Requests for Admissions: Costs and Sanctions Upon Improper Failure to Admit

In preparing answers to requests for admissions, the answers must be made in good faith and answer the request in detail. Answers that do not accomplish this may be stricken at the court’s discretion and sanctions applied. The following excerpted Rules and cases support the above conclusion. If the defendant in your case offered only blanket denials, and you are able to provide documentation showing that his answers were not complete or made in good faith, it is likely that a judge would be amenable to striking the answers, thus making them admissions, and imposing sanctions such as attorney’s fees. If the opposing party has a good faith belief that their denials were correct, then they will likely not be sanctioned. Of particular interest in Rule 37 (c), which explains the grounds under which a judge may choose to sanction for failure to admit.
NC Rules of Civil Procedure

Rule 36
If objection is made, the reasons therefor shall be stated. The answer shall specifically deny the matter or set forth in detail the reasons why the answering party cannot truthfully admit or deny the matter. A denial shall fairly meet the substance of the requested admission, and when good faith requires that a party qualify his answer or deny only a part of the matter of which an admission is requested, he shall specify so much of it as is true and qualify or deny the remainder.
If the court determines that an answer does not comply with the requirements of this rule, it may order either that the matter is admitted or that an amended answer be served. The court may, in lieu of these orders, determine that final disposition of the request be made at a pretrial conference or at a designated time prior to trial. The provisions of Rule 37(a)(4) apply to the award of expenses incurred in relation to the motion.
N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. 1A-1, 36

Rule 37 (c)
Expenses on failure to admit.–If a party fails to admit the genuineness of any document or the truth of any matter as requested under Rule 36, and if the party requesting the admissions thereafter proves the genuineness of the document or the truth of the matter, the requesting party may apply to the court for an order requiring the other party to pay to him or her the reasonable expenses incurred in making that proof, including reasonable attorney’s fees. The court shall make the order unless it finds that (i) the request was held objectionable pursuant to Rule 36(a), or (ii) the admission sought was of no substantial importance, or (iii) the party failing to admit had reasonable ground to believe that he or she might prevail on the matter, or (iv) there was other good reason for the failure to admit.

N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. 1A-1, 37

Rule 8 (c)
(b) Defenses; form of denials. — A party shall state in short and plain terms his defenses to each claim asserted and shall admit or deny the averments upon which the adverse party relies. If he is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of an averment, he shall so state and this has the effect of a denial. Denials shall fairly meet the substance of the averments denied. When a pleader intends in good faith to deny only a part of or a qualification of an averment, he shall specify so much of it as is true and material and shall deny only the remainder. Unless the pleader intends in good faith to controvert all the averments of the preceding pleading, he may make his denials as specific denials of designated averments or paragraphs, or he may generally deny all the averments except such designated averments or paragraphs as he expressly admits; but, when he does so intend to controvert all its averments, he may do so by general denial subject to the obligations set forth in Rule 11.
N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. 1A-1, 8
Case Law

1. “Litigants in this state are required to respond to pleadings, interrogatories and requests for admission with timely, good faith answers. They may not deny an allegation generally when part of it is known to be true. Rule 8(b), N.C. Rules of Civil Procedure. Pleadings not made in the good faith belief that they are supportable are sham pleadings that can be stricken. Rule 11, N.C. Rules of Civil Procedure. Nor may parties unduly delay or impede their adversaries in their search for relevant information and admissions by professing to be ignorant of what can be learned by reasonable effort. When a party claims not to have enough information **914 to forthrightly answer a request for admission, good faith and *522 Rule 36(a) of the N.C. Rules of Civil Procedure requires the claimant to state that reasonable inquiry was made.”

WXQR Marine Broad. Corp. v. JAI, Inc., 83 N.C. App. 520, 521-22, 350 S.E.2d 912, 913-14 (1986)

1. “…the defendant made a general denial as to each and every allegation of the complaint. Yet, it is clear that had defendant made reasonable inquiry as required by the Rules of Civil Procedure, she would have offered an explanation of the denial, at the very least. In addition, the court found defendant made a blanket assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege in response to interrogatories and requests for documents. Under the facts of this case, we conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in awarding attorney fees and striking defendant’s answer.”

Tran v. Nguyen, 174 N.C. App. 368, 620 S.E.2d 734 (2005) [Unpublished!]

1. “…Further, in his order, Judge Cashwell listed the specific requests for admissions that defendants improperly denied, and noted that plaintiffs ultimately proved those matters. See Brooks, 106 N.C.App. at 593, 418 S.E.2d at 239-40. Finally, in his order, Judge Cashwell provided an itemized list of the attorneys’ fees attributable to the failure to admit, and concluded that the attorneys’ fees were reasonable.”

Cail v. Cerwin, 185 N.C. App. 176, 189, 648 S.E.2d 510, 519 (2007)

1. The choice of sanctions under Rule 37 is within the trial court’s discretion and will not be overturned on appeal absent a showing of abuse of discretion

Brooks v. Giesey, 106 N.C. App. 586, 592, 418 S.E.2d 236 (1992).

1. In the instant case defendant served requests for admission on plaintiff and plaintiff denied every admission. The trial court found that defendant proved the truth of the matter asserted.

“The choice of sanctions under Rule 37 is within the trial court’s discretion and will not be overturned on appeal absent a showing of abuse of that discretion.” Brooks v. Giesey, 106 N.C.App. 586, 592, 418 S.E.2d 236, 239 (1992), aff’d, 334 N.C. 303, 432 S.E.2d 339 (1993). There is no evidence that the trial court abused its discretion in denying defendant’s motion, thus the trial court’s decision is affirmed.
Wachovia Bank of N. Carolina, N.A. v. Bob Dunn Jaguar, Inc., 117 N.C. App. 165, 174, 450 S.E.2d 527, 533 (1994)