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fraud has been practiced upon it, or that the very temple
of justice has been defiled,# it may assess attorney s fees
against the responsible party, as it may when a party
$shows bad faith by delaying or disrupting the litigation
or by hampering enforcement of a court order[]." The
imposition of sanctions in this instance transcends a
court s equitable power concerning relations between the
parties and reaches a court s inherent power to police
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judicial authority without resort to the more drastic
sanctions available for contempt of court and mak[ing]
the prevailing party whole for expenses caused by his
opponent s obstinacy.#
Chambers, 501 U.S. at 45-46 (citations omitted).
Although Chambers states that a district court should
consider whether the conduct could be sanctioned under the
rules before it relies upon its inherent authority to impose
sanctions for bad-faith conduct, Chambers does not explicitly
require in every instance that a district court first determine
whether the conduct could be sanctioned under the rules or
relevant statutes before considering sanctions under its
inherent authority. As the Court also stated: "the Court’s
prior cases have indicated that the inherent power of the
district court can be invoked even if procedural rules exist
which sanction the same conduct." Id. at 49. 7KLV LV
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We do not interpret Chambers to require the district court,
in every instance, to exhaust consideration of sanctions under
other relevant rules and/or statutes. This reading of
Chambers is reasonable given its express language that
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5XOHVWKHFRXUWRUGLQDULO\VKRXOGUHO\RQWKH5XOHVUDWKHU
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Court’s use of the word "ordinarily" suggests that there may
be some exceptional circumstances when a district court’s
express consideration of other rules and statutes is not
required. Our ruling is wholly consistent with the Supreme
Court’s language in Chambers.
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This Court has affirmed the imposition of sanctions under
the district court’s inherent authority where the district court
did not expressly consider particular rules of civil procedure.
Mann v. Univ. Of Cinn., 114 F.3d 1188, 1997 WL 280188, at
*5-6 (6th Cir. May 27, 1997). Under Chambers, other
Circuits have held that the mere fact that conduct is held not
to be a violation of any rule or statute authorizing sanctions
does not preclude a district court from imposing sanctions
under its inherent power. See Amsted Industries, Inc. v.
Buckeye Steel Castings Co., 23 F.3d 374, 377-79 (Fed. Cir.
1994) (recognizing a federal court s inherent power to
impose sanctions); Gillette Foods Inc. v. Bayernwald-
Fruchteverwertung, 977 F.2d 809, 813-14 (3d Cir. 1992)
UHMHFWLQJWKHUXOHWKDWVDQFWLRQVFDQQRWEHLPSRVHGE\WKH
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DXWKRUL]LQJVDQFWLRQV The Seventh Circuit observed that
"courts need not consider lesser sanctions, however, in

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situations where the misconduct is ‘so egregious, inexcusable,
and destructive that no lesser sanction than dismissal could be
adequate.’" Graham v. Schomaker, 215 F.3d 1329, 2000 WL
717093, at *3 (7th Cir. 2000). At one time, the Third Circuit
noted that the district court is not require to "exhaust all other
sanctioning mechanisms prior to resorting to its inherent
power." Landon v. Hunt, 938 F.2d 450, 454 (3rd Cir. 1991).
To be sure, the Third Circuit now citing Chambers has
reversed a district court for failure to consider the applicable
federal rules of civil procedure and statutes before resorting
to its inherent power can be reversible error. Montrose
Medical Group Participating Savings Plan v. Bulger, 243
F.3d 773, 785 (3d Cir. 2001) (noting that $we squarely held
that before utilizing its inherent power, a district court should
consider whether any Rule - or statute - based sanctions are
up to the task# in holding that the district court erred when it
"did not consider whether any such sanctions . . . would have
sufficed to deal with any misconduct that occurred in this
case.") (emphasis added) (citing Klein,185 F.3d at 110)
("When the Rules or pertinent statutes are ‘up to the task,’
they should be used. When they are not, a trial court may turn
to its inherent power, but should exercise that power with
caution.") (emphasis added and footnotes omitted).
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In our view, Chambers should be read broadly to permit the
district court to resort to its inherent authority to sanction bad-
faith conduct, even if the court has not expressly considered
whether such conduct could be sanctioned under all
potentially applicable rules or statutes. While a district court
should ordinarily consider whether "the conduct could also be
sanctioned under the statute or the Rules," Chambers, 501
U.S. at 50, there is nothing in Chambers that explicitly
requires a court to determine whether "the conduct at issue is
covered by one of the other sanctioning mechanisms." Id.
