have reviewed dismissals of actions under Rule 37(b)(2)(C), the courts have generally upheld the trial court’s decision to use dismissal as a sanction only when necessary to protect the rules of discovery or when there was evidence of bad faith, misconduct, willful disobedience, or a callous disregard for the rights of other litigants. In Davis v. Parkview Apartments, our supreme court affirmed the trial court’s issuance of a dismissal order as a sanction. 409 S.C. 266, 283, 762 S.E.2d 535 99, 511 S.E.2d at 719 (finding the striking of the defendant’s answer as a discovery sanction was warranted based on the defendant’s egregious failure to comply meaningfully with four prior orders compelling discovery, even after being warned of the consequences 129-30, 378 S.E.2d 599, 601 (1989) (<HOLDING>). Moreover, in several recent decisions, our
holding that the appropriate sanction was to require the defendant to disclose the nature of the agreement with the witness holding that dismissal is appropriate where failure to comply with courts orders prejudiced the defendants and burdened both the courts docket and the public interest in speedy litigation and the district court considered less drastic sanctions and warned the plaintiff before dismissal holding a 100 fine not dismissal with prejudice was the appropriate sanction for the eight plaintiffs failure to answer interrogatories even despite warnings from the trial court and prior sanctions because the requesting party had not been prejudiced by not receiving formal responses to the interrogatories holding the state had not requested affirmative relief from the court by appearing in the action requesting an extension of time in which to file an answer or requesting a change of venue holding district court had no authority to require plaintiffs to obtain courts permission to dismiss defendant who had not served answer or motion for summary judgment as plaintiffs had absolute right to dismissal without prejudice and thus court could not sanction plaintiffs for filing notice of voluntary dismissal rather than motion