Maryland requests for admission: a late response has to be struck, not just ignored

Maryland's deemed-admission rule reads like everyone else's. What follows a late response does not. The rule gives the requesting party a specific motion to make, and gives the court a discretion about whether to grant it — which means a late response is not automatically a nullity.

Thirty days, or fifteen after the pleading is due

Rule 2-424(b) sets the deadline with a formula rather than a single figure:

Each matter of which an admission is requested shall be deemed admitted unless, within 30 days after service of the request or within 15 days after the date on which that party's initial pleading or motion is required, whichever is later, the party to whom the request is directed serves a response signed by the party or the party's attorney.

Two periods, and the later governs. A defendant served with requests at the outset of a case gets fifteen days past the date its initial pleading or motion is due, which will usually be longer than thirty days from the requests.

Note that the second period runs from when the pleading is required, not from when it is filed. Filing an answer early does not shorten the window; obtaining an extension of time to plead lengthens it.

The response must be signed by the party or the party's attorney, and it has a required shape: "the response shall set forth each request for admission and shall specify an objection, or shall admit or deny the matter, or shall set forth in detail the reason why the respondent cannot truthfully admit or deny it."

Reproducing each request is not optional. A response that answers by number, without the requests, does not comply.

A late response is challenged by motion — and striking it is discretionary

Rule 2-424(c) gives the requesting party two distinct grounds for a motion:

The party who has requested the admission may file a motion challenging the timeliness of the response or the sufficiency of any answer or objection.

Timeliness is its own ground, separate from sufficiency. And the remedy is stated in permissive terms:

If the court determines that the response was served late, it may order the response stricken.

"May order the response stricken." Not must. So a response served after the deadline occupies an unusual position in Maryland: the matters are deemed admitted by operation of subsection (b), but a response is on file, and it takes a motion and a favorable exercise of discretion to remove it.

The practical reading runs both ways. A requesting party that intends to rely on deemed admissions should file the motion rather than assume the late response is a nullity. A responding party that has missed the deadline should serve the response anyway and be ready to explain the delay, because the court has room to leave it standing.

The motion has a required format

The same subsection tells you what a sufficiency motion must contain:

A motion challenging the sufficiency of an answer or objection shall set forth (1) the request, (2) the answer or objection, and (3) the reasons why the answer or objection is insufficient.

Three elements, per request. That is a drafting instruction, and it rules out the common shortcut of a motion that describes the problem generally and attaches the responses as an exhibit.

The outcomes are the familiar ones: unless an objection is justified the court orders an answer; if an answer does not comply the court "may order either that the matter is admitted or that an amended answer be served"; and in place of either it may "determine that final disposition of the request be made at a pretrial conference or at a designated time prior to trial."

Electronically stored information is named

Rule 2-424(a) describes what may be asked, and includes a category most versions of this rule do not:

A party may serve one or more written requests to any other party for the admission of (1) the genuineness of any relevant documents or electronically stored information described in or exhibited with the request, or (2) the truth of any relevant matters of fact set forth in the request.

Electronically stored information sits alongside documents in the genuineness branch. So the authenticity of an email chain, an export from a business system, or a set of native files can be put to the other side directly rather than proved through a custodian.

Copies are served with the request "unless they have been or are otherwise furnished or made available for inspection and copying," and each matter must be separately set forth.

Answering: what a denial has to do

The requirements are strict about substance and about partial answers:

A denial shall fairly meet the substance of the requested admission, and when good faith requires that a party qualify an answer or deny only a part of the matter of which an admission is requested, the party shall specify so much of it as is true and deny or qualify the remainder.

Lack of knowledge is available only on a stated condition — the respondent must say "that after reasonable inquiry the information known or readily obtainable by the respondent is insufficient to enable the respondent to admit or deny."

And the objection most often reached for is closed:

A party who considers that a matter of which an admission is requested presents a genuine issue for trial may not, on that ground alone, object to the request but the party may, subject to the provisions of section (e) of this Rule, deny the matter or set forth reasons for not being able to admit or deny it.

The cross-reference is the point. Denying is permitted — "subject to section (e)," which is the expenses provision below.

Withdrawal, and where the burden sits

Rule 2-424(d) makes an admission "conclusively established," then sets the withdrawal test:

The court may permit withdrawal or amendment if the court finds that it would assist the presentation of the merits of the action and the party who obtained the admission fails to satisfy the court that withdrawal or amendment will prejudice the party in maintaining the action or defense on the merits.

Note the structure of the second half. Prejudice is something the party holding the admission has to satisfy the court about. Once the moving party shows that withdrawal would assist the presentation of the merits, the argument shifts to the other side of the table.

An admission is also confined to the case: it "is for the purpose of the pending action only and is not an admission for any other purpose, nor may it be used against that party in any other proceeding."

The cost of a denial that turns out to be wrong

Rule 2-424(e) shifts expenses, and the default runs against the party that denied:

If a party fails to admit the genuineness of any document or the truth of any matter as requested under this Rule and if the party requesting the admissions later proves the genuineness of the document or the truth of the matter, the party may move for an order requiring the other party to pay the reasonable expenses incurred in making the proof, including reasonable attorney's fees. The court shall enter the order unless it finds that (1) an objection to the request was sustained pursuant to section (c) of this Rule, or (2) the admission sought was of no substantial importance, or (3) the party failing to admit had reasonable ground to expect to prevail on the matter, or (4) there was other good reason for the failure to admit.

"Shall enter the order unless" — four escapes, and the burden of establishing one falls on the party that refused to admit. The third is the one most often argued, and its phrasing matters: a reasonable ground to expect to prevail on the matter, not merely a good-faith belief.

That is the reason to answer requests for admission with the trial in mind. A denial that costs the other side a day of proof is a denial that can be paid for.

A short checklist

If you are serving requests:

1. Use the ESI branch for the genuineness of electronic material, not just paper.
2. Serve document copies with the request unless they are already available.
3. Move to strike a late response rather than relying on the deemed admission alone.
4. Draft a sufficiency motion in the required three parts, request by request.
5. Move for expenses under section (e) if you have to prove what should have been admitted.
6. Check the deadline formula before assuming a response is late.

If you are responding:

1. Count both periods — thirty days from the request, and fifteen days after your pleading is due — and use the later.
2. Reproduce each request in the response. The rule requires it.
3. Do not object on "genuine issue for trial" alone. Deny, and be ready to justify the denial later.
4. If you are late, serve the response anyway. Striking it takes a motion and is discretionary.

Where these rules live

• Md. Rule 2-424 — Admission of facts and genuineness of documents
• Responding to a Maryland complaint
• Maryland discovery deadlines
• Maryland motion to compel discovery
• Maryland summary judgment

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and whether a particular failure to admit had a reasonable ground is a question this page does not answer.