Judge: John J. Kralik, Case: 24NNCV02061, Date: 2025-04-18 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 24NNCV02061    Hearing Date: April 18, 2025    Dept: NCB

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

North Central District

Department B

On January 7, 2025, Plaintiffs Karen Hayrapetyan, Ani Nahepetyan, and Ani Nahapetyan as guardian ad litem for Elena Hayrapetyan (“Plaintiffs”) filed 2 motions to compel initial responses from Defendant SWH 2017-1 Borrower LP (“Defendant”) for: (1) Form Interrogatories (“FROG”), set one and Special Interrogatories (“SROG”), set one; and (2) Request for Production of Documents (“RPD”), set one.  

On September 19, 2024, Plaintiffs served on Defendant the discovery requests.  Plaintiffs’ counsel contacted defense counsel on November 12, 2024 and defense counsel stated they would provide responses by December 13, 2024.  As of the filing of the motions, Plaintiffs state that they have not received responses from Defendant. 

On April 7, 2025, Defendant filed opposition briefs.  Defense counsel Sean E. Smith states that Janelle McCammack was the attorney responsible for responding to Plaintiff’s discovery requests and he had followed up with her on multiple occasions to respond to the discovery.  (Smith Decl., ¶¶1-6.)  After Plaintiffs filed this motion, Mr. Smith states that he contacted Ms. McCammack for an explanation, but she did not respond and stopped showing up to work without notice or explanation.  (Id., ¶7.)  He states that Ms. McCammack’s employment ended in January/February 2025 due to job abandonment.  (Id., ¶8.)  Mr. Smith states that since Ms. McCammack’s termination, he has been handling her cases and is currently working on preparing and serving the overdue responses to Plaintiffs without objection.  (Id., ¶¶9-10.) 

Based on the opposition briefs, it appears that Defendant is in the process of preparing responses but has not yet served responses on Plaintiffs.  Out of the abundance of caution, Plaintiffs’ motions to compel responses to the FROG, SROG, and RPD are granted pursuant to CCP §§ 2030.290 and 2031.300.  If Defendant has not already done so, Defendant is ordered to provide verified responses to Plaintiffs’ discovery requests, without objections, within 20 days of notice of this order. 

Plaintiffs request sanctions against Defendant and its attorney in the amount of $4,060 per motion (= 3 hours on the motion + 5 anticipated hours for the reply and to attend the hearing at $500/hour, plus $60 in filing fees).  The requests are granted in the reasonable amount of $600 in attorney’s fees and $120 in filing fees.  Defendant and its counsel of record, jointly and severally, are ordered to pay monetary sanctions in the amount of $720 to Plaintiffs, by and through counsel, within 20 days of notice of this order.  

Plaintiffs shall provide notice of this order.

DATED: April 18, 2025                                             ___________________________

                                                                              John J. Kralik

                                                                              Judge of the Superior Court