Coleman v. American Red Cross
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
23 F.3d 1091 (1994)
Cheryl Coleman (plaintiff) sued the American Red Cross (defendant), alleging she contracted a virus from a Red Cross blood donation; a protective order let her lawyer see redacted donor records but barred him from identifying the donor, and after the Red Cross inadvertently left some identifying information unredacted, Coleman's lawyer breached the order to discover the donor's identity. After an initial injunction against Coleman was invalidated on appeal, the district court instead dismissed Coleman's entire case as a sanction for the lawyer's misconduct, citing FRCP 37(b), 41(b), and the court's inherent power; Coleman appealed the dismissal.
Whether dismissing a case because of attorney misconduct is appropriate only in extreme circumstances and when the plaintiff is clearly involved in the misconduct.