We are reluctant to impose a wooden requirement where the
district court needs the discretion and flexibility to exercise its
inherent authority to address various impermissible litigation

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WKH GLVWULFW FRXUW s award of sanctions under its inherent power in Carroll
v. The Jaques Admiralty Law Firm, P.C., 110 F.3d 290 (5th Cir. 1997).
In Carroll, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the district court did not err in
resorting to its inherent power to sanction an attorney for his behavior at
a deposition, finding that "the usual rules were not !up to the task. # 110
F.3d at 293. The Ninth Circuit in Mark Indus., 50 F.3d at 732, also found
that the district court did not abuse its discretion by sanctioning an
attorney under its inherent power for entering into a stipulated order of
dismissal without the consent of the client. In that case, the Ninth Circuit
concluded that Rule 11 did not authorize sanctions in favor of a party
against its own lawyer. Notwithstanding, Mark Indus. held that the trial
court has the inherent power, apart from the rules or statutes, to sanction
attorneys for their willful abuse of judicial process or bad faith conduct.
Id. The Third Circuit also found no abuse of discretion in Fellheimer,
Eichen & Braverman, P.C., v. Charter Technologies, Inc., 57 F.3d 1215,
1227- 28 (3d Cir. 1995), upholding the imposition of sanctions as the
proper exercise of the bankruptcy court s discretion under its inherent
power for the bad-faith conduct of the debtor s attorneys.
On the other hand, circuit courts have reversed district courts for
abusing their discretion by imposing sanctions under their inherent power.
In Gillette Foods, the Third Circuit considered whether the district court
had the inherent authority to impose sanctions under its inherent power
against counsel for Gillette Foods Incorporated for including a tortious
interference claim in the second amended complaint. The district court
imposed sanctions after recognizing that counsel s conduct was beyond
the reach of Rule 11 because he did not personally sign the complaint. In
that case, the Third Circuit held that "Gillette Foods s reasonable claim
for tortious interference could not have been brought in bad faith,# finding
"it hard to conceive that the tortious interference claim survives Rule 11
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scrutiny, yet can be sanctioned as a claim brought in bad faith.# Id. at 814-
15. The Third Circuit also found in Saldana v. Kmart Corp., 260 F.3d
228, 238 (3d Cir. 2001) that an attorney s use of profanity and her post-
verdict letter describing an expert witness as a "Nazi" did not justify the
imposition of sanctions under the district court s inherent authority. In
Saldana, the Third Circuit found that the district court improperly
imposed sanctions because the conduct was not "egregious" and because
another basis for sanctions existed in the form of a local rule. 260 F.3d at
238. The Seventh Circuit in Corley v. Rosewood Care Center, Inc. of
Peoria, 142 F.3d 1041, 1958-59 (7th Cir. 1998) similarly vacated the
district court V DZDUG RI VDQFWLRQV XQGHU LWV LQKHUHQW SRZHUV ZKLFK ZDV
LPSRVHG DJDLQVW DQ DWWRUQH\ IRU ILOLQJ D IULYRORXV PRWLRQ ,Q &RUOH\ WKH
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LPSRVH WKH VDQFWLRQ XQGHU 5XOH LW FOHDUO\ DEXVHG LWV GLVFUHWLRQ IRU
QHLWKHU GHIHQGDQWV QRU WKH FRXUW FRPSOLHG ZLWK WKH UXOH s procedural
requirements.# Id. at 1058. The Seventh Circuit in Corley also found that
the court could not rely upon its inherent power because the attorney was
not given an opportunity to respond to the defendants motion for
sanctions. Id. at 1059.
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Moreover, as the Seventh Circuit observed, district courts
need the discretion "to craft sanctions because the power to
sanction is essential for them to manage heavy case loads and
to protect the interests of litigants." Graham, 2000 WL
717093, at *3 (citing Oliver v. Gramley, 200 F.3d 465, 466
(7th Cir. 1999)).
As a practical matter, the district court should usually
inform the parties, as did the district judge here, that the
district court is considering using its inherent authority to
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sanction particular conduct. The parties can present to the
district court those rules or statutes that may be more
appropriate. The district court can then exercise its "informed
discretion" in selecting the appropriate authority. "The
different grounds for ordering sanctions and shifting
attorney’s fees are distinct and require a close and careful
analysis." In re Ruben, 825 F.2d 977, 983 (6th Cir. 1987). Of
course, there may be some instances in which the litigation
conduct is so egregious and the court’s inherent authority so
clearly applicable that a district court can exercise its inherent
authority without the necessity of a full exposition on the
potentially applicable federal rules and statutes.
