Carli

On August 10, 1983, counsel for real party mailed a set of requests for admissions and two sets of interrogatories to counsel for petitioners. The law clerk for petitioners’ counsel prepared rough answers to the interrogatories; counsel dictated that which he wanted typed and promptly forgot the matter believing all had been attended to.

On September 21, 1983, petitioners’ counsel received the letter of September 19, 1983, stating real party deemed his requests to be admitted. A search ensued, a missing tape was found and the following day the response to the request for admissions was typed and mailed. During the period in question, the office of petitioners’ counsel was in turmoil. One of the firm’s three attorneys had just left the firm, leaving a case load of some 150 cases. Counsel was preparing for jury trial in San Diego and two appeals were in their final stages of preparation. In addition to the two full-time secretaries, six temporary secretaries were hired consecutively over two and a half months. The daughter of one of the full-time secretaries, the wife of one of the associates, the secretary from next door, all came in to help. A new associate was hired;…