Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 19STCV34046, Date: 2022-10-28 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 19STCV34046    Hearing Date: October 28, 2022    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

Defendant’s motion to compel a second deposition is DENIED. Defendant’s motion to compel a deposition of Custom Auto Crafts’ PMK is GRANTED.

On 9/24/2019, Plaintiffs Jennifer Elachkar and Deva Shaufuss (collectively, Plaintiffs) filed suit against Kia Motors America, Inc. (Defendant), alleging violations of the Song-Beverly Act.

            Now, Defendant moves to compel Plaintiff Elachkar’s second deposition. Defendant also moves to compel the deposition of the person most knowledgeable (PMK) at Custom Auto Crafts and requests the production of documents.

Motion to Compel Second Deposition

            Defendant seeks an order for Plaintiff Elachkar to appear for a second session of her deposition. Defendant argues that such an order is warranted “because Plaintiff has produced additional documents regarding her car maintenance which she had failed to mention during her November 2020 deposition. These documents are crucial in formulating KA’s defense and KA has the right to take the deposition of Plaintiff to further investigate her claims.” (Motion, 2: 7-8.)

            More specifically, Defendant requested documents regarding maintenance, service and repairs performed on Plaintiffs’ vehicle, tow and emergency roadside assistance records, accident records and insurance coverage and claims for Plaintiff’s November 2020 deposition. It was not until May 11, 2021, that Plaintiffs Jennifer Elachkar and Deva Shaufuss provided additional invoices relating to the oil-change from 2016-2018. These invoices indicate that they are from Custom Auto Craft. However, in her original testimony, Plaintiff made no mention of Custom Auto Craft.

            In opposition, Plaintiff argues that this motion should be denied as untimely given that the deadline to compel was 3/9/2021 and thus “Defendant’s Motion is late by 1 year, 7 months, and 3 days.” (Opp., 1: 2-5.)

            In reply, Defendant argues that it could not have filed a motion to compel deposition until after Plaintiff provided her additional documents on 5/11/2021. However, Defendant does not offer any explanation as to why it waited until 10/4/2022—over a year later—to file this motion, on the eve of the final status conference on 11/17/2022 and trial on 12/5/2022. By Defendant’s own admission, it initiated “its investigation [into this matter] on May 14, 2021, only three days after receiving Plaintiff’s additional document production, by propounding a deposition Subpoena to Auto Custom Craft.” (Reply, 3: 18-20.)

            Given the lack of substantial justification for the delay in filing, the Court finds insufficient grounds to justify the delay in trial that further deposition would require.

Motion to Compel PMK’s Deposition

            Defendant moves to compel the PMK at Custom Auto Craft to testify and produce documents.

            Given that the motion is unopposed, the Court grants the motion. However, given the timeliness concerns set forth above, the Court notes that a trial continuance will not be granted.

It is so ordered.

Dated:  October    , 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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