Judge: Audra Mori, Case: 22STCV14733, Date: 2022-09-30 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV14733    Hearing Date: September 30, 2022    Dept: 31

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

Plaintiff Jackson Edward Southorn (“Plaintiff”) filed this action against defendants Uber Technologies, Inc. (“Uber”), Rasier LLC (“Rasier”), Rasier-Ca LLC (“Rasier-Ca”), Brian Barrington Ortiz, Elder Donato Escobar, Antonio T. Tzampop, PV Holding Corp for damages arising from a motor vehicle accident that occurred on March 14, 2021.  This action has been deemed related to Gagg v. Uber Technologies, Inc., 22STCV10818, which arises out of the same accident.  (Min. Order June 24, 2022.)  Both cases were assigned to Department 31 at the Spring Street Courthouse for all purposes. 

            On September 1, 2022, Defendants Uber, Rasier, and Rasier-Ca (collectively, “Defendants”) filed the instant motion to compel arbitration and dismiss or stay this action.  On September 26, 2022, Defendants filed a notice of errata and re-filed the motion with a new version of the memorandum of points and authorities.  The notice of motion and caption of the motion on both sets of moving papers state that this motion is set to be heard on September 30, 2022 in Department 27 at the Spring Street Courthouse.  The Court’s records and the Court Reservation Receipt attached to the motion show that Defendants scheduled this motion to be heard in Department 27.  While this action was initially assigned to Department 27, as stated above, this action was latter assigned to this Department following the order deeming this action related to Case No. 22STCV10818.  There is no evidence that all parties that have appeared in this action were given proper notice of the location of the hearing for this matter in this Department. 

Therefore, the Court will take the hearing off calendar.  The ruling is without prejudice to Defendants re-filing the motion in this Department with proper notice to all parties. 

Defendants are ordered to give notice. 

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE:

• Parties are encouraged to meet and confer after reading this tentative ruling to see if they can reach an agreement.
• If a party intends to submit on this tentative ruling, the party must send an email to the Court at sscdept31@lacourt.org with the Subject line “SUBMIT” followed by the case number.  The body of the email must include the hearing date and time, counsel’s contact information, and the identity of the party submitting.  
• Unless all parties submit by email to this tentative ruling, the parties should arrange to appear remotely (encouraged) or in person for oral argument.  You should assume that others may appear at the hearing to argue.  
• If the parties neither submit nor appear at hearing, the Court may take the motion off calendar or adopt the tentative ruling as the order of the Court.  After the Court has issued a tentative ruling, the Court may prohibit the withdrawal of the subject motion without leave. 

Dated this 30^th day of September 2022