Coy

This is a proceeding to review by writ of mandate an order of the respondent court denying petitioner’s motion to amend his complaint and also denying his several motions to require answers to certain interrogatories.

Petitioner is the plaintiff, and the real parties in interest are three of several defendants, in a pending action for damages for abuse of process. The parties will be referred to as “plaintiff,” “defendants,” and “the court.”

Plaintiff alleged both special and general damages, and also sought punitive damages, with a total prayer of approximately $40,000. About five months before the date set for trial he sought to amend for the sole purpose of adding an allegation of damages for mental suffering in the gym of *215 $15,000. In addition, he served each of the defendants (prior to pretrial, but after the date for pretrial had been set) with a set of interrogatories. The interrogatories were extensive. Counting each subinterrogatory as a separate question, there were 63 addressed to Woleher, 30 addressed to Terry, and 32 addressed to Bebich. They may be summarized as: (a) those that dealt directly with the issues involved in the cause of action, (b) those that…