EdgengG (Private), Ltd. v. Fiberglass Fabricators, Inc. ( 2022 )

April 25, 2022
Supreme Court
No. 2021-17-Appeal.
(PB 12-2362)
EdgengG (Private), Ltd., et al. :
v. :
Fiberglass Fabricators, Inc., et al. :
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision
before publication in the Rhode Island Reporter. Readers
are requested to notify the Opinion Analyst, Supreme
Court of Rhode Island, 250 Benefit Street, Providence,
Rhode Island 02903, at Telephone (401) 222-3258 or
Email opinionanalyst@courts.ri.gov, of any typographical
or other formal errors in order that corrections may be
made before the opinion is published.
Supreme Court
No. 2021-17-Appeal.
(PB 12-2362)
EdgengG (Private), Ltd., et al. :
v. :
Fiberglass Fabricators, Inc., et al. :
Present: Suttell, C.J., Goldberg, Robinson, Lynch Prata, and Long, JJ.
OPINION
Justice Long, for the Court. The plaintiff, EdgengG (Private), Ltd.
(EdgengG), appeals from a Superior Court judgment in favor of the defendants,
Fiberglass Fabricators, Inc. (Fiberglass Fabricators) and Anthony Capo (collectively
defendants), following the entry of judgment in favor of defendants on the complaint
filed by EdgengG and plaintiff Don Sidantha Ganegoda (collectively plaintiffs) for
the plaintiffs’ failure to comply with discovery orders. On appeal, EdgengG argues
that the trial justice abused his discretion when he entered judgment in favor of
defendants.1
1
Although both EdgengG and Mr. Ganegoda are named plaintiffs, only EdgengG
has appealed to this Court.
-1-
This appeal came before the Supreme Court pursuant to an order directing the
parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be
summarily decided. After considering the parties’ written and oral submissions and
reviewing the record, we conclude that cause has not been shown and this case may
be decided without further briefing or argument. For the reasons set forth in this
opinion, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.
Facts and Procedural History
The parties to this case were involved in the manufacture and sale of fiberglass
components used in municipal water systems. Mr. Ganegoda, formerly an engineer
and salesperson for Fiberglass Fabricators, founded EdgengG to manufacture
finished fiberglass products in Sri Lanka. In 2010, the parties executed a contract
providing that Fiberglass Fabricators would sell the finished fiberglass products
manufactured by EdgengG.
On May 7, 2012, plaintiffs filed a complaint in Superior Court alleging that
defendants had failed to pay upon delivery of goods, and that they conspired to
deprive EdgengG and Mr. Ganegoda of profits and sales commission.
Six years passed before either party propounded discovery. The defendants
eventually, in October 2018, served plaintiffs with interrogatories and requests for
production of documents; plaintiffs did not respond, and defendants successfully
sought orders compelling responses to discovery by May 3, 2019.
-2-
When plaintiffs failed to comply with the orders, defendants requested
conditional orders of dismissal, to which plaintiffs agreed. Consequently, the trial
justice conditionally dismissed plaintiffs’ claims, ordering that the court would
vacate the dismissals if plaintiffs provided discovery responses by June 17, 2019.
The conditional orders further provided that dismissal of the claims would not
become final until after a hearing on a subsequently filed motion for entry of final
judgment.
On June 12, 2019, defendants’ counsel received an electronic file containing
plaintiffs’ response to defendants’ request for production; however, defendants’
counsel stated that he was unable to access the file. Subsequently, on June 17,
plaintiffs’ counsel sent defendants’ counsel an email stating that plaintiffs’ answers
to the interrogatories were attached to the message; however, the attachment was
missing.
After the June 17, 2019 due date, defendants began receiving EdgengG’s
discovery responses. Mr. Ganegoda responded to defendants’ interrogatories and
requests for documents on behalf of EdgengG as its principal, but he did not answer
any discovery that had been served upon him personally.
