A different Draco.
The Seventh Circuit upheld dismissal of a complaint as a sanction for failing to abide by an order compelling plaintiffs to present knowledgeable witnesses to testify at a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition. After noting the "draconian" nature of the sanction and its status as a "last resort", the court said:
That doesn’t mean . . . that it can never be used. Even Draco got it right every once in awhile, and today, when district courts have several hundred cases on their dockets, there are times when the "draconian" remedy is appropos. And that time was reached in this case.
Banco del Atlantico, S.A. v. Woods Industries Inc., No. 07-2238, slip op. at 8 (7th Cir. Mar. 7, 2008).
Fans of ancient Greece will recall that, before Draco, Athens hadn’t written down its legal code. Draco reduced his notions of law and justice to writing and posted copies of the code around the city for all to see. The law-giver earned immortality for "draconian" measures by specifying death as the penalty for minor crimes and, more recently, as the namesake of Harry Potter’s Slytherin rival, Draco Malfoy.
