Judge: Gary I. Micon, Case: 23CHCV00053, Date: 2024-10-03 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23CHCV00053    Hearing Date: October 3, 2024    Dept: F43

Dept. F43

Date: 10-3-24

Case # 23CHCV00053, Roberto Delgado vs. General Motors, LLC

Trial Date: 9-2-25

MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTIN

MOVING PARTY: Plaintiff Roberto Delgado

RESPONDING PARTY: Defendant General Motors, LLC

RELIEF REQUESTED

Defendant’s further responses to certain requests for production

RULING: The parties are ordered to meet and confer based on the Court’s Lemon Law discovery order.

SUMMARY OF ACTION

This action arises from Plaintiff Roberto Delgado’s (Plaintiff) purchase of an allegedly defective 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. On January 9, 2023, Plaintiff filed a Complaint against Defendant General Motors, LLC (Defendant) for violations of the Song-Beverly Act.

Plaintiff propounded Requests for Production, Set One, on Defendant on October 17, 2023. On November 20, 2023, Defendant served its unverified responses to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production, Set One. Verification was received on January 9, 2024. Plaintiffs argue that Defendant’s responses were filled with improper boilerplate objections and were deficient.

On June 17, 2024, after this motion had been filed on January 31, 2024, the parties met and conferred via Zoom. After meeting and conferring, the parties filed a joint stipulation on July 18, 2024, which indicated that Defendant had agreed to provide verified supplemental responses to Plaintiff’s RFP Nos. 7, 8, and 21-24, but the parties were still at an impasse for RFP Nos. 10-14 and 27-30.

While the parties have met and conferred, it does not appear that they were aware of the Court’s Lemon Law discovery order at the time that they met and conferred. That order should help resolve the remaining issues.

Accordingly, 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.  

Prior to meeting and conferring, the parties should refer to the Court’s discovery order for lemon law cases for this motion and any future discovery motions in this case. There is a section in that order for the production of documents. The Court’s discovery order is posted online, along with this Department’s courtroom information and Final Status Conference Order, all of which the parties are ordered to review. 

ORDER  

1. The parties are ordered to conduct a meet and confer based on the Court’s Lemon Law discovery order. 

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.