S. Michael Sigliano v. Ramon Mendoza

S. Michael Sigliano appeals the dismissal of his civil rights action for failure to answer interrogatories. We affirm.

On July 6, 1978, the defendants propounded a set of 72 interrogatories and requested the production of documents. On August 31, having received no response from Sigliano, the defendants filed a motion to compel answers to the interrogatories and for the production of documents. On November 27, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(d), on the ground that Sigliano had failed to respond to the motion to compel or to provide the discovery that was the subject of the motion. On December 8, Sigliano filed a motion for an extension of time to respond to interrogatories on the ground that they were still being typed. The motion was also captioned “Opposition to the Motion to Dismiss”, but Sigliano offered no argument to support the opposition. On December 15, defendants filed a notice of hearing on the motion to dismiss scheduled for January 15, 1979. On January 15, Sigliano failed to appear at the hearing, and the court continued it to January 29 with the proviso that if Sigliano failed to respond to the motion by January 19, the case would be…