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Wright v. American Restaurant Group11/13/2002
In a personal injury case, defendant denied a request for admission that plaintiff had suffered personal injuries, including a torn rotator cuff, on the date of the accident. Plaintiff proved at trial that he had suffered the specified personal injuries on the date in question.
After trial, plaintiff moved for an award of attorney fees and costs pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 2033, subdivision (o). The trial court found that defendant had denied the request for admission without a reasonable ground to believe it would prevail on the issue, and therefore awarded plaintiff his requested attorney fees and costs. Defendant appeals, arguing the trial court erred in determining that fees and costs were recoverable and in awarding the amount of fees and costs it did.
We affirm. Whether to sanction a party for an improper denial of a request for admission is left to the discretion of the trial court, and we find no abuse of discretion here.
FACTS
On October 9, 1998, plaintiff Donald Wright was seated in a chair at a restaurant owned by defendant Local Favorite, Inc., when the chair broke, causing him to fall. (The caption of the judgment lists the defendant as American Restaurant Group, Inc., individually and doing business as The National Sports Grill. The text of the judgment refers to defendant as Local Favorite, Inc., doing business as The National Sports Grill, and the parties refer to defendant as Local Favorite, Inc., in their briefs at the trial court and on appeal. The parties provide no explanation for the change in parties, but this change does not affect our opinion. We will refer to defendant as Local Favorite.) Wright sued Local Favorite, seeking damages for a torn rotator cuff sustained in the fall.
Wright served requests for admission on Local Favorite, including this one: "Please admit that Plaintiff sustained personal injuries, including a torn rotator cuff to his right shoulder on October 9, 1998." This request was objectionable as compound; both parties conceded so at oral argument. Without asserting any objections, however, Local Favorite simply responded, "Denies." Local Favorite never amended or supplemented this response.
The case proceeded to trial. The jury awarded Wright damages in the amount of $58,000.
Following the entry of judgment, Wright moved for an award of attorney fees and costs pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 2033, subdivision (o). (All further statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure.) The trial court granted Wright's motion and ordered Local Favorite to pay Wright $5,725 in costs and $8,000 in attorney fees. The court stated, "So as far as I'm concerned, based on the information available to the defendant at the time, I thought the denial was unreasonable. So I'm going to grant the motion." Local Favorite appealed from this order.
DISCUSSION
As a part of the discovery process, a request for admission is designed to eliminate the need for proof at trial. (Stull v. Sparrow (2001) 92 Cal.App.4th 860, 864.) Compound requests are prohibited. (§ 2033, subd. (c)(5).) A party responding to a request for admission must admit so much of the matter as is true, as expressed in the request itself or as qualified by the responding party; deny what is untrue; and specify the portion as to which the responding party lacks sufficient information or knowledge. (§ 2033, subd. (f)(1).) If only a part of the request is objectionable, the remainder must be responded to. (§ 2033, subd. (f)(2).) If the party objects to the request, the objection must be set forth clearly in the response. (Ibid.)
If a party fails to admit the
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