Guillory v. Domtar Industries, Inc.

Anthony Guillory (plaintiff) was injured at work by a fork that fell off a forklift and hit him in the head, rendering him permanently quadriplegic. Guillory brought a products-liability action against the forklift manufacturers, Deere & Company and John Deere Industrial Equipment Company (collectively, Deere) (defendant), in federal district court. A jury awarded Guillory over $6 million. During a settlement conference before the trial, Deere offered to settle the case for $100,000. The district court concluded that Deere failed to act in good faith at the conference and sanctioned Deere $8,500, the amount of expenses that the parties incurred in preparing for the conference. The district court emphasized the resources that the court and the parties wasted due to the futile settlement conference and noted why the court concluded Deere had approached the conference in bad faith. In particular, the court noted that as the conference progressed, Deere’s lack of intention to make any substantial contribution to a settlement became apparent. Due to the large value of Guillory’s workmen’s-compensation benefits, the settlement fund would have had to be in the millions for Guillory to settle and thus give up these benefits. Further, a Deere representative informed the district court that Deere had always taken the position that Deere would prefer the case to go to trial. Additionally, the court noted that Deere could have informed the court of Deere’s position, and the court would have canceled the conference. Prior to the conference, the district court requested statements from the parties regarding their positions, and Deere did not indicate that it believed the settlement conference was a useless endeavor. Deere appealed, arguing that the district court abused its discretion by imposing the sanctions and that the law did not support the imposition of sanctions simply because the district court did not consider Deere’s settlement offer to be serious.