Requests For Admissions: Incurred Attorney’s Fees, Not Just Reasonable Fees, Is The Standard For Cost-Of-Proof Sanctions

Appellate Court Remands Cause to Lower Court For Purposes of Satisfying This Standard.

     Gaskin v. Wegman, Case No. B234124 (2d Dist., Div. 5 May 9, 2012) (unpublished) provides a valuable lesson to all litigators and litigants seeking cost-of-proof “sanctions” under California Code of Civil Procedure section 2033.420. (For a short recap, this is the CCP provision that allows a prevailing party to recover costs of proof, including reasonable attorney’s fees, for proving a material matter that is grounded outside of a reasonable cause for an RFA denial or otherwise having no good reason underlying the denial.)

     That lesson? You gotta read all of the enabling statute which does indicate it is targeted at reasonable expenses actually incurred in making the proof that is the basis of the RFA denial. So, the actually incurred language modifies all expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees. In this instance, the winning side–which did win a substantial $121,000 fee award–will have to, on remand, present proof of the amount of fees incurred in order to justify an award. Remanded on this basis.

You gotta read.

American mystery novel writer Mary Roberts Rinehart, considered source of the phrase, “The butler did it.”

Library of Congress.