By February 2020, neither plaintiff had provided complete responses to the
outstanding discovery. The defendants therefore moved for entry of final judgment
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against plaintiffs or, in the alternative, further motions to compel. 2 At a hearing on
March 2, 2020, the trial justice deferred ruling on the motions until March 23, 2020,
but admonished plaintiffs to supplement their deficient discovery responses on or
before March 16, 2020. Specifically, the trial justice warned plaintiffs that if they
did not adhere to the March 16, 2020 deadline, the complaint would be dismissed at
the hearing on March 23, 2020. Again, plaintiffs failed to provide responses by the
due date.
On March 17, 2020, Rhode Island Supreme Court Executive Order No. 2020-
04 issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Executive Order No. 2020-04
continued nonessential matters until after April 17, 2020, and extended filing
deadlines for thirty calendar days from the date of the order.
Three days later, on March 20, 2020, plaintiffs filed a motion to extend the
March 16, 2020 discovery deadline, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and Executive
Order No. 2020-04. The defendants filed an objection; and the March 23, 2020
hearing on defendants’ motion for entry of final judgment was continued.
Nevertheless, plaintiffs did not serve additional discovery responses until April 25,
2020, when they provided duplicative documents in response to the outstanding
2
Pursuant to the court’s conditional orders, defendants appropriately moved for
entry of final judgment. See Thompson v. Thompson, 554 A.2d 1041, 1042-43 (R.I.
1989) (holding that a conditional order is not self-executing if it does not indicate
the requisite finality; to ripen such an order to final judgment, a party must move for
judgment pursuant to Super. R. Civ. P. 58).
-4-
document requests. The plaintiffs subsequently served unsigned supplemental
answers to interrogatories, and, on June 4, 2020, the continuance date for the hearing
on defendants’ motion for entry of final judgment, plaintiffs’ counsel emailed
additional discovery responses both to defendants’ counsel and to the trial justice.
Following the hearing, the trial justice issued a written decision granting
defendants’ motion for entry of final judgment. The trial justice referenced
plaintiffs’ continued failure to respond to discovery requests in a timely manner and
their failure to comply with Superior Court orders. Furthermore, the trial justice
reviewed the untimely discovery responses plaintiffs had sent the morning of the
hearing, finding them to be “incomplete [and] evasive” responses that “would be
treated as a failure to answer.” The trial justice also rejected plaintiffs’ argument
that Executive Order No. 2020-04 had extended their deadline by thirty days, noting
that the executive order had been issued after the discovery deadline had passed.
Accordingly, on June 26, 2020, the court entered an order granting defendants’
motion for final judgment and denying plaintiffs’ motion for relief; judgment in
favor of defendants entered on that same date. EdgengG timely appealed the
June 26, 2020 order and final judgment. 3
3
There are additional pending motions in the Superior Court, including plaintiffs’
Rule 60 motion to vacate the judgment; however, because those matters have not
been appealed, we will not address them.
-5-
We consider whether the trial justice erred in granting judgment in favor of
defendants based on plaintiffs’ failure to comply with orders to provide discovery.
Rule 37 Dismissal
We review a justice’s decision to impose a sanction pursuant to Rule 37 for
noncompliance with a discovery rule or order for abuse of discretion. E.g., Joachim
v. Straight Line Productions, LLC, 138 A.3d 746, 751 (R.I. 2016). An abuse of
discretion occurs when the trial justice dismisses the action “in the absence of
evidence demonstrating persistent refusal, defiance or bad faith.” Travelers
Insurance Company v. Builders Resource Corporation, 785 A.2d 568, 569 (R.I.
2001) (mem.).
Rule 37(b)(2)(C) provides, in pertinent part, that: “If a party * * * refuses to
obey an order to provide or permit discovery, * * * the court may * * * enter * * *
final judgment dismissing the action or proceeding[.]” We have stated that “[t]he
decision whether or not to invoke that ultimate sanction is confided to the sound
discretion of the [trial] justice.” Flanagan v. Blair, 882 A.2d 569, 573 (R.I. 2005).
