Judge Glenn Suddaby
The government sought in rem civil forfeiture of $22,555seized from claimant Roland-Vandemark’s vehicleas proceeds of illegal drug sales by claimant. Claimant alleged the money was illegal seized and rightfully his. To date, claimant has not responded to a Feb. 21 order compelling him to provide responses to all outstanding interrogatories and documents production requests by March 1. Nor has he explained his delays in responding to the government’s discovery requests. Discussing the four factors outlined in the Second Circuit’s decision in Agiwal v. Mid Island Mortgage, district court dismissedas a sanction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b)Roland-Vandemark’s claim to the money for failure to comply with an order compelling discovery. The court found claimant’s five-month failure to respond to be willful for a number of reasons. Noting that in the Northern District delays of four months or greater are sufficient to weigh in favor of dismissal for failure to prosecute, the court found that claimant’s willful noncompliance with discoverydespite adequate notice that the failure would result in dismissal of his actioncontinued for a sufficient duration to weigh in favor of dismissal of his claim and answer.
