Opinion ID: 1924463
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: We sympathize with Federated's position and recognize the untimely response was due to inadvertence, but we agree with the Alaska Supreme Court:

Text: To be sure, Rule 36 does not compel the automatic rejection of late responses.... [S]uch a rigid rule would result in the unjustified suppression of the merits. In the same vein, however, too liberal sufferance of a litigant's procrastination is equally undesirable, since such a policy would undermine the purposes of the rule. Riley v. Northern Commercial Co., 648 P.2d 961, 965 (Alaska 1982). We note that other courts have refused leave to withdraw or amend admissions based on inadvertance or excusable neglect on the part of counsel. Peppers v. Siefferman, 153 Ga.App. 206, 207, 265 S.E.2d 26, 27 (1980) (failure to respond due to an accidental mix-up, a pure accident); Hanchar Industrial Waste Management, Inc. v. Wayne Reclamation & Recycling, Inc., 418 N.E.2d 268, 270 (Ind. App.1981) (two-pronged standard makes no reference to excusable neglect or inadvertance); Wagner v. Carex Investigations & Security, Inc., 93 Nev. 627, 629, 572 P.2d 921, 922 (1977) (counsel dictated answers to secretary but never formally served them); Commonwealth v. Diamond Shamrock Chemical Co., 38 Pa.Commw. 89, 94, 391 A.2d 1333, 1336 (1978) (clerical error, heavy caseload, and understaffing); Trevino v. Central Freight Lines, 613 S.W.2d 356, 359 (Tex.Civ.App.1981) (attorney's neglect). We also have considered, but found without merit, Federated's proposal that its motion for extension of time be granted with the reservation that Allied can apply for reimbursement of its expenses from Federated. V. The question in this appeal is not whether we would permit the untimely responses to be filed. The question is whether the district court abused its discretion in refusing to permit them to be filed. We are constrained to hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion, by virtue of our recent holding in Sullivan v. Chicago & Northwestern Transportation Co., 326 N.W.2d 320, 324 (Iowa 1982). AFFIRMED.