02-2900 MEIER V. MEIER

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Florida

Court: Florida Third District Court

Docket No: 02-2900 MEIER V. MEIER

Case Date: 01/29/2003

Preview:NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DISPOSED OF.

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA THIRD DISTRICT JANUARY TERM, A.D. 2003

LOTTI MEIER,

** ** Petitioner, **

vs. ** JURG ANDREAS MEIER, ** Respondent. **

CASE NO.

3D02-2900

LOWER TRIBUNAL NO.

01-32408

Opinion filed January 29, 2003. A Writ of Certiorari to the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Maynard Gross, Judge. Robert F. Kohlman, Esq., for petitioner. No appearance for respondent. Before LEVY, GREEN, and RAMIREZ, JJ. PER CURIAM. Petitioner Lotti Meier seeks certiorari review of the trial court's denial of her motion to compel counsel for her former husband to produce discovery documents for an in-camera

inspection.

We grant the petition.

The wife filed for dissolution of marriage in 2001. Shortly after the wife filed for divorce, the husband respondent Jurg Andreas Meier moved to his native Switzerland where he now resides. On three separate occasions, the trial court ordered the husband to produce certain documents. The husband did not

comply with the discovery orders and the trial court struck his pleadings and entered a default against him. wife learned that the husband had Subsequently, the discovery

provided

documentation to his counsel and had also instructed him not to release the documentation The to wife the wife, to return the

documentation to him.

again moved to compel the

production of documents and to compel the husband's counsel to produce the documentation to the trial court for an in-camera inspection. The trial court denied the motion finding that it

did not have the authority to order the husband's counsel to turn over the documents against the will of his client, and thereby subject the husband's counsel to a disciplinary action. The documentation the wife seeks remains in the possession of the husband's counsel. Rule 4-3.4(d), Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, prohibits the intentional failure to comply with a discovery request.

Rule 4-3.4 provides, in pertinent part, A lawyer shall not: (c) knowingly disobey an obligation under the rules of a tribunal except for an open refusal based on an assertion that no valid obligation exists. (d) in pretrial procedure, make a frivolous discovery request or intentionally fail to comply with a legally proper discovery request by an opposing party. (emphasis added). prohibits

Rule 4-3.4(a), Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, also

a lawyer's unlawful obstruction of another party's access to evidence and the concealment of a document or other material that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is relevant to a pending proceeding. The husband in this case has failed to comply with several orders of discovery and the husband's counsel plainly has the ability to do so. The wife seeks the discoverable documentation she is

to determine the extent of the parties' assets and unlikely means. to obtain the documents' equivalent the

through

other

Under an

these

circumstances, and

husband's disregard

conduct of the

constitutes

unjustified

deliberate

court's authority. The husband's counsel's obligation to comply with the orders is thus absolute. To hold otherwise not only defies the importance

disregards the authority of a court, but

of promoting the truth-seeking function of the discovery rules.

3

We therefore quash the order under review.

Counsel for the

husband is to release the documentation in his possession to the trial court for an in-camera review. Petition granted.

4

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