Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 21STCV05628, Date: 2022-09-28 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV05628    Hearing Date: September 28, 2022    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiff’s motion to compel further is DENIED.

            On 2/11/2021, Lorena Camarena filed suit against American Honda Motor Company alleging violation of statutory obligations.

            Now, Plaintiff moves to compel further discovery from Defendants.

Discussion

            Plaintiff argues that Defendant should be compelled to provide further discovery. In opposition, Defendant contends that it