United States Eleventh Circuit

In an attorney negligence case, district court's final judgment of dismissal is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) jurisdiction did exist over the appeal; 2) the undisputed facts showed plaintiff had substantial justification for its conduct as to its expert report, that the record did not support the district court-s willful-delay determination as to that report, and thus the district court abused its discretion in excluding witness' expert testimony; and 3) the district court-s choice of sanction - dismissal of the attorney-s fee claim - was within its range of options under Rule 37(d) and 37(b)(2)(C) given its finding of a complete and willful failure to comply with defendant's Discovery Request.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/28/2008
• Published 12/01/2008

Judges

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel