Judge: Anne Richardson, Case: 20STCV46927, Date: 2024-03-07 Tentative Ruling

DEPARTMENT 40 - JUDGE ANNE RICHARDSON - LAW AND MOTION RULINGS
The Court issues tentative rulings on certain motions.The tentative ruling will not become the final ruling until the hearing [see CRC 3.1308(a)(2)]. If the parties wish to submit on the tentative ruling and avoid a court appearance, all counsel must agree and choose which counsel will give notice. That counsel must 1) email Dept 40 by 8:30 a.m. on the day of the hearing (smcdept40@lacourt.org) with a copy to the other party(ies) and state that all parties will submit on the tentative ruling, and 2) serve notice of the ruling on all parties. If any party declines to submit on the tentative ruling, then no email is necessary and all parties should appear at the hearing in person or by Court Call. 

Case Number: 20STCV46927    Hearing Date: March 7, 2024    Dept: 40

 The Court has reviewed the default judgment package on file and notes as follows.

First, the February 28, 2024 Judicial Council form CIV-100, Request for Court Judgment, contains various errors or deficiencies and must be refiled:

(1) In section 1.a., Plaintiff incorrectly dates the Complaint’s filing date as January 2, 2024, rather than December 3, 2020;

(2) In section 1.d., Plaintiff must fully name all Defendants against whom/which default judgment is sought, with any overflow names addable to an attachment to form CIV-100;

(3) In section 1.e.(3), the date of default judgment is incorrectly listed as December 28, 2023, rather than the correct dates of August 19, 2021 and November 2, 2021, where the Court notes that this section need not be filled out for court judgment given that this section involves a clerk’s judgment;

(4) In section 2, the “TOTALS” figure must be updated to correctly reflect a summation of the “Demand of Complaint” and “Interest” requests; and

(5) In section 8, Plaintiff does not provide sufficient grounds for the declaration of non-military status.

Second, the February 28, 2024, declaration from counsel supporting the interest award is not sufficiently supported.

The November 1, 2017, judgment should seemingly involve a maximum interest award of $1,069,339.99 as based on a judgment of $1,683,818.20, with a 10% per annum interest rate, for the dates of November 1, 2021, to March 7, 2024. (Cf. 2/28/23 Qi Decl., p. 2 [seeking $1,094,481.83 interest award].)

The April 8, 2017, judgment should seemingly involve an interest award of $51,151.56 as based on a judgment of $64,603 judgment, with a 10% per annum interest rate, for the dates of April 8, 2017, to March 7, 2024. (Cf. 2/28/23 Qi Decl., p. 2 [seeking $41,992.56 interest award].)

Plaintiff must provide an updated declaration giving the exact start and end dates for the interest award sought here rather than simply providing “6.5 years.”