Apex Oil Company v. The Belcher Company of New York, Inc. And Belcher New Jersey, Inc., Shea & Gould

WINTER, Circuit Judge:

This appeal requires us to consider several issues concerning a district court’s power to sanction attorneys for abuses during pretrial discovery. We address whether Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(c) permits the imposition of sanctions on a law firm for its clients’ failure to admit certain statements contained in requests for admission, whether sanctions may be imposed for failing to prove composite paraphrases of requests for admission, and whether sanctions under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 (1982) may be awarded for failing to confer in good faith over disputes arising in discovery.

The law…