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Adams v. Reed8/9/2002
2002 OPINION NO. 58
Order dismissing action as sanction for noncompliance with discovery and pretrial orders, affirmed.
This is a personal injury action that was dismissed by the district court as a sanction for plaintiffs' failure to make timely responses to discovery requests or to comply with pretrial orders. We affirm.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Ron Adams and Tamara Kugler Adams, husband and wife, were tenants in a house owned by Reed. After the Adamses had vacated the house, a dispute arose regarding ownership of property that had been left on the premises. In March 1999, when Tamara returned to the house to retrieve the disputed property, Reed was present and an altercation ensued. Tamara alleged that Reed hit her in the face and pushed her into a door, causing injury to her shoulder and mouth. On April 19, 1999, the Adamses filed a complaint alleging that Reed's actions permanently injured Tamara's shoulder and caused her to lose a tooth. Reed promptly filed an answer and counterclaim in which he denied the Adamses' allegations and asserted that he had sustained injuries inflicted by Tamara.
On December 2, 1999, the district court issued a pretrial order scheduling the trial for February 15, 2000 and a pretrial conference for January 31, 2000. The pretrial order also required that the parties disclose their expert witnesses by December 17, 1999 and complete discovery by January 1, 2000. On January 24, 2000, twenty-three days after the deadline for expert witness disclosure, the Adamses for the first time disclosed the identity of their expert witnesses. One day later, Reed moved to exclude the testimony from those experts. In the alternative, Reed requested a continuance of the trial to allow sufficient time to depose the witnesses. On January 31, 2000, at the hearing on Reed's motion, the parties stipulated to non-binding mediation, so the trial date was vacated. Later that day, the Adamses' attorney died. The Adamses obtained new counsel, and on February 15, 2000, the district court ordered the parties into mediation. The court said that Reed's motion to exclude witnesses would be rescheduled in the event that mediation failed.
Despite the district court's order, no mediation occurred, and on September 15, 2000, the district court issued a notice of intent to dismiss the lawsuit due to inactivity. On October 2, 2000, the Adamses' attorney responded with an affidavit in which he asked the district court to retain the case and stated that within the next thirty days he would schedule mediation. On October 12, 2000, Reed filed a motion for dismissal of the Adamses' complaint pursuant to Idaho Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to prosecute. The Adamses did not respond to Reed's motion to dismiss but filed a motion to compel Reed to participate in mediation. At a hearing on October 30, 2000, the district court denied Reed's motion to dismiss and ordered the parties to mediate by November 29, 2000. The district court noted that no progress had been made in the case without the court's intervention, and warned that any further delays or violations of court orders would result in reconsideration of Reed's motion to dismiss. In November, the case was assigned to a new district judge. The mediator, who was selected by the parties, cancelled the mediation process because the Adamses neither provided their share of payment for his services nor submitted a position paper as the mediator requested.
On January 12, 2001, the district court issued a new order governing discovery and further proceedings. That order set a trial date of June 19, 2001 and a pretrial conference date of June 4, 2001. It also required th
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