Court Opinion

ID: 9552187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:05:54.417179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:43.828846
License: Public Domain

DURHAM, Justice,
dissenting:
While I agree with much of the well-reasoned opinion of the majority, I narrowly dissent as to the result reached. The majority, while applying the germane standards and tests, failed to afford the trial court appropriate discretion. I would accordingly uphold the trial court’s decision to allow defendants time to respond to plaintiffs admissions.
The majority correctly identified the test for determining rule 36 review by this court:
[T]he decision of the trial judge to permit withdrawal or amendment of Monarch’s admissions can therefore be upheld only if (1) amendment or withdrawal would serve the presentation of the merits of the action, and (2) amendment or withdrawal would not prejudice Langeland in maintaining his action on the merits.
Because this court had never before articulated a test for determining whether amendment or withdrawal would serve the presentation of the merits of the action, the majority declared the following two-pronged analysis for deciding element (1) of the test enunciated above:
To show that a presentation of the merits of an action would be served by amendment or withdrawal of an admission, the party seeking amendment or withdrawal must (1) show that the matters deemed admitted against it are relevant to the merits of the underlying cause of action, and (2) introduce some evidence by affidavit or otherwise of specific facts indicating that the matters deemed admitted against it are in fact untrue.
The majority simply found that Monarch, the party seeking amendment, met the first prong of this test but failed to meet the second prong. The majority claims that Monarch failed to introduce any evidence or specific facts whatsoever that would support its claim that the matters deemed admitted against it were in fact untrue. Because this second element was not met, the majority holds that Monarch failed to meet the rule 36 test. Further, the majority holds that Langeland conclusively showed that he would suffer prejudice as a result of the withdrawal or amendment of the admissions.
I specifically disagree with the majority on the following two points: (1) Monarch did introduce evidence of specific facts that supported its claim that the matters admitted against it were untrue; and (2) Langeland would suffer no prejudice if the admissions were withdrawn or amended.
*1065I. EVIDENCE OF. SPECIFIC FACTS
The majority finds that the trial court abused its discretion in holding that Monarch had introduced evidence of specific facts indicating that the matters deemed admitted against it were untrue. On this point alone, the majority overturns the trial court, holding that the specific facts of untrue admissions were not introduced in the brief or the record. I disagree.
In both its motion for leave to amend or withdraw answers to request for admissions and its brief before this court, Monarch stated conclusively that it denied several of the admissions and offered specific facts as to why it denied such admissions. While . no affidavit accompanied the record, the-majority overstates the lack of “specific facts indicating that the matters deemed admitted against it are in fact untrue” when -it writes:
However, while the motion disputes the admission which Monarch later wished to deny, it lacks any sort of detailed articulation of such arguments and is entirely devoid of evidence of specific facts contradicting the admissions.’ The record is-devoid of any sworn statement that admission No. 2 is untrue.
(Footnote omitted.)' The record is not “entirely devoid” of evidence of specific facts. Monarch asserts in the record specific information as to the salvage title issued by the state of Arizona and explains why Utah took no titling action in describing its depial of an admission. The trial court, with the record before it, easily could have found that specific facts were presented. We should respect the trial judge’s discretion.
These issues are important, but they are ultimately procedural in nature and do . not implicate fundamental rights. The preconditions for amendment of admissions under rule 36(b) do not therefore require the level of vigilant protection that a de novo review by this court would afford. See State v. Pena, 869 P.2d 932, 938 (Utah 1994) .(describing “situations in which we. narrow the pasture [of discretion] for policy reasons,” and citing as examples State v. Thurman, 846 P.2d 1256, 1266 (Utah 1993) (considering whether search violated Fourth Amendment); Utah Assoc. Mun. Power Sys. v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 789 P.2d 298, 301-02 (Utah 1990) (deciding constitutionality of delegating certain legislative powers)). The policy considerations in the present ease persuade me that an intermediate standard is appropriate for review of the trial court’s rule 36 preliminary determinations.
However, Pena makes clear that public 'policy is just one factor to be considered in establishing the appropriate standard of review. While policy considerations may persuade us to narrow the scope of discretion in certain cases,' Pena also indicates that in certain situations broader discretion should be granted to the trial court:
(i) when the facts to which the legal rule is to be applied are so complex and varying that no rule adequately addressing the relevance of all these facts can be spelled out; (ii) when the situation to which the legal principle is to be applied is sufficiently new to the courts that appellate judges are unable to anticipate and articulate definitively what factors should be outcome de-terminativé; and (iii) when the trial judge has observed “facts,” such as a witness’s appearance and demeanor, relevant to the application of the law that cannot be adequately reflected in the record available to appellate courts.
Pena, 869 P.2d at 939 (citing Maurice Rosenberg, Judicial Discretion of the Trial Court, Viewed From Above, 22 Syracuse L.Rev. 635, 662-63 (1971)).
As for the first requirement, the facts to which rule 36(b) are to be applied appear at first neither varying nor complex. Each case, like the case at hand, must involve a party moving to amend admissions deemed admitted against it by virtue of its failure to respond to a request for admissions within thirty days. Nevertheless, I recognize the difficulty of trying to predict what kinds of factual variations may present themselves in the future and am willing to admit that trial courts .generally occupy a better position to address those variations. This difficulty would indicate that broader “pasture,” or discretion, should be afforded trial courts. However, the second and third factors justify a narrower grant of discretion in this case. *1066And finally, because Monarch’s motion to amend was granted purely on the record and memoranda submitted in support of or opposition to the motion to amend, no trial court ever held a hearing. The trial judge in this ease could therefore have observed no relevant “facts” outside the record. Analysis of these three factors causes me to conclude that we should grant some deference in this case.
