January 5, 2023

Discovery - Requests for Admission

When a case is litigated, the parties will typically engage in discovery to gather the relevant facts that pertain to the case. 

For example, assume a person passed away without a will and owned a home in their name alone. A petition is filed by the decedent's son to be appointed the administrator of the estate. In turn, a competing petition is filed by the decedent's "spouse" to be appointed the administrator of the estate.

The son is represented by counsel whereas the "spouse" is not.

If the "spouse" qualifies as the decedent's surviving spouse, they have the highest priority to be appointed administrator of the estate. Probate Code §8461(a). However, if the spouse does not qualify as the surviving spouse, then the son would have priority over the "spouse" to be appointed administrator of the estate. Probate Code §8461(b).

The son discovers through a public records search that the "spouse" filed a dissolution of marriage from the decedent years prior to his death. The son relays this information to his attorney who looks up the case on the court's website. The attorney finds that a dissolution of judgment had been filed years before the decedent's passing.

The son's attorney then sends "Requests for Admissions" to the "spouse" to have her admit that she was not married to the decedent at the time of his passing. That is, the marriage between the "spouse" and decedent had been dissolved prior to his passing. Therefore, the son would have priority to be appointed administrator of the estate.

The "spouse" refuses to answer that she was married to the decedent at his passing by asserting that family court records, which are public and easily accessible, can verify whether she was married to the decedent at the time of his passing. Due to this refusal, the son's attorney files a motion to have the Requests for Admissions be deemed admitted and for monetary sanctions.  

The trial court agrees and has the Requests for Admissions admitted (see the marriage was dissolved) and imposes monetary sanctions on the "spouse."

The foregoing facts are loosely-based upon a recent unpublished appellate decision. 

Estate of Sukhjinder Singh, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, case no. 19PR-034.