Thus, “[d]espite the severity of a final judgment dismissing the action, this [C]ourt
will affirm a trial justice’s use of this type of drastic sanction in the face of a party’s
persistent failure to comply with discovery obligations.” Mumford v. Lewiss, 681
A.2d 914, 916 (R.I. 1996).
-6-
The record in this case is unequivocal: EdgengG “persistent[ly] fail[ed] to
comply with discovery obligations[,]” Mumford, 681 A.2d at 916, pursuant to the
Superior Court’s orders. The record is replete with evidence of EdgengG’s
continuous failure to respond to discovery requests in defiance of the Superior
Court’s orders. For months after defendants first propounded discovery in October
2018, EdgengG ignored Superior Court orders requiring plaintiffs to respond to the
discovery—the orders granting defendants’ motions to compel responses to
interrogatories and requests for production, and the conditional orders of dismissal
for failure to respond to interrogatories and requests for production. When EdgengG
belatedly began to provide discovery responses in June 2019, the responses were
incomplete.
At the March 2, 2020 hearing on defendants’ motion for entry of final
judgment, the trial justice provided EdgengG yet another extension, until March 16,
2020, warning plaintiffs to supplement discovery by that date or face dismissal.
EdgengG again did not provide timely discovery responses; it submitted responses
over a month later. Thus, for sixteen months, despite the Superior Court’s orders,
EdgengG repeatedly delayed responding to outstanding discovery. On June 4, 2020,
when EdgengG provided long-overdue discovery responses, the discovery responses
were “incomplete [and] evasive” and constituted “a failure to answer” under
Rule 37(a)(3) of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure.
-7-
Therefore, in light of EdgengG’s persistent failure to comply, the trial justice
did not abuse his discretion by entering final judgment in favor of defendants and
dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint. See Providence Gas Company v. Biltmore Hotel
Operating Co., 119 R.I. 108, 114, 376 A.2d 334, 337 (1977) (holding there was no
abuse of discretion when the motion justice entered judgment in favor of the plaintiff
after the defendant’s refusal to respond to discovery requests and to comply with
orders for approximately seven months); Flanagan, 882 A.2d at 573 (perceiving no
abuse of discretion when motion justice entered judgment in favor of the defendants
after the plaintiff did not respond to discovery requests and did not comply with
orders over a period of twelve months).
EdgengG contends that the COVID-19 pandemic provides an excuse for its
failure to comply; however, the pandemic and Executive Order No. 2020-04 have
no bearing on this matter. All deadlines had expired before the executive order
issued on March 17, 2020.
We are also unpersuaded by EdgengG’s argument that the trial justice erred
in relying in his decision on Joachim, Mumford, and Providence Gas Company, all
cited previously. EdgengG argues that the instant case is distinguishable from those
cases because EdgengG did not act in bad faith; it complied with the deadlines
extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and the trial justice did not articulate
specifically why plaintiffs’ late answers were disqualified. EdgengG’s arguments
-8-
have no merit. Again, “a party’s persistent failure to comply with discovery
obligations” is sufficient for this Court to affirm a trial justice’s dismissal of its
complaint pursuant to Rule 37. Mumford, 681 A.2d at 916. The trial justice need
not find that EdgengG acted in bad faith to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint and enter
judgment in favor of defendants. Executive Order No. 2020-04 did not extend
EdgengG’s deadlines, and the trial justice was clear in his decision that he entered
judgment in favor of defendants because plaintiffs had “repeatedly failed to comply
with [the Superior] Court’s discovery orders.”
EdgengG marshals myriad additional arguments attempting to save its
complaint from dismissal, but those arguments are similarly unavailing.
EdgengG raises claims of waiver and laches on appeal. However, because
EdgengG did not develop the legal arguments for these claims, we deem them
waived. See Wilkinson v. State Crime Laboratory Commission, 788 A.2d 1129, 1131
n.1 (R.I. 2002) (“Simply stating an issue for appellate review, without a meaningful
discussion thereof or legal briefing of the issues, does not assist the Court in focusing
on the legal questions raised, and therefore constitutes a waiver of that issue.”).
EdgengG’s assertion that the trial justice erred by reviewing Mr. Ganegoda’s
interrogatory answers without counsels’ presence is also waived because EdgengG
cites no legal authority in support of its argument. See id.-9-
EdgengG maintains that it served timely responses to defendants’ request for
documents on June 12, 2019, and should not be penalized for defendants’ counsel’s
inability to open the electronic file. However, even assuming that EdgengG’s
response was timely, it was insufficient. EdgengG did not provide a written response
until after the June 17 deadline, nor did it provide several categories of documents,
which led the trial justice to order plaintiffs to supplement their responses by
March 16, 2020. Thus, as we have already determined, this constitutes failure to
comply with the discovery order, and therefore the trial justice did not abuse his
discretion when he dismissed plaintiffs’ complaint and entered judgment in favor of
defendants based on that failure.
Further, EdgengG asserts that plaintiffs had substantially responded to
defendants’ discovery requests, highlighting the trial justice’s order to supplement,
rather than to provide, discovery responses by March 16, 2020. However, implicit
in that order was the trial justice’s determination that plaintiffs had not adequately
responded to defendants’ discovery requests. Moreover, the trial justice reviewed
plaintiffs’ supplemental discovery responses and found them deficient such that the
responses “would be treated as a failure to answer” pursuant to Rule 37(a)(3).
Likewise, despite EdgengG’s protests to the contrary, the trial justice did not
err when he found that, in defiance of multiple orders requiring plaintiffs to respond
to discovery requests, “no such documents or answers have been produced.” Again,
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the discovery responses provided by plaintiffs were not responsive, and as such the
trial justice may treat them as a failure to answer pursuant to Rule 37.
EdgengG also takes issue with a statement the trial justice made during the
June 4, 2020 hearing: “We have been here a number of times.” EdgengG argues that
the parties had only appeared before the trial justice once before, at the March 2,
2020 hearing. The semantics of the trial justice’s words in this context are
unimportant, particularly because the trial justice made this remark prior to counsels’
arguments. It was not a factual finding and has no legal import. Thus, EdgengG’s
contention is immaterial.
Finally, EdgengG makes arguments concerning Mr. Ganegoda. EdgengG
contends that, because Mr. Ganegoda answered interrogatories on behalf of
EdgengG, the trial justice should recognize EdgengG’s interrogatory answers as Mr.
Ganegoda’s answers. EdgengG also maintains that the trial justice must distinguish
EdgengG and Mr. Ganegoda as separate parties and make independent findings for
each before dismissing their complaint. These arguments are without merit. Not
only did the trial justice make proper findings for each party, but also, as previously
noted, Mr. Ganegoda is not a party to this appeal and thus the question of the
substance of his answers to the interrogatories is irrelevant to this appeal. Therefore,
we conclude that the trial justice did not abuse his discretion when he dismissed the
plaintiffs’ complaint and entered judgment in favor of defendants.
- 11 -
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the final judgment of the Superior Court.
We remand the record in this case to the Superior Court.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
SUPREME COURT – CLERK’S OFFICE
Licht Judicial Complex
250 Benefit Street
Providence, RI 02903
OPINION COVER SHEET
EdgengG (Private), Ltd., et al. v. Fiberglass
Title of Case
Fabricators, Inc., et al.
No. 2021-0017-Appeal.
Case Number
(PB 12-2362)
Date Opinion Filed April 25, 2022
Suttell, C.J., Goldberg, Robinson, Lynch Prata, and
Justices
Long, JJ.
Written By Associate Justice Melissa A. Long
Source of Appeal Providence County Superior Court
Judicial Officer from Lower Court Associate Justice Brian P. Stern
For Plaintiff:
Michael J. Gardiner, Esq.
Attorney(s) on Appeal
For Defendant:
Charles S. Beal, Esq.
SU-CMS-02A (revised June 2020)