Judge: Jill Feeney, Case: 21STCV09151, Date: 2022-09-29 Tentative Ruling
Case Number: 21STCV09151 Hearing Date: September 29, 2022 Dept: 30
Department 30, Spring Street Courthouse
September 29, 2022
21STCV09151
Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Defendant Cho’s Further Reponses to Requests for Production Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5
DECISION
The motion will be denied, contingent upon counsel for Defendant Cho filing a declaration under penalty of perjury indicating that counsel has reviewed the requested documents and that the documents do not mention a deck or a hot tub.
The parties are ordered to appear on the hearing date so that a continued date for the hearing may be set to allow time for the required declaration to be filed.
The required declaration must be filed and served at least five court days in advance of the continued hearing date.
The Court finds that Defendant’s objections to these RFPs on the basis of relevance are well taken. Defendant Cho has testified under oath that the deck and the hot tub (the mechanism of the injury alleged here) were installed after the purchase of the home. Moreover, Defendant Cho provided documents corroborating Defendant’s testimony that the hot tub and deck were purchased and installed after the purchase of the residence.
Plaintiff contends that the requested documents (all created as part of the purchase of the residence) are relevant because they may mention the condition of the deck and/or the hot tub. Essentially, Plaintiff contends that he is entitled to determine if Defendant Cho is lying about the fact that the deck and/or hot tub were added to the residence after the residence was purchased.
It seems that it would be readily ascertainable from independent sources whether the residence had a hot tub and/or a deck when it was sold to Defendant Cho. That said, on this record, there is no basis for the Court to conclude that these items even existed at the time that the house was sold. At the same time, Plaintiff is certainly entitled to these records if they do in fact mention these items. For this reason, the Court is ordering the defense to file the declaration discussed above.
As this is the first motion to compel further, the Court declines to impose sanctions. However, that likely will not be the case in the future.
