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In re Marriage of Barnett12/5/2003
UNPUBLISHED
Respondent, Sol Barnett, appeals a judgment of dissolution of marriage entered by the circuit court of Champaign County on September 5, 2002. Respondent argues the trial court erred (1) in barring him from presenting certain evidence as a sanction for refusing to afford discovery and (2) in finding that his transfer of a joint tenancy Fidelity account to petitioner, Phyllis Jane Barnett, constituted a gift, rendering the account petitioner's non-marital property. We affirm.
Petitioner and respondent were married April 23, 1988. On February 29, 2000, petitioner filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. Shortly after the petition was filed, petitioner moved to California and respondent moved to North Dakota.
Petitioner filed a request to produce and matrimonial interrogatories on April 5, 2000. Respondent filed a motion for an extension of time, and on June 27, 2000, the trial court entered an agreed order requiring respondent to furnish discovery within 60 days. When that was not done, the court, on January 25, 2001, ordered discovery be furnished within 10 days, warning that failure to do so would result in a default finding being entered, and assessed attorney fees. Respondent delivered a response of sorts on February 5, 2001. Many of respondent's answers, however, included the phrases "records for 2000 and 2001 are to be provided," "details are unavailable to respondent at this writing," "respondent has not been able to access all documents needed to complete this answer," "respondent's efforts to complete a list, without access to records, continues," and "records are not available to me. Records are with accountant, Barb Lichti, petitioner, or in Champaign home." Lichti, however, stated that she informed respondent numerous times that she did not have the records he sought.
At a hearing on March 19, 2001, respondent's attorney advised the court that he had supplied petitioner with 15 pounds of discovery response and "I kind of foresee the court having to look through a thousand pages of documents to reconcile this." The trial court denied respondent's motion for an extension of time to supplement discovery. At a later pretrial conference, the trial court advised the parties it would make a final ruling on discovery and "I expect both of you to have everything that you want the court to see that day so I can make a call so that we can get on with this case." On October 2, 2001, the court made its final ruling on discovery. The court stated "I believe 'details are unavailable at this time' is in fact an improper answer. It's a euphemism for saying I am not going to get around to answering your question yet." Accordingly, the court imposed a sanction, barring respondent from presenting any further evidence relating to financial information, and awarding attorney fees.
Respondent argues the trial court erred in sanctioning him on October 2, 2001, because by that time he was in compliance with petitioner's discovery requests. An appellate court will not overturn a trial court's sanction absent an abuse of discretion. See Ciampi v. Ogden Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., 262 Ill. App. 3d 94, 108, 634 N.E.2d 448, 458 (1994). Respondent's "15 pounds of discovery" response was inadequate. In re Blank, 145 Ill. 2d 534, 549, 585 N.E.2d 105, 112 (1991) (practice of answering interrogatories with vague, general responses and attaching to them 23 pages of unverified, unidentified documents not specifically referred to or described in answer is not an acceptable substitute for answers required by court rule). Failure to comply is unreasonable if it is a "deliberate, contumacious, or unwarranted disregard of the court's authority." Blott v. Hanson, 283 Ill.
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