Boren et al v. Smith Motor Freight et al

Filing 42

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER: The Court will reserve ruling on Plaintiff's Motion to Deem Admitted Plaintiffs Second Request for Admissions and to Strike Defendant's Objections (Doc. 38) until the final pretrial conference.. Signed by District Judge John A. Ross on 7/24/15. (LGK)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
EASTERN DIVISION
DIANA BOREN, et al.,
Plaintiffs,

vs.
SMITH MOTOR FREIGHT, et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 4:14-CV-00437-JAR

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff Diana Boren's ("Boren") Motion to Deem
Admitted Plaintiffs Second Request for Admissions and to Strike Defendant's Objections (Doc.
38). Plaintiff requests that the Court deem her second request for admissions admitted or that the
Court strike the asserted objections. In support of her motion, Plaintiff indicates that only 2 out
of her 44 requests were appropriately answered. Specifically, Plaintiff argues that her requests
were "evaded, ignored, rephrased, or cluttered with self serving extraneous statements and
baseless objections, apropos of nothing" (Doc. 39 at 1). Defendant Smith Motor Freight responds
that "[a]ll 44 requests seek admissions related to arguments [Boren] wants to make at trial to
support her medical damages claims, including primarily the reasonable value of her treatment"
(Doc. 40 at 1). Therefore, Smith Motor argues, "it narrowly tailored qualifications to its
admissions in good faith merely to avoid potential improper inferences and to preserve its
defense regarding the issue ... " (Id.).
Upon review of the requests for admissions and associated objections, the Court finds
that Smith Motor's responses in some instances are inadequate or unduly argumentative. Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 36 "seeks to promote trial efficiency by eliminating uncontested factual
matters and eliminating issues that are not really in dispute between the parties." 35A C.J.S.
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FEDERAL CIVIL PROCEDURE§ 743. With that in mind, the Court will order the parties to meet and
attempt to resolve these issues.
Accordingly, the Court will reserve ruling on Plaintiffs Motion to Deem Admitted
Plaintiffs Second Request for Admissions and to Strike Defendant's Objections (Doc. 38) until
the final pretrial conference.
Dated

thi~; of July, 2015.

A. ROSS
ED STA TES DISTRICT JUDGE

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