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Raye v. Central Iowa Hospital Corp.2/9/2005
Plaintiffs in a medical malpractice action appeal the order imposing sanctions on them. REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.
David and Cindy Raye filed a medical malpractice action on May 25, 1999, naming as defendants, among others, Central Iowa Hospital Corporation d/b/a Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Dr. Mansour Jadali, and Dr. Samuel Bundz. As a result of the plaintiffs' deception during discovery, the trial court sanctioned them by dismissing the case. On appeal, this court reversed, concluding the sanction of dismissal was too extreme. Raye v. Central Iowa Hosp. Corp., No. 01-1511 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 11, 2002). We remanded to the district court "for the imposition of appropriate sanctions, and the setting of a new trial date." Id. The district court then ordered the plaintiffs to pay the defendants' attorney fees totaling $20,481.00 and stayed further proceedings until the plaintiffs complied with the order and paid the sanctions.
The plaintiffs thereafter filed an application for interlocutory appeal, which our supreme court granted. Now on appeal, they maintain the district court abused its discretion by imposing an excessive sanction largely unrelated to the misconduct. They also claim the stay of proceedings until the sanction is paid effectively dismisses the case. Finally, the plaintiffs maintain the district court should have investigated the responsibility of their original attorney when assessing the fees.
Our Review is for Correction of Errors at Law
Iowa R. App. P. 6.4. A discovery sanction will be upheld absent a demonstrated abuse of discretion by the district court. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. v. Rowe, 424 N.W.2d 235, 240 (Iowa 1988). Abuse exists if the court exercised its discretion on clearly unreasonable grounds or to a clearly untenable extent. Wagner v. Miller, 555 N.W.2d 246, 249 (Iowa Ct. App. 1996). The court's discretion was not abused if there was substantial evidence in support of its decision. Id. The evidence supporting the district court's decision was substantial if it was adequate for a reasonable mind to reach the same conclusion as the court. Strong v. Rothamel, 523 N.W.2d 597, 600 (Iowa Ct. App. 1994).
Amount of Sanctions
We first address the plaintiffs' contention regarding the excessiveness of the sanction. Following remand and a hearing on the defendant's application for sanctions, the district court ordered defense counsel to provide: detailed itemized statements of the time and hourly rates for fees incurred as a result of the failure of Plaintiff to disclose his prior diagnosis and treatment by Dr. Tesdall. Specifically, the Court is interested in itemized statements for the following services:
· Interrogatories and requests for production of documents related to pre-existing conditions;
· Deposition of David Raye;
· Deposition of Dr. Donald Tesdall;
· Trial preparation for the March 5, 2001 trial;
· Resistance to plaintiffs' motion for continuance;
· Resistance to plaintiffs' motion for extension of time to prepare for trial;
· Joint application for sanctions post-appeal.
In arriving at the $20,481.00 figure, which was the exact amount claimed by defense counsel, the court noted " he impact of Plaintiffs' willful failure to disclose his pre-existing medical condition on the underlying medical malpractice litigation was the time and expense incurred by the defendants represented by the cost of attorney fees listed above."
As concluded in our previous opinion, we do believe the deceit practiced by plaintiffs warranted some amount of sanctions. However, we note
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