Litigation

Requests for Admissions: Admitting of Denying Part of a Request

By Evan Schaeffer

A commenter writes--

I couldn't find an answer about how to respond when a requesting party stated many facts in one paragraph, some of which were true and others were not.

Actually, it's easy to admit or deny only part of a request. Here an actual example from a past case--

3. At the time of the purchase of the motorcycle in question, you were present, when Joe Johnson delivered a check on your behalf to the motorcycle dealership in question.

Response: Defendant ADMITS that Joe Johnson delivered a check in his presence to the motorcycle dealership, but denies the remainder of this request.

In this manner, a request to admit can be broken down into parts or sub-parts in order to isolate a particular portion of the request that you want to admit, deny, object to, etc.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 36(a)(4) states, in part: "A denial must fairly respond to the substance of the matter; and when good faith requires that a party qualify an answer or deny only a part of a matter, the answer must specify the part admitted and qualify or deny the rest."

Related Post: "Responding to Request for Admissions Under the Federal Rules."

Full post as published by The Illinois Trial Practice Blog on January 28, 2010 (boomark / email).