Advance Financial Corp. v. Utsey
United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama
2001 WL 102484 (2001)
AFC (plaintiff) sued Utsey and others (defendants) and repeatedly ran into the defendants' failures to meet discovery deadlines — missing the joint discovery-plan deadline, missing initial-disclosure deadlines even after an extension, and failing to produce documents for a deposition, forcing AFC to cancel depositions. After the court ordered defendants to show cause why sanctions shouldn't issue and defendants never responded, AFC moved a third time for sanctions; defense counsel's only explanation at the hearing was recent eye surgery.
Whether judgment by default is an appropriate sanction against a defendant who fails, without good reason and to the plaintiff's prejudice, to comply with multiple discovery orders.