Legal Memorandum: Limitation on Requests for Admission

Issue: What cases authorize a party to make a large number of requests for admission?

Vinton v. Adam Aircraft Indus., Inc., 232 F.R.D. 650 (D. Colo. 2005) (“Fed. R. Civ. P. 36, governing requests for admission, does not set a presumptive limit” but the magistrate did not err in limiting requests to 25 per side.).

Joseph L. v. Conn. Dep’t of Children & Families, 225 F.R.D. 400 (D. Conn. 2005) (Plaintiff’s 163 requests for admission were excessive and abusive when “relatively few of these requests for admission [were] even relevant.”).

Martin Marietta Materials, inc. v. Bedford Reinforced Plastics, Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32228 (W.D. Pa. May 1, 2007) (Many of plaintiff’s 650 requests for admission were ruled improper because of a “fundamental defect in their form.”  The court ordered responses to 91 of the 650 requests. This number was “objectively reasonable.”)

Misco, Inc. v. Fielder, 784 F.2d 198 (6^th Cir. 1985) (2028 requests for admission were inappropriate because they were in substance interrogatories, which were limited in number by local rule).

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