Judge Daniel M. Crowley, Case 21STCV03830 2023-03-15 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Daniel M. Crowley, Case: 21STCV03830, Date: 2023-03-15 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV03830 Hearing Date: March 15, 2023 Dept: 28

Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff Jane Doe’s Responses to Request for Production of Documents; Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff Jane Doe’s Responses to Form Interrogatories; Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff Jane Doe’s Responses to Special Interrogatories

Having considered the moving, opposing, and reply papers, the Court rules as follows.

BACKGROUND

On January 29, 2021, Plaintiff Jane Doe (“Plaintiff”) filed this action against Defendants Long Beach Unified School District (“LBUSD”) and Jane Does 1-15 for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

On August 9, 2022, Plaintiff filed a FAC, changing one negligence cause of action to negligent supervision of students.

On October 8, 2022, LBUSD filed an answer.

On January 24, 2023, LBUSD filed Motions to Compel Discovery Responses to be heard on March 15, 2023. On March 2, 2023, Plaintiff filed oppositions. On March 8, 2023, LBUSD filed a reply.

Trial is currently scheduled for July 28, 2023.

PARTY’S REQUESTS

LBUSD requests the Court compel Plaintiff to serve full and complete, verified responses to Form Interrogatories, Set One, Special Interrogatories, Set One, Request for Production of Documents, Set One, within 20 days of the hearing on this motion. LBUSD also requests the Court impose sanctions totaling $1,200.00 for each motion.

Plaintiff requests the Court deny the motion as moot.

LEGAL STANDARD

Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 2031.300, “If a party to whom a demand for inspection, copying, testing, or sampling is directed fails to serve a timely response to it, the following rules shall apply: (b) The party making the demand may move for an order compelling response to the demand.” According to CCP § 2030.260, for a response to interrogatories to be timely, it must be served within 30 days of service. CCP § 2031.260 provides the same 30-day deadline for request for production responses.

CCP § 2023.030(a) provides that “[t]he court may impose a monetary sanction ordering that one engaging in the misuse of the discovery process, or any attorney advising that conduct, or both pay the reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, incurred by anyone as a result of that conduct.” According to CCP §2023.010(d), misuse of the discovery process includes “failing to respond or to submit to an authorized method of discovery.”

CCP § 2030.290(c) states that “the court shall impose a monetary sanction under Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010) against any party, person, or attorney who unsuccessfully makes or opposes a motion to compel a response to interrogatories, unless it finds that the one subject to the sanction acted with substantial justification or that other circumstances make the imposition of the sanction unjust.”

DISCUSSION

Discovery

LBUSD served discovery on Plaintiff on August 31, 2022; responses were due on October 3, 2022. At the time of filing this motion, Plaintiff has yet to provide responses.

Plaintiff has since provided verified responses without objection, based on all information that is currently available, and intends to supplement responses as more information becomes available. As a result of the incident, Plaintiff allege she’s experienced severe mental health issues and memory loss, resulting in a substantial delay in providing meaningful responses to discovery.

LBUSD identifies in their reply papers that Plaintiff’s responses were inadequate. For example, in response to a Form Interrogatory asking about treatment, Plaintiff stated that treatment received was “unknown” and bills had not yet been received. Plaintiff stated that documents would be provided for the Requests for Production but have yet to provide said documents. Additionally, some pieces of discovery were simply skipped, such as Request for Production No. 7.

In reviewing the attached responses of Form Interrogatories and Requests for Production (a copy of the Special Interrogatory responses had not been submitted as an exhibit), the Court finds that Plaintiff has not provided code-complaint responses. CCP § 2030.220(c) requires that “[i]f the responding party does not have personal knowledge sufficient to respond fully to an interrogatory, that party shall so state, but shall make a reasonable and good faith effort to obtain the information by inquiry to other natural persons or organizations, except where the information is equally available to the propounding party.” Answers consisting of simply “unknown” do not meet this standard. Additionally, Plaintiff has not provided answers, code-complaint or otherwise, to every discovery request. Therefore, the Court grants the motion, as Plaintiff has not served code-compliant responses.

Sanctions

LBUSD is entitled to reasonable sanctions due to Plaintiff’s misuse of the discovery process in failing to timely, code-compliant responses.

LBUSD seeks sanctions of $1,200.00 for each of motion, based on 6 hours of attorney’s time at a rate of $190.00 per hour and 1 $60.00 filling fee. 3 hours were spent drafting the motion, 1 hour preparing a reply and 2 hours attending the hearing. The Court accounts for the fact that the motions are substantially similar and will be heard concurrently. The Court awards sanctions of $1,130.00 across all motions, based on 5 hours of attorney’s work and 3 $60.00 filling fees.

CONCLUSION

Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff Jane Doe’s Responses to Request for Production of Documents is GRANTED. Plaintiff is ordered to provide verified, code-compliant responses within 20 days of the hearing on the motion.

Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff Jane Doe’s Responses to Form Interrogatories is GRANTED. Plaintiff is ordered to provide verified, code-compliant responses within 20 days of the hearing on the motion.

Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff Jane Doe’s Responses to Special Interrogatories is GRANTED. Plaintiff is ordered to provide verified, code-compliant responses within 20 days of the hearing on the motion.

Defendant Long Beach Unified School District’s Request for Sanctions is GRANTED. Plaintiff is ordered to pay LBUSD $1,130.00 in sanctions within 30 days of the hearing on the motion.

Moving party is ordered to give notice of this ruling.

Moving Party is ordered to file the proof of service of this ruling with the Court within five days.

The parties are directed to the header of this tentative ruling for further instructions.