Judge: John J. Kralik, Case: 21BBCV00536, Date: 2023-02-10 Tentative Ruling
Case Number: 21BBCV00536 Hearing Date: February 10, 2023 Dept: NCB
North
Central District
|
yegishe
torosyan,
Plaintiff, v. adil a. barakat, et al., Defendants. |
Case
No.: 21BBCV00536 Hearing Date: February 10, 2023 [TENTATIVE]
order RE: motions to compel discovery responses; requests for sanctions |
On January 13,
2023, Plaintiff Yegishe Torosyan (“Plaintiff”) filed 3 motions to compel
initial responses from Defendant Nuha Barakat (“Defendant”) for: (1) Form Interrogatories-General
(“FROG”), set one; (2) Special Interrogatories (“SROG”), set one; and (3) Request
for Production of Documents (“RPD”), set one.
On January 31,
2022, Plaintiff served on Defendant the discovery requests. On March 4, 2022, Plaintiff states that
Defendant did not serve any responses to the discovery. On March 10, 2022, March 22, 2022, March 29,
2022, August 31, 2022, and September 6, 2022, Plaintiff’s counsel emailed
defense counsel inquiring about the responses and informed Defendant that
Plaintiff would be filing motions to compel.
On September 22, 2022, defense counsel emailed Plaintiff’s counsel that
Defendant already served responses in February on behalf of former defendant
The Barakat Trust. As of the filing of
the motions, Plaintiff states that he has not received responses from Defendant
Nuha Barakat.
Plaintiff’s unopposed motions
to compel responses to the FROG, SROG, and RPD are granted pursuant to CCP §§ 2030.290
and 2031.300. Defendant is ordered to
provide verified responses to Plaintiff’s discovery requests, without
objections, within 20 days of notice of this order.
Plaintiff requests sanctions against Defendant
and defense counsel in the amount of $2,335 for the FROG motion, $2,660 for the
SROG motion, and $2,497.50 for the RPD motion.
The requests are granted in the total,
reasonable sum of $2,000, plus $180 in filing fees, as these are
straightforward motions to compel initial responses and the time spent to meet
and confer with Defendant and defense counsel would be duplicative. (Although the declarations state that time
was spent to draft separate statements, the motions on calendar are not motions
to compel further responses.) Defendant and
Defendant’s counsel of record, jointly and severally,
are ordered to pay monetary sanctions in the amount of $2,180 to Plaintiff, by and through counsel, within 20 days of notice of this
order.
Plaintiff shall provide
notice of this order.