Vaidik, C.J.
Case Summary
When Massachusetts resident Douglas Costello posted a used printer on Craigslist in 2009, he could not have predicted that he would spend much of the next seven years locked in a legal battle in Indiana. But he sold the printer—for less than $75—to Gersh Zavodnik, who has a penchant for suing after entering into online transactions. Zavodnik, claiming the printer was defective, sued Costello in small-claims court. He asked for the small-claims maximum of $6000, but Costello defended the case and prevailed, based on the fact that Zavodnik had prematurely disposed of the printer. Unfazed, Zavodnik appealed the matter to superior court, where he was allowed to conduct discovery. Zavodnik sent Costello requests for discovery pursuant to Indiana Trial Rule 36(A), asking Costello to admit, among other things, that he is liable for $30,044.07. Costello, who remained unrepresented following his victory in small-claims court, failed to respond (he later said he never received the requests). When Costello learned that his failure to respond rendered the matters admitted under Rule 36(A), he hired an attorney and moved to withdraw the admissions under subsection (B) of the rule. The trial court, believing itself constrained by our Supreme Court’s interpretation of Rule 36, denied Costello’s motion and awarded Zavodnik a judgment of $30,044.07. In light of Zavodnik’s abuse of Rule 36, we conclude that the trial court should have granted Costello’s motion.
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Here, we must conclude that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied part of Costello’s motion to withdraw his admissions. There is no question that presentation of the merits of the action will be subserved by allowing the withdrawal. As demonstrated by the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Zavodnik, Costello’s admissions, if allowed to stand, would bring this litigation to an end without any presentation of the merits. Requiring Zavodnik to prove the merits of his case is particularly appropriate in light of the fact that he already lost on the merits in the small-claims court based on his decision to dispose of the printer not long after he purchased it. With regard to damages, Zavodnik did not ask Costello to admit any facts that would justify an award of damages in excess of the purchase price. His failure in this regard strongly indicates that his requests asserting more than $30,000 in damages (at least 400 times more than the purchase price) had no basis in reality.
Furthermore, allowing Costello to withdraw his admissions would not prejudice Zavodnik in maintaining his action on the merits. As used in Rule 36(B), the word “‘prejudice’ does not mean that the party who has obtained the admissions will lose the benefit of the admissions; rather, it means that the party has suffered a detriment in the preparation of his case.” Corby v. Swank, 670 N.E.2d 1322, 1326 (Ind. Ct. App. 1996). Here, Zavodnik would suffer no such detriment. The matter has not yet been set for trial, Zavodnik still has time to prepare his case, and there is no evidence that he has relied on Costello’s admissions in a way that would impair his ability to prepare his case. The fact that Zavodnik would have to spend time and money preparing his case does not constitute “prejudice”; he would simply be in the same position as most other civil plaintiffs in Indiana, having to marshal the evidence in his favor and prove his case in court.
As the trial court noted, our Supreme Court held in General Motors Corp. that even if both of the conditions stated in Rule 36(B) are satisfied, the rule’s use of the word “may” means that the trial court retains discretion to deny a motion to withdraw. 573 N.E.2d at 889. But that discretion should be reserved for close calls like that presented in General Motors Corp. There, the requests for admission that were at issue were narrowly tailored to the actual facts and law of the case, id. at 886 n.1, the motion to withdraw was not filed until two months before the scheduled trial, id. at 889, and there had been no prior indication that the moving party intended to contest the admitted matters, id. Under those circumstances, it made sense for our Supreme Court to yield to the discretion of the trial court.
The trial court abused its discretion by partially denying Costello’s motion to withdraw admissions; it should have granted the motion in full. Because the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Zavodnik based on the unwithdrawn admissions, we reverse the judgment and remand this matter to the trial court. Before conducting any further proceedings, the trial court shall hold a hearing for purposes of determining whether this case should be dismissed pursuant to Trial Rule 41(E), based on Zavodnik’s repeated, flagrant, and continuing failure to comply with Indiana’s rules of procedure.
Reversed and remanded.
Barnes, J., and Mathias, J., concur.