Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 19STCP04588, Date: 2022-08-30 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 19STCP04588    Hearing Date: August 30, 2022    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

            Petitioner’s motion to compel further is GRANTED.

            On 10/23/2019, DC Lake Holdings, LLC (Petitioner) filed a petition against the City of Pasadena (City), seeking: (1) a writ of mandate; (2) declaratory relief; (3) inverse condemnation; and (4) violation of Civil Rights.

            Now, Petitioner moves to compel further responses to its discovery.

Discussion 

            Petitioner argues that the City should be compelled to provide further responses because it has not provided any substantive responses, and raised identical meritless objections to each request.

            After review, the Court agrees that further responses are warranted.

            The City’s objections are based on contentions that: (1) this case is not ripe because Petitioner has not exhausted administrative remedies, and a final decision has not been made on any development project proposed by Petitioner; (2)  Petitioner’s discovery directed at the underlying project’s compliance or non-compliance with City development and building standards is moot because Petitioner submitted an application to the City which substantial deviated from the originally proposed project.

            However, such arguments speak to the sufficiency of Petitioner’s allegations to state a claim, and thus are properly raised at this stage through a motion for judgment on the pleadings. The City may not answer Petitioner’s petition, and then refuse to provide any substantive discovery responses on the basis that Petitioner does not have a viable claim.

            Based on the foregoing, Petitioner’s motion to compel further is granted.

It is so ordered.

Dated:  August    , 2022

   Hon. Jon R. Takasugi
   Judge of the Superior Court

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the court at smcdept17@lacourt.org by 4 p.m. the day prior as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  If a party submits on the tentative, the party’s email must include the case number and must identify the party submitting on the tentative.  If all parties to a motion submit, the court will adopt this tentative as the final order.  If the department does not receive an email indicating the parties are submitting on the tentative and there are no appearances at the hearing, the motion may be placed off calendar. 

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