Rule 4006.Answers to Written Interrogatories by a Party.

Official Note: Rule 440 requires the answering party to serve a copy of the answers upon every party to the action.

Official Note: See Rule 4003.1 for the general scope of discovery.

Explanatory Note The prior Rule has been completely rewritten to incorporate substantial parts of Fed. R. Civ.P. 33 and to conform to Rule 4005. (1) The restriction in the prior Rule to ‘‘adverse’’ parties is deleted. (2) The answering party will respond to each interrogatory in the space provided. If the space is inadequate, he may retype the interrogatories or he may use a supplemental sheet for the remainder of his response. (3) The amendment requires the answering person to sign the answer and the attorney to sign any objections. This follows Fed. R. Civ.P. 33. Present practice provides only for signing the answer. (4) An interrogatory which is otherwise proper is not objectionable because the answer will require an opinion or the application of law to fact. This conforms to Fed. R. Civ.P. 33(b) and the rescission of former Rule 4011(f). (5) Subdivision (b) copies Fed. R. Civ.P. 33(c) by providing that, where the requested informa- tion may be derived or ascertained from a party’s records, he has an option to produce the records for inspection by the inquiring party rather than detailing the information in his answer. The amendment, however, goes beyond Fed. R. Civ.P. 33(c) by making the option applicable to all records. The Federal Rule restricts the option to ‘‘business’’ records. This expansion of the option to all records is not intended to give an answering party carte blanche to foist upon the inquiring party a jumble of personal records. The option can be used only where the burden would be substantially the same for both parties and never where it will be an undue burden on the inquiring party. The amendment also goes beyond the Federal Rule in requiring the inquiring party who has made compi- lations, abstracts or summaries from the records to furnish a copy to the party who has produced the records. This will help facilitate agreements as to their accuracy for use at trial and prevent surprise. (6) The time periods for answer are extended to 30 days after service of the interrogatories to conform to the time period of the Federal Rule. (7) Under the amendment, as under the Federal Rule, the statement of an objection will not excuse the answering party from answering all remaining interrogatories to which no objection is stated.