Judge: Cherol J. Nellon, Case: 23STCV36609, Date: 2024-02-28 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV36609    Hearing Date: February 28, 2024    Dept: 14

828 Media Capital v. Brown

Case Background

Plaintiffs allege that they gave Defendants over $2 million to make two movies, and that they never got the money back.

            On November 18, 2022, Plaintiffs filed their Complaint for (1)-(2) Breach of Contract, (3) Breach of Fiduciary Duty, (4) Aiding and Abetting, (5) Fraud, (6) Conversion, (7) Replevin, and (8) Judicial Foreclosure against Defendants David Raymond Brown fka David Brown fka David Brown Levy (“David”), Julian Raymond aka Julian Raymond Brown (“Julian”), Nightmares PSC, LLC (“Nightmares”), Undertaker LLC (“Undertaker”), Specter Entertainment, LLC (“Specter”), Clear Horizon Entertainment, LLC (“Clear Horizon”), Clear Entertainment, LLC, (“Clear Entertainment”), Clear Distribution, LLC (“Clear Distribution”), JTRB Film Services, Inc. (“JTRB”), and DOES 1-20.

            On February 22, 2023, Defendants David and Julian filed their joint Answer.

            On November 9, 2023, the defaults of Defendants Nightmares, Undertaker, Specter, Clear Horizon, Clear Entertainment, Clear Distribution, and JTRB were entered.

            Jury Trial is currently set for November 4, 2024.

Instant Motions

Plaintiffs now moves this court, per Code of Civil Procedure §§ 2030.290 and 2031.300 for orders (1) compelling Defendants David and Julian to serve initial responses to Plaintiff’s Form Interrogatories, Set No. One, and Requests for Production, Set No. One, and (2) awarding sanctions of $7,020.00 per motion, amounting to a total of $14,040.00.

Decision

The motions are GRANTED. Defendants David and Julian are to serve responses, without objections, within 30 days. Defendants David and Julian shall also pay $760 in sanctions for each motion, or $1,520.00 in total, jointly and severally, to Plaintiff’s counsel within 30 days.

The motions are unopposed. The lack of an opposition operates as a concession that the motion has merit. See California Rules of Court Rule 3.1113(a); see also Rule 3.1320(f); Herzberg v. County of Plumas (2005) 133 Cal.App.4^th 1, 20.

A reasonable amount of time for Plaintiff’s counsel to spend on each motion is two hours. $350 per hour is a reasonable rate. And each motion incurred a $60 filing fee. That adds up to $760 per motion.