Short answer. The court has serious options. Section 5 lets it, on motion and notice, strike out all or part of the willfully defaulting party's pleadings, dismiss the action or part of it, or enter a default judgment against that party — and it may also order them to pay the other side's reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, for the misconduct.

What the law says

If a party or an officer or managing agent of a party wilfully fails to appear before the officer who is to take his or her deposition, after being served with a proper notice, or fails to serve answers to interrogatories submitted under Rule 25 after proper service of such interrogatories, the court on motion and notice, may strike out all or any part of any pleading of that party, or dismiss the action or proceeding or any part thereof, or enter a judgment by default against that party, and in its discretion, order him or her to pay reasonable expenses incurred by the other, including attorney's fees.

Rule 29, Section 5 — Failure of party to attend or serve answers. Read the full provision →

What conduct triggers this

The provision covers a party, or an officer or managing agent of a party, who willfully fails to appear before the officer for their own noticed deposition, or who fails to serve answers to interrogatories properly served under Rule 25. Both failures are treated the same way under Section 5, since either one leaves the requesting party unable to obtain discovery it was legally entitled to.

The range of sanctions

The court can strike out all or part of the defaulting party's pleadings, dismiss the action or proceeding (or any part of it), or enter judgment by default against them — sanctions severe enough to potentially decide the case outright, without the court needing to reach the actual merits of the underlying dispute at all, based purely on the discovery misconduct itself.

The 'wilfully' requirement

The section is triggered by willful failure, distinguishing deliberate defiance from an excusable inability to appear or respond, and requires that the notice or service of interrogatories was itself proper before any sanction can follow. A party who missed the deposition because of a genuine emergency, or who was never properly served at all, is in a very different position than one who simply chose to ignore the process.

Expenses on top of the sanction

Beyond whichever procedural sanction the court chooses, it has discretion to also order the defaulting party to pay the other side's reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, for having to bring the motion. This expense award is discretionary rather than mandatory, unlike the mandatory expense order found in some of the other discovery sanction provisions elsewhere in Rule 29 that address different kinds of discovery misconduct.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.