Judge: Gregory Keosian, Case: 20STCV21377, Date: 2022-10-11 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 20STCV21377    Hearing Date: October 11, 2022    Dept: 61

Plaintiff Robyn Charles’s Motion to Compel Deposition OF Defendant Luther N. Waters is GRANTED. The deposition of Luther N. Waters shall be completed within 30 days of this order.

I.       MOTIONS TO COMPEL DEPOSITION AND INSPECTION

A party may make a motion compelling a witness’s deposition “after service of a deposition notice” if that witness “fails to appear for examination, or to proceed with it.” (Code Civ. Proc. § 2025.450, subd. (a).) The motion must include a meet-and-confer declaration and show good cause for the discovery sought. (Code Civ. Proc. § 2025.450, subd. (b)(1), (2).)

Plaintiff moves to compel the deposition of Defendant Luther N. Waters (Waters). Plaintiff’s counsel presents a declaration attesting to numerous attempts to take Waters’s deposition, beginning with a deposition notice served on October 18, 2021. (Brasinikas Decl. ¶ 2.) Waters did not appear for his deposition scheduled for Decemebr 7, 2021, and his counsel has not returned the calls of Plaintiff’s counsel attempting to reschedule, the latest occurring April 21, 2022. (Brasinikas Decl. ¶¶ 5–12.)

Defendant Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has filed a response, objecting to Plaintiff’s delay in seeking Waters’s deposition. LAUSD notes that the first notice of deposition for Waters was served in October 2020, but was ineffectual for being served on LAUSD, who does not represent Waters. (Response at p. 2.) Plaintiff then waited a year before attempting to depose Waters again in October 2021, served an untimely motion to compel in July 2022, which was taken off-calendar, re-served and re-filed the present motion, and then obtained a trial continuance from October 4, 2022, to May 2023 to accommodate the motion hearing. (Response at pp. 2–3.) LAUSD does not object to the relief requested, but asks that Waters’s deposition be ordered taken within 30 days to ensure that trial is not further disrupted. (Motion at p. 3.)

Good cause supports the present motion. Waters’s actions are at the core of this FEHA harassment case, and his testimony is clearly relevant to the subject matter of these proceedings. Given the delay of trial occasioned by the present motion, there is merit to LAUSD’s request that the deposition be taken soon.

The motion to compel deposition is GRANTED. The deposition of Luther N. Waters shall be completed within 30 days of this order.