To be sure, the Court in Chambers cautioned that "inherent
powers must be exercised with restraint and discretion.# Id.
at 44. Under Chambers, the appellate court reviews a district
court’s resort to its inherent authority for an abuse of
discretion and a district court’s failure to use a clearly
applicable and effective sanction rule could constitute an
abuse of discretion. Chambers, 501 U.S. at 50. As noted by
the Third Circuit in Martin v. Brown, 63 F.3d 1252, 1265 (3d
Cir. 1995), "[g]enerally, a court s inherent power should be
reserved for those cases in which the conduct of a party or an
attorney is egregious and no other basis for sanctions exists.#
(citing Gillette Foods v. Bayernwald-Fruchteverwertung, 977
F.2d 809, 813 (3rd Cir. 1992).
The exercise of inherent authority is particularly
appropriate for impermissible conduct that adversely impacts
the entire litigation. In response to the contention in
Chambers that the conduct at issue could have been addressed
by Rule 11 and "other Rules", the Supreme Court responded:
Much of the bad-faith conduct by Chambers, however,
was beyond the reach of the Rules; his entire course of
conduct throughout the lawsuit evidenced bad faith and
an attempt to perpetrate a fraud on the court, and the
conduct sanctionable under the Rules was intertwined
within conduct that only the inherent power could

-- 27 of 32 --

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address. In circumstances such as these in which all of
a litigant’s conduct is deemed sanctionable, requiring a
court first to apply Rules and statutes containing
sanctioning provisions to discrete occurrences before
invoking inherent power to address remaining instances
of sanctionable conduct would serve only to foster
extensive and needless satellite litigation, which is
contrary to the aim of the Rules themselves.
Id. at 50-51, citing Advisory Committee’s Notes on 1983
Amendment to Rule 11, 28 U.S.C. App., pp. 575-576.
Further, as noted in Chambers, there are significant
differences between Rule 11 sanctionsDQGLQKHUHQWSRZHU
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VDQFWLRQV UHTXLUHV D VKRZLQJ RI "objectively unreasonable
conduct," United States v. Koury Perez, 187 F.3d 1, 8 (1st
Cir. 1999). In contrast, the imposition of inherent power
sanctions requires a finding of bad faith. "A court may
impose sanctions pursuant to its inherent powers only when
it finds the action in question was taken in bad faith,"
Lockary v. Kayfetz, 974 F.2d 1166, 1174 (9th Cir. 1992)
(citing Chambers, 501 U.S. at 50), or conduct that is
"tantamount to bad faith." Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper,
447 U.S. 752, 767 (1980). Moreover, a Rule 11 monetary
sanction is limited to "only those expenses directly caused by
the [offending] filer." Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp., 496
U.S. 384, 406-07 (1990). Where, as here, the offending
party’s conduct extends through the proceedings, Rule 11
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remedies would not address the injury that the district court
sought to remedy that included withholding evidence, the
consequences of the withholding, violating discovery orders
and extending the proceedings.
Chambers leaves to the district court s "informed
discretion" whether the applicable statutes or rules are "up to
the task"given the circumstances of the particular conduct.
See Klein v. Stahl GMBH & Co. Maschinefabrik, 185 F.3d
98, 109-11 (3rd Cir. 1999) (interpreting Chambers to mean
"that the Rules are not !up to the task when they would not
provide a district court with the authority to sanction all of the
conduct deserving of sanction"); Mark Indus., Ltd. v. Sea
Captain's Choice, Inc., 50 F.3d 730, 732 (9th Cir.1995)
(noting that the inherent power to sanction generally should
be invoked only if statutes or rules are not "up to the task");
Gillette Foods, 977 F.2d at 814 n.10 (construing the above-
quoted paragraph from Chambers to refer to "the ability of a
court to impose sanctions under its inherent power when
some of the attorney s conduct could be sanctionable under
Rule 11 and other rules"). In the absence of a plainly
applicable rule, we likewise trust in the district court’s
"informed discretion" when the circumstances require the
exercise of its inherent authority.
In the section of its Opinion entitled "First Bank Acted in
Bad Faith", JA at 63, WKH GLVWULFW FRXUW PDGH WKH GHWDLOHG
ILQGLQJVRIIDFWLQFOXGLQJWKDW )LUVW%DQNZDVDZDUHRI
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