responsive pleading

Respondent Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée is a Delaware corporation. Its principal place of business is in the Republic of Guinea, where it operates bauxite mines and processing facilities. Forty-nine percent of its stock is owned by the Republic of Guinea. The remaining fifty-one percent is owned by Halco (Mining) Inc., a Pennsylvania company that contracted to procure insurance for CBG. In 1973, Halco instructed broker Marsh & McLennan to obtain $20 million in business interruption coverage. The first $10 million was placed with Insurance Company of North America. The excess $10 million was placed through Bland Payne in the London market with 21 foreign insurers. Fourteen of those insurers are petitioners here. The placing slip was initialed effective February 12, 1974. The excess insurers adopted the INA policy terms. After CBG allegedly suffered mechanical problems causing more than $10 million in losses, it filed a two-count diversity action in the Western District of Pennsylvania in December 1975. CBG named INA on the first count and the excess insurers on the second count. The excess insurers answered by asserting lack of in personam jurisdiction. They later moved for summary judgment on that ground. CBG served its first document request in August 1976. The request sought copies of all business interruption policies issued between 1972 and 1975. After objections and motions to compel, the district court overruled the objections in June 1978. The court later narrowed the request to policies delivered in or covering risks in Pennsylvania. Petitioners stated the documents were held by London brokers. The court ordered them to request the files and gave successive extensions through November 1978. On December 21, 1978, after petitioners offered only to make four million files available in London, the district court warned that failure to produce the information within 60 days would result in an order under Rule 37(b)(2)(A) assuming jurisdiction. On April 19, 1979, the court found the material had not been produced and entered the sanction. It also made independent findings of jurisdiction under the Pennsylvania long-arm statute and by implicit consent through adoption of the INA contract. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the jurisdictional holding as to all but three excess insurers. It relied solely on the validity of the Rule 37 sanction. The Supreme Court granted certiorari because the decision conflicted with Familia de Boom v. Arosa Mercantil, S.A., 629 F.2d 1134 (CA5 1980).