Judge: Gary I. Micon, Case: 22CHCV01272, Date: 2024-04-19 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22CHCV01272    Hearing Date: April 19, 2024    Dept: F43

Dept. F43

Date: 4-19-24

Case #22CHCV01272, Jeannette Diaz Martinez, et al. vs. American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Trial Date: 7-15-24

MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER DISCOVERY RESPONSES

MOVING PARTY: Plaintiffs Jeannette Diaz Martinez and Ivan De Jesus Zamudio

RESPONDING PARTY: Defendant American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

RELIEF REQUESTED

Further Responses to Defendant’s Answers to Plaintiffs’ Requests for Production

RULING: Parties are ordered to conduct a meaningful meet and confer

SUMMARY OF ACTION AND ANALYSIS

On December 1, 2022, Plaintiffs Jeannette Diaz Martinez and Ivan De Jesus Zamudio (Plaintiffs) filed this lemon law case against Defendant American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (Defendant).

Plaintiffs propounded discovery on Defendant on December 13, 2023. On December 18, 2023, Defendant served responses to Plaintiffs’ requests for production. On March 22, 2024, Plaintiffs filed a motion to compel further responses to the requests for production. Plaintiffs argue that all of Defendants responses to Request Nos. 1 through 101 were inadequate, and Defendant’s objections were without merit.

There is a dispute between the parties over the sufficiency of the meet and confer. Defendant argues in its opposition that Plaintiffs failed to conduct a good faith meet and confer because all Plaintiffs did was send Defendant a boilerplate meet and confer letter that ignored Defendant’s substantive responses. Then the parties attempted to conduct a teleconference on March 21, 2024, but after only trying to call once, Plaintiffs filed this motion the next day. It appears that there was never direct communication between the parties regarding the sufficiency of Defendant’s responses to the requests for production.

The Court has reviewed the documents related to this motion and will not decide the motion on the merits at this time. The Court orders the parties to meet and confer directly, not by email or letter. Additionally, the parties are ordered to file a joint statement of remaining issues by a date to be set by the Court. The joint statement should briefly describe the matters in dispute, followed by Plaintiffs’ arguments, then Defendant’s arguments.

ORDER

1. The parties are ordered to conduct a meaningful meet and confer.

2. The parties shall submit a joint statement of the remaining issues as described above. The format should be as follows: the parties should recite the specific discovery request at issue, followed by the moving party’s statement of why it should be compelled, followed by the opposing party’s statement of why it should not be compelled. To the extent that an argument is repeated for a subsequent request, the party shall simply refer to the section where the argument was previously made.

3. The dates for the status report and continued hearings will be set at the hearing on this motion.

4. Moving party to provide notice.