Summary 2010 WY 96

Summary of Decision issued July 7, 2010

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: Rohrer v. Bureaus Investment, Group No. 7, LLC

Citation: 2010 WY 96

Docket Number: S-09-0180

Appeal from the District Court of Big Horn County, the Honorable Steven R. Cranfill, Judge.

Representing Rohrer: John M. Burman, Faculty Supervisor, U.W.Legal Services Program, and Carissa Mobley, Student Intern.

Representing Group 7: Larry W. Harrington, Casper, WY.

Facts/Discussion: Rohrer contended that the district court abused its discretion in denying her “Motion to Have Requests for Admission Deemed Denied or in the Alternative to Withdraw Admissions.” She also contended that the district court erred in granting summary judgment because Group 7 failed to present a prima facie case for summary judgment and because she came forward with evidence that created genuine issues of material fact. Group 7 purchased a debt from Chase which is attributed to Rohrer. Rohrer has denied the debt since 2004.

Admissions: Rule 36 governs requests for admissions. The Court stated that “[j]udicial discretion is a composite of many things, among which are conclusions drawn from objective criteria; it means a sound judgment exercised with regard to what is right under the circumstances and without doing so arbitrarily or capriciously.” Rohrer asserted that she responded to the requests for admissions although she had no proof of that contention. Her answers to both the initial and amended complaints with forthright denials that she owed Group 7 any money for the credit card account at issue are included in the record. The Court perceived the request for admissions as an attempt to obtain admissions to matters that Rohrer had vehemently denied multiple times since 2004.
Genuine issues of material fact: If the admissions Group 7 is dependent on are permitted to be withdrawn, then a genuine issue of material fact exists because here denial that she owed the debt at issue is at odds with Groups 7’s contention that she owes a debt owned by Group 7 via the bill of sale that does not include the Exhibit “A” referenced item.

Conclusion: The Court concluded that the district court abused its discretion by not allowing Rohrer to withdraw those admissions which go to the matters which she has denied since the matter first arose over six years ago. The Court agreed there were genuine issues of material fact once it allowed the admissions to be withdrawn.

Reversed and remanded.

J. Hill delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2a3f5n2 .

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