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Smith v. Butte-silver Bow County5/6/1996
. Landauer, 732 P.2d at 841.
Similar to the district court in Landauer, the District Court in this case warned in its initial post-remand order that if the Estate failed to comply, "then the court will be left with no other alternative but to dismiss this case with prejudice or impose other appropriate sanctions." However, the Estate then moved the District Court to clarify that order and the court issued a clarification order wherein it modified its prior warning, at least with regard to the expert witness information, by requiring that the Estate provide the expert-related information "or in the alternative this Court must reopen the depositions of [the Estate's] experts to answer questions about the basis of their opinions."
The record before us demonstrates that the Estate provided two of the three categories of information set forth in the District Court's clarification order; it also provided part of the ordered expert witness information. Notwithstanding its specific warning of the sanction which would result from the Estate's failure to provide the ordered expert-related information, however, the District Court dismissed the Estate's complaint with prejudice.
Thus, in both Landauer and the present case, the parties were expressly warned of the consequences for failure to comply with the court's discovery-related order. In Landauer, the district court imposed the consequence of which it had warned — dismissal with prejudice — and we determined that the court had not abused its discretion. See Landauer, 732 P.2d at 841. In this case, however, the District Court imposed consequences much more severe than those of which it had expressly warned. Landauer does not, therefore, compel a conclusion that the sanction of dismissal with prejudice was appropriate here.
We reaffirm our policy that, in reviewing the imposition of Rule 37 sanctions, we generally must defer to the decision of the district court. See Eisenmenger, 871 P.2d at 1319. When parties fail to comply with court orders enforcing the rules of discovery, they must suffer the consequences. See Owen, 627 P.2d at 1236. The extent of the "consequences" imposed by a district court, however, should relate to the extent and nature of the actual discovery abuse and the extent of the prejudice to the opposing party which results therefrom. Moreover, where a court expressly warns of the consequences to follow from a party's failure to comply, the court should impose sanctions accordingly.
Here, the Estate's failure to comply with ordered discovery was totally insupportable, but relatively limited, as was the prejudice to the County. Thus, the dismissal sanction bears little relationship to the nature and extent of the discovery abuse and the resulting prejudice in this case. Most importantly, the District Court's imposition of the ultimate sanction of dismissal was a marked, and significant, departure from the specific consequences of which it had elected to warn the Estate.
Discovery abuse tactics, especially in this era of crowded dockets, deprive other litigants of an opportunity to use the courts as a serious dispute-settlement mechanism. See First Bank (N.A.)-Billings, 711 P.2d at 1386 (quoting G-K Properties v. Redevelopment Agency, Etc. (9th Cir. 1978), 577 F.2d 645, 647). Rule 37, M.R.Civ.P., provides a necessary tool for district courts to manage crowded dockets. Dismissal of an action with prejudice, however, is the "most severe in the spectrum of sanctions provided by statute or rule[;] . . . must be available to the district court in appropriate cases. . . ." National Hockey League et al. v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc., et al. (1976), 427 U.S. 639, 643, 96
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