Finding DuPont committed ‘fraud on the court’ by discovery abuses, Florida state judge strikes pleadings, leaving giant exposed in high-stakes case

In a state where judges have no direct authority under court procedure rules to impose sanctions for e-discovery violations, as do federal judges, a state circuit court judge in Miami, inflamed by what she describes as a "fraud upon the court justifying the severest of all sanctions," has resorted to the equivalent of the judicial sanctions atomic bomb by leaving chemical giant DuPont defenseless in a never-ending, contentious suit.

An order by South Florida Circuit Judge Amy Steele Donner striking DuPont's pleadings means that whatever the 75th-ranked Fortune 100 company has asserted as defenses, in motions and other court documents, are extinguished. They will form no part of the trial on the merits. It is as if DuPont never answered the complaint of numerous plant nurseries nearly 20 years ago alleging serious harm and damages to crops from use of the DuPont pesticide, Benlate.

The ruling by Donner effectively finds DuPont liable, and takes the case directly to a determination of the damages suffered by the plant nurseries.

Dupont’s scheme to conceal evidence was "unconscionable," court finds
The court’s extreme reaction was amply justified on the record she cited in her order, which says DuPont extracted and concealed 34,000 pages from a required disclosure and production in discovery. Donner, who has been hearing the case since 1997, found that many of the unproduced documents were "highly relevant" and concluded that DuPont was guilty of "a fraud on the court" by its "unconscionable" scheme to conceal relevant documents.

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Source: aceds.org
By: Isabel Arias