Defendant Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company of Los Angeles LLC served requests for admission on Plaintiff Amin Botros on January 21, 2021. Plaintiff never responded. Defendant filed a motion to deem the RFAs admitted.
Where a party fails to timely respond to a request for admission, the propounding party may move for an order that the genuineness of any documents and the truth of any matters specified in the requests be deemed admitted. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (b).) The party who failed to respond waives any objections to the demand, unless the court grants them relief from the waiver, upon a showing that the party (1) has subsequently served a substantially compliant response, and (2) that the party’s failure to respond was the result of mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subds. (a)(1)-(2).) The court shall grant a motion to deem admitted requests for admissions, “unless it finds that the party to whom the requests for admission have been directed has served, before the hearing on the motion, a proposed response to the requests for admission that is in substantial compliance with Section 2033.220.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (c).)
Plaintiff filed no opposition and did not serve timely responses. It does not appear Plaintiff served substantially compliant responses prior to the hearing on this motion. Accordingly, the motion to deem admitted requests for admissions is GRANTED.
Monetary Sanctions
Where a party fails to provide a timely response to requests for admission, “[i]t is mandatory that the court impose a monetary sanction under Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010) on the party or attorney, or both, whose failure to serve a timely response to requests for admission necessitated this motion.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (c).)
The request for monetary sanctions is GRANTED and imposed against Plaintiff in the amount of $510.00 to be paid within twenty (20) days of the date of this order.
Moving party to give notice.