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Culbertson-Froid-Bainville Health Care Corp. v. JP Stevens & Co. Inc.10/18/2005
Submitted on Briefs: August 23, 2005
Roosevelt Medical Memorial Center and Nursing Home (Roosevelt) sued JP Stevens & Co. Inc. (Stevens) in connection with an allegedly faulty roof it purchased from Stevens. In response to Stevens's violation of its order that required Stevens to respond to discovery requests, the District Court struck Stevens's defenses and entered judgment in favor of Roosevelt on the issue of liability. After holding a hearing to determine the amount of damages, the District Court awarded Roosevelt $143,713.
Stevens now appeals the severity of the sanctions imposed by the District Court as well as its calculation of damages. We affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Roosevelt purchased a roofing system from Stevens in 1987. After the roofing system was installed on the Roosevelt County Memorial Hospital in Culbertson, Montana, a Stevens representative inspected it. Stevens then issued a ten-year warranty on the roof. Before the expiration of the warranty period, the roof began to leak, allowing water to enter into and damage the interior of the hospital. After attempts to repair the roof proved unsuccessful, Roosevelt replaced the entire roof.
In March 1999, Roosevelt filed a complaint against Stevens in the District Court, asserting claims of negligence, product liability, breach of express warranty, and breach of implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Stevens denied having sold the roof to Roosevelt, denied liability on all claims and asserted a variety of affirmative defenses. The case stagnated until August 8, 2002, when Roosevelt, having changed counsel, propounded its first discovery requests. At that time, the trial was scheduled to begin on October 8, 2002, and discovery was scheduled to close on August 30, 2002.
On January 14, 2003, after twice continuing the trial date, the District Court vacated the trial date and ordered the parties to undergo mediation. The District Court ordered the parties to attend the mediation with "responsible decision-makers" who were "prepared to fully discuss and explore" settlement. Roosevelt attended the mediation with several representatives who had full authority to settle the case. Stevens attended the mediation with a representative who apparently lacked authority to settle the case. At Roosevelt's request, the District Court later imposed sanctions on Stevensfor violating its order, requiring it to reimburse Roosevelt's costs incurred in attending the mediation.
Meanwhile, on January 27, 2003, Roosevelt, having received no response to its August discovery requests, moved the District Court to compel responses. On February 3, 2003, Stevens replied to the court that the motion to compel should be denied because it had served responses to Roosevelt that very day. Stevens's "response" consisted of objections to virtually all of the twenty-eight requests for productions and interrogatories issued by Roosevelt. Stevens provided complete responses to only two of Roosevelt's requests, provided incomplete responses to three other requests, and referred Roosevelt to documents it already possessed in response to two other requests. The remaining twenty-one requests evoked only a litany of objections. Stevens never sought a protective order in conjunction with any of its objections.
On March 19, 2003, the District Court ordered Stevens to fully respond to certain of Roosevelt's discovery requests within thirty days. On May 19, 2003, after receiving no further responses from Stevens, Roosevelt moved the court to strike Stevens's defenses as a sanction for failing to comply with the court's order, pur
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