Judge: Donald F. Gaffney, Case: "Martinez v. Letter Ride, LLC", Date: 2022-10-19 Tentative Ruling

TENTATIVE RULING: 

Motion to Compel Deposition

Defendants Letter Ride, LLC, and Dountae David move to compel the deposition of the person most knowledgeable at nonparty Advanced Pain Management Group. For the following reasons, the motion is DENIED.

Code of Civil Procedure Section 1987.1 provides that the court, upon noticed motion, may make an order compelling compliance, quashing, or modifying the deposition subpoena.

While no good cause showing is required, “when dealing with an entity which is not even a party to the litigation, the court should attempt to structure discovery in a manner which is least burdensome to such an entity. (Calcor Space Facility, Inc. v. Super. Ct. (1997) 53 Cal.App.4th 216, 222; see, e.g., Monarch Healthcare v. Super. Ct. (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 1282, 1289-1290 [“Discovery procedures are generally less onerous for strangers to the litigation. That is because they are less likely to be represented by counsel, familiar with the issues, or able to react with alacrity before responses are due. Why ask more of them than of represented parties?” (citations omitted)].)

Here, the court finds the subpoena at issue to be overly burdensome on nonparty Advanced Pain Management Group. First, the subpoena is redundant to the extent it seeks the production of documents and things requested in Defendants’ subpoena to the nonparty’s custodian of records. On 10/05/2022, this court ordered the production of relevant documents by nonparty Advanced Pain Management. Second, although only one patient’s medical treatment is at issue, the subpoena seeks testimony related to every epidural steroid injection performed by nonparty over a 14-month period, as well as the amount of money Advanced Pain Management has received from Plaintiff’s counsel over a three-year period. The subpoena seeks no category of testimony related specifically to the treatment of Plaintiff. (See Ex. C at internal Attachment 4.)

Defendants to give notice.