In reviewing a trial court’s decision to grant a rule 36 motion to amend, we should give some deference to the trial court’s- findings that the presentation of the action’s merits would be served by amendment and that amendment would not prejudice the other party’s action or defense. Once these threshold conditions are satisfied, the trial court has full discretion to grant or deny the motion to amend, and its decision should be reversed only if the judge appears to have abused her discretion, that is, if there was no reasonable basis for it.
I agree with the majority that Monarch could have more strongly presented its specific facts and evidence. However, the record and brief are not so devoid of such information as to constitute an abuse of discretion by the trial court.
II. PREJUDICE
Because the majority finds that Monarch failed to show evidence of specific facts, it did not need to reach the prejudice analysis. Nevertheless, the majority reaches out to conclude that Langeland would suffer prejudice if amendment or withdrawal of the admissions is allowed. This simply is not so. Langeland argues various grounds for finding prejudice. I will examine each of his arguments individually. His memorandum in opposition to defendants’ motion for leave to amend or withdraw answers to requests for admissions states the following grounds for a finding of prejudice:
Each delay caused by defendant’s failure to follow the rules ... increases the costs to the plaintiff in attorney’s fees, interest!!,] and other factors.... [T]he value of the car has been dramatically effected [sic] by depreciation.... [T]his has prejudiced the plaintiff because of defendant’s delays. The changing situation of the defendants and the ability to collect on a judgment is prejudiced with each delay as well.
The first two factors mentioned by Lange-land — the costs of attorney fees and interest and the depreciation of the value of the car— have, as Langeland suggests, been caused or at least exacerbated by Monarch Motors’ unnecessary delays. However, arguing that Monarch’s delays have caused Langeland to incur additional costs is not the same- as arguing that Langeland will be prejudiced in his cause of action if the court permits Monarch to amend its admissions. Certainly, an amendment, if permitted, would require Langeland to argue the merits of various matters now deemed admitted against Monarch Motors. This result would protract the litigation and inevitably cause further costs to Langeland. But these costs are clearly not the kind of prejudice contemplated by rule 36(b). While additional costs are certainly prejudicial to Langeland’s interests in the broadest sense, they do not “prejudice him in maintaining his action ... on the merits” as required by the rule. Costs associated with the burden of addressing the merits will be present every time an amendment is permitted; accepting these as “prejudice” under rule 36 would render nugatory the. rule’s requirement that prejudice be shown.
The other “prejudicial” factors mentioned by Langeland — described simply as “the changing situation of the defendants and the ability to collect on a judgment” — are so vague that the trial court could not reasonably have been expected to know what facts Langeland referred to or to understand in what way his cause of action would be prejudiced. Langeland makes various arguments on appeal to clarify these assertions, but the trial court did not have the benefit of these clarifications. Furthermore, upon examining the various forms of prejudice Langeland claims to have suffered, none of them appears to have come about through reliance on Monarch’s deemed admissions, and thus none of them constitutes" prejudice within the meaning of rule 36(b). For example, Lange-land argues that Monarch’s delays have resulted in further depreciation of the automo*1067bile’s value. If so, the delay may affect the amount recoverable by Langeland if he is successful at trial; it does not mean that his presentation of the merits of the..case has been prejudiced.
The trial court has the discretion to permit amendment or withdrawal of admissions against a party who moves for amendment under rule 86(b) when the presentation of the merits of the action would be served thereby and the party who obtained the admission fails to satisfy the court that withdrawal- or amendment will prejudice him in maintaining his action on the merits. This rule burdens both the party seeking to amend the admissions and the party opposing amendment. Before the trial court can exercise its discretionary powers, the moving party must meet its burden and the nonmoving party must fail to meet its burden. The parties did precisely that in this case. Monarch Motors has shown that the admissions were both relevant and disputed ahd thus that the merits of the action would be served by amendment. Langeland failed to show any detrimental reliance on the admissions or to argue any other facts indicating that prejudice would result to him in maintaining his cause of action if the admissions were amended or withdrawn. The trial court found that these preliminary requirements had been satisfied, and it was therefore free to exercise its discretion either- to grant or to deny Monarch’s motion to amend the admissions. In this case, the trial judge chose to grant the motion and permit amendment.
We may doubt the-wisdom of permitting defendants to amend their admissions after failing to respond for ten months and neglecting to explain their failure. But as long as there is some reasonable basis for the trial court’s decision, we should not call it abuse of discretion. Here the dispositive nature of the issues deemed admitted against Monarch may provide an explanation for the trial court’s determination to hear evidence on those matters.
In conclusion, the trial court has discretion to grant or deny a motion to amend admissions. However, a judge must deny such a motion if the,amendment would not serve the presentation of the merits or if it would prejudice the nonmoving party in the presentation of its ease. Neither of these conditions was present in this case, and I would hold that the trial judge was within her discretion in granting Monarch’s motion to amend.