If a party to whom requests for admission are directed fails to serve a timely response, the requesting party may move for an order that the genuineness of any documents and the truth of any matters specified in the requests be deemed admitted. Code of Civ. Proc., § 2033.280(b). “[A] deemed admitted order establishes, by judicial fiat, that a nonresponding party has responded to the requests by admitting the truth of all matters contained therein.” Wilcox v. Birtwhistle (1999) 21 Cal.4th 979. 90 Cal.Rptr.2d 260, 987 P.2d 727.

“Failure to timely respond to RFA does not result in automatic admissions. Rather, the propounder of the RFA must move for an order.” Weil & Brown, Civ. Proc. Before Trial, ¶ 8:1370. “Under the RFA procedure postdating the Civil Discovery Act, a propounding party must take affirmative steps-by bringing a formal "deemed admitted" motion-to have RFAs to which timely responses are not received deemed admitted.” St. Mary v. Super. Ct. (2014) 223 Cal.App.4th 762, 775–776.

The Court “shall” grant the motion to deem admitted, “unless it finds that the party to whom the requests for admission have been directed has served, before the hearing on the motion, a proposed response to the requests for admission that is in substantial compliance with Section 2033.220.” Code of Civ. Proc., § 2033.280(c); Tobin v. Oris (1992) 3 Ca1.App.4th 814, 827. Unverified responses are equivalent to “no responses at all.” Appleton v. Super. Ct. (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 632, 636.

“If the party manages to serve its responses before the hearing, the court has no discretion but to deny the motion. But woe betide the party who fails to serve responses before the hearing. In that instance the court has no discretion but to grant the admission motion, usually with fatal consequences for the defaulting party. One might call it ‘two strikes and you're out’ as applied to civil procedure.” Demyer v. Costa Mesa Mobile Home Estates (1995) 36 Cal.App.4th 393, 395—396, 42.

It is mandatory that the Court impose a monetary sanction on the party or attorney, or both, whose failure to serve a timely response necessitated the motion. Code of Civ. Proc., § 2033.280(c).