispositive of this appeal:

“VIII. The court erred when on or about August 6, 1992, the court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss with prejudice. Volume 1530, Page 532.”
“IX. The court erred when on or about August 24, 1992, the court denied the plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration. Volume 1535, Page 277.”

The outcome of this appeal turns on whether or not the trial court committed an abuse of its discretion in dismissing the plaintiffs case for its failure to comply with the court’s orders compelling discovery, which conduct the court found to be “willful, on-going and in bad faith.”

We may not reverse the trial court’s decision unless it “affirmatively appears from the record that the court abused its discretion and that the sanction was not just.” Evans v. Smith

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Bluebook (online)
637 N.E.2d 355, 92 Ohio App. 3d 823, 1994 Ohio App. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shoreway-circle-inc-v-gerald-skoch-co-ohioctapp-1994.