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Smith v. Butte-silver Bow County5/6/1996
thing to "the substance of the facts" and the "summary of the grounds for each opinion" which are required to be disclosed by Rule 26(b)(4)(A)(i), M.R.Civ.P. Moreover, nothing in Rule 26, M.R.Civ.P., permits a party to decline to comply with the Rule and a court order requiring compliance therewith on the basis of that party's belief or opinion that the opposing party already possesses the required information.
Having submitted its disclosure, the Estate obtained the court's clarification order explicitly requiring it to provide its experts' opinions and the bases for those opinions. The District Court expressly noted therein that " hile [the County] previously deposed [the Estate's] experts, [the Estate's] attorney at the depositions of certain experts instructed the experts not to answer relevant questions about the basis of their opinions."
The Estate did not provide any additional information relating to its expert witnesses in response to the District Court's clarification order. Instead, it merely stated that it had previously supplied the required information regarding those witnesses to the County and that the information supplied "complies fully with Rule 26, MRCP[;]" it referred the court to its "Rule 26(b)(4) Disclosure."
This final response essentially ignored the clarification order which the Estate requested and received, and totally failed to comply therewith. In light of the court's clear awareness that the expert witness depositions had been taken, and the court's clear determination that those depositions had not produced the required information about the bases of the experts' opinions, the Estate's response appropriately could be characterized — in the vernacular — as "in your face." Whatever counsel's intent in framing his client's response to a clear court order may have been — whether gamesmanship with the County or disdainful "one-upmanship" with the District Court — the Estate's response did not comply with the explicit requirements of the court's clarification order.
We conclude that the Estate's expert-related responses to the District Court's initial order on remand satisfied neither the "substance of the facts" requirement nor the "summary of the grounds for each opinion" requirement of Rule 26(b)(4)(A)(i), M.R.Civ.P. We also conclude that the Estate's response to the District Court's clarification order totally failed to comply with the expert witness-related portion of that order. Therefore, we hold that the Estate committed discovery abuses after remand.
REVIEW OF SANCTIONS
Rule 37(b)(2), M.R.Civ.P., provides, in relevant part:
If a party . . . fails to obey an order to provide or permit discovery, . . . the court in which the action is pending may make such orders in regard to the failure as are just and among others the following:
(C) An order . . . dismissing the action. . . .
After concluding that the Estate failed to obey its clarification order, the District Court dismissed the Estate's complaint with prejudice. We review the District Court's dismissal of the Estate's complaint pursuant to Rule 37(b)(2)(C), M.R.Civ.P., to determine if the court abused its discretion. See Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319.
Acknowledging both the discretionary nature of a trial court's decisions on sanctions for discovery abuse and the availability of the dismissal sanction under Rule 37, M.R.Civ.P., the Estate argues that dismissal was an abuse of the District Court's discretion under these facts. It relies on the District Court's statement accompanying the clarification order that, in the event the Estate failed to provide the exper
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