Appleton

Petitioner A. Jonathon Appleton (Appleton) seeks a writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to grant his request for sanctions, based on his contention that under the new discovery act sanctions are mandatory upon the granting of a motion to have requests for admission deemed admitted. We agree and shall order the writ to issue.

Real parties in interest Edward and Janet Cook (Cook) were the insureds under a policy issued by defendant Insurance Company of North America (INA) in 1985. This is an action against INA and Appleton for fraud in connection with the sale of that policy.

In March 1988, Appleton served upon Cook a set of three requests for admission which referred to allegations of the first amended complaint. Because of an intervening amendment to the complaint, Cook objected but did provide a single purported answer to all three requests. However, this response was not verified.

After unsuccessful attempts to obtain more complete answers and a verification, Appleton moved to have the requests deemed admitted and for sanctions pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 2033, subdivision (k). The trial court ordered that Appleton’s requests be deemed…