Judge Gary I. Micon, Case Number: 24CHCV02205, Date: 2025-01-23 Tentative Ruling

MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER RESPONSES TO PLAINTIFF’S REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTION (SET ONE)

Order compelling Defendant’s responses to Requests for Production (Set One) numbers 3, 22, 28, 29, 35, and 61.

RULING: The parties are ordered to review the Court’s Song-Beverly Litigation Discovery Order and to conduct a meaningful meet and confer in person, by telephone, or by video conference.

Plaintiff Brandon Clark (Plaintiff) purchased a 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4XE from defendant Tuttle Click Inc., a Chrysler dealership, on December 11, 2021. The vehicle began experiencing mechanical defects, and Plaintiff sued defendants FCA US LLC (FCA), and Tuttle Click Inc. for violating the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, alleging that defendants were unable to repair the defects and did not replace the car or make restitution. The complaint alleges causes of action for breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law, and negligent repair.

On September 4, 2024, Plaintiff propounded his Requests for Production (Set One) on FCA. FCA served responses on October 3, 2024. Plaintiff was not satisfied with several of FCA’s responses, and FCA failed to provide further responses.

Plaintiff filed this motion to compel further responses to its Requests for Production (Set One) numbers 3, 22, 28, 29, 35, and 61 on December 2, 2024. FCA filed an opposition on January 13, 2025.[1] No reply has been filed.

Before filing a motion to compel further responses or responsive documents to requests for production, the parties must meet and confer to resolve the issues with the discovery responses. The moving party must file a “meet and confer” declaration stating facts showing a reasonable and good faith attempt at an informal resolution of each issue in the motion. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2031.310, subd. (b)(2), 2016.040.) In Department 43, “meet and confer” means in person or via phone, not by letter or email. (Department F43 Courtroom Information, at p. 2.)

Plaintiff’s counsel, Maxwell Kreymer, emailed a meet and confer letter to defense counsel on October 15, 2024, which outlined the issues with FCA’s responses and set a new deadline to submit responses to October 28, 2024. (Declaration of Maxwell Kreymer, ¶ 5, Exh. C.) FCA did not provide any reasonable response to Plaintiff’s “meet and confer” letter. (Kreymer Dec., ¶ 7.)

The Court has reviewed the documents related to this motion and will not decide the motion on the merits at this time because the moving papers do not indicate the parties met and conferred.

The Court orders the parties to review the Court’s Song-Beverly Litigation Discovery Order and to meet and confer with the Order in mind. The parties must meet and confer directly, not by email, to resolve as much as they can. Further, 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 Plaintiff’s arguments, then FCA’s arguments.

1. The parties are ordered to review the Court’s Song-Beverly Litigation Discovery Order and to conduct a meaningful meet and confer with the Order in mind. The parties must meet and confer in person, by telephone, or by video conference.

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(s) 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 deadline for the status report will be set at the hearing on this motion.

[1] All opposition papers must be filed and served at least nine (9) days before the motion hearing. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1005, subd. (b).) FCA’s opposition was due January 9, 2025.