Judge: Bradley S. Phillips, Case: 24STCV04948, Date: 2024-10-07 Tentative Ruling

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Case Number: 24STCV04948    Hearing Date: October 7, 2024    Dept: 26

TENTATIVE RULING:

Plaintiff’s motion to compel responses to her Form Interrogatories and for monetary sanctions is granted.  Defendant failed to provide any timely response to the Interrogatories and did not serve a response until more than two months after the filing of this motion.  The Court finds that Defendant waived any objections to the Interrogatories, except those, if any, based upon the constitutional or privacy rights of third parties.  Defendant has not established on the current record that its failure to serve responses was the result of mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect.  That finding is without prejudice to Defendant’s right to file a motion pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure § 2030.290(a).  Absent the filing of such a motion within 10 days, Defendant shall serve answers to the Form Interrogatories, without objections (except as stated above), within 20 days.  The filing of such a motion shall stay Defendant's obligation to serve further answers.

Defendant and its counsel are ordered to pay to Plaintiff sanctions in the amount of $1,993.91.  The Court finds that such sanctions would be warranted even if Defendant showed, on further motion, that its failure to serve responses was due to excusable neglect, based on one lawyer’s failures in multiple cases, because Defendant and its counsel, not Plaintiff, should in any event bear the cost of such neglect.