Civil Procedure - Requests To Admit - Illinois Supreme Court Rule 219(b)

A recent decision by the Illinois Appellate Court for the Second District, in the case captioned McGrath v. Botsford, 2-09-0235, will prove useful in commercial cases.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 216 allows one party to serve requests to admit on the other party. If the requests are not admitted or denied in 28 days, they are deemed admitted. "The purpose of a request to admit pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 216 is to enable the parties and the court to limit the issues and to reduce unnecessary production of proof at trial." The answering party has a "good-faith obligation to make a reasonable effort to secure answers to a request to admit, not only from the facts within its own knowledge but also from persons and documents within its reasonable control."

Under Rule 219(b), the court may award reasonable expenses including attorney's fees for the wrongful denial of requests to admit.

In this case, McGrath denied all of the requests to admit, but later lost at trial. Moreover, McGrath contradicted his denials in deposition testimony.

After the trial, Botsford moved, pursuant to Rule 219(b) for an award of reasonable attorney fees. The trial court denied the award.

The Appellate Court reversed. The Appellate Court found that the denials were unjustified and that the trial court had abused its discretion in denying fees.

To prevail on a Rule 219(b) motion, the moving party must show: "(1) proof of the truth of the matters asserted that were denied by the nonmovant; (2) that the nonmovant lacked good reason to deny the facts asserted; and (3) the materiality to the litigation of the facts as to which admissions were sought." Citing, Exchange National Bank of Chicago v. DeGraff, 110 Ill. App. 3d 145, 160 (1982).

This is an excellent cases for commercial litigators as it allows the recovery of attorney fees for the wrongful denial of requests to admit.

Edward X. Clinton, Jr.