Guillermina S. Mossman, and Richard M. Rogers, Esq. Of Mayo & Rogers, Attorney at Law v. Roadway Express, Inc.

Richard M. Rogers appeals sanctions imposed on him pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 because his motion for summary judgment was not well grounded in fact. We affirm the imposition of sanctions but remand for the trial court to reconsider the amount awarded.

The court sanctioned Rogers while he represented Guillermina Mossman in a race and sex discrimination suit against her former employer, Roadway Express (Roadway). Roadway answered the complaint denying all allegations and asserting thirty-seven separate affirmative defenses. Two weeks later, Rogers served Roadway with interrogatories and requests for admissions requesting that it retract all of its affirmative defenses. Roadway refused to respond on a variety of grounds including that the interrogatories were vague, ambiguous, overbroad, or called for conclusions of law.

Three months later, Rogers made a motion for partial summary judgment. Roadway then sent two letters to him seeking to resolve the discovery dispute and objecting that the motion was premature.

Roadway then filed its memorandum of points and authorities in opposition to the motion for summary judgment and made a cross-motion for sanctions pursuant to Fed.…