Deemed Admitted

The Maryland Court of Appeals has disbarred an attorney and, in doing so, found no abuse of discretion by the trial court in accepting as proven extensive requests for admissions

In sum, Petitioner served Respondent with 37 pages of Requests for Admissions and attached 125 exhibits totaling 2,087 pages. The Request for Admissions asked that Respondent admit the truthfulness of 391 factual representations and the genuineness of 125 documents—516 requests for admissions in total. Although we recognize that serving requests for admission can be a useful tool to streamline a trial by enabling the parties to stipulate to undisputed facts and the admission of documents, the requests should be reasonable under the circumstances. Here, the Request for Admissions seemed to anticipate that Respondent might fail to respond and, thereby, be deemed to have admitted facts that he otherwise would not have admitted and that otherwise might not have been admissible at the disciplinary hearing. Asking Respondent to admit to the factual averments that we describe specifically in footnote 18, and many other requests for admissions not detailed here and otherwise served on Respondent, was unreasonable. Nonetheless, for the reasons explained below, we do not sustain this exception.

Because

the hearing judge in this case—in an exercise of judicial restraint and good judgment—afforded Respondent numerous opportunities to respond to the request for admissions and permitted Respondent the opportunity to present evidence to rebut the facts deemed admitted. See id. at 478–79. Thus, practically speaking, Respondent did not suffer any real prejudice when the facts contained in the request for admissions were deemed admitted by straightforward application of Maryland Rule 2-424. This exception, therefore, is overruled.

Aggravation

We recognize that not all the conduct cited by the hearing judge qualifies as an aggravating factor. For example, Respondent’s poor decorum when responding to Bar Counsel—while unbecoming—is not conduct that falls under any aggravating factor that this Court recognizes. See Keating, 471 Md. at 639. The remainder of conduct cited by the hearing judge squarely is encompassed by three aggravating factors: multiple MARPC violations, Respondent’s refusal to acknowledge the misconduct’s wrongful nature, and the likelihood that he would repeat his misconduct.

Thus disbarment.

Oral argument linked here. (Mike Frisch)