United States Eighth Circuit

District Court's order dismissing plaintiff's claims as a sanction for abuse of discovery is vacated as the record contains several close questions as to the appropriateness of the overall sanction, and the denial of plaintiff's motion asking the district court to remove itself is reversed. On remand, the case should be assigned to a new judge as the proceedings leading up to and including the sanction reflect a sufficiently high degree of antagonism to require reassignment.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/24/2009
• Published 03/24/2009

Judges

• MELLOY, Circuit Judge., Before MELLOY, GRUENDER, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Curtis L. Tideman, argued, Overland Park, KS, Frederick K. Starrett, Overland Park, KS, Jeffrey R. King, Alok Ahuja, Kansas City, MO, on the brief, for appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• David Micheal Harris, argued, Dawn M. Johnson, Jordan B. Cherrick, Kansas City, MO, on the brief, for appellees.