Court Summaries

• Publication year: 2024
• Citation: Vol. 47 No. 4

Court SummariesVol. 47 No. 4 Pg. 38Wyoming Bar JournalAugust 2024

Anna Reeves Olson

Anna Reeves Olson is Senior Counsel in the Casper office of Long, Reimer Winegar LLP.

James Corley, as Wrongful Death Personal Representative of Logan Corley, deceased, v. Wyoming Rents, LLC 2024 WY 51

S-22-0291

May 2, 2024

Following the death of his son in a work-related accident, James Corley, as the appointed representative of his son's beneficiaries, filed a wrongful death action against Wyoming Rents, LLC. After Corley's counsel missed several deadlines to file an amended complaint, continued to pursue claims against another party that the district court had dismissed from the action, and attempted to engage in discovery even though no amended complaint had been properly filed, the district court granted Wyoming Rents' motion to dismiss with prejudice.

On appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed and noted that the dismissal of an action is the most severe of penalties and should only be utilized in the most extreme situations. Instead, courts should avoid dismissal because Wyoming's policy is to resolve doubts in favor of permitting parties to have their day in court on the merits of the controversy. However, pursuant to W.R.C.P. 41(b), a district court may dismiss any action not prosecuted or brought to trial with due diligence.

Because the "extreme situations" in which dismissals occur are rare, no precise rule can be set forth to specify what circumstances truly justify such sanction, but in determining whether the harsh sanction of dismissal is warranted, "the circumstances surrounding each case must be examined, keeping in mind the conflict between the need for the court to manage its docket for the purpose of preventing undue delay on the one hand, and the policy favoring disposition of cases on the merits on the other hand."

Here, near the beginning of the case, the district court was presented with a motion to dismiss the action with prejudice. It refused to do so, instead choosing to give Corley and his counsel another chance to properly file a valid complaint in compliance with Wyoming law. Throughout the course of the case, the district court repeatedly gave Corley and counsel additional chances to remedy their various failures. By the time the district court dismissed the action with prejudice, the matter was not simply a collection of minor transgressions. Rather, the court faced a situation in which a proper complaint had yet to be filed after nearly a year of litigation and what can perhaps be described as outright refusals to comply with Wyoming law and specific court orders. Both the district court and the opposing party suffered as a result. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion by dismissing the suit.

Andrea L. Richard v. Board of Prof. Responsibility, Wyoming State Bar S-23-155

2024 WY 46

April 26, 2024

From 2006 through 2012, the Office of Bar Counsel investigated attorney Andrea Richard's violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct involving seven separate complaints against Richard. See Bd. Pro. Resp. v. Richard, 335 P.3d 1036 (Wyo. 2014). In 2010, Richard was briefly represented by attorney Wes Reeves regarding one of the seven complaints. Reeves' representation consisted of writing letters to Bar Counsel and asserting that Richard's conduct did not constitute a violation of the Rules. Ultimately, following a 2013 hearing before the Board of Professional Responsibility (BPR), it was found that Richard had committed multiple rule violations when she forced opposing parties to file repeated motions to compel discovery, failed to comply with court orders to provide meaningful discovery, caused unnecessary delay, needlessly increased the costs of litigation, filed pleadings that were not well grounded in fact and made untrue allegations in court documents. In 2014, Richard was suspended from the practice of law for three years.

Editors Note: Special thanks to Anna Reeves Olson for providing the Court Summaries for over seven years! This will be her last submission before Casper lawyer Emily Madden takes over. Emily's first summaries will be published in the October issue. Thank you, ladies, for providing such a valuable service to Wyoming lawyers!

In 2017, Richard petitioned for reinstatement and she was represented by Steve Kline and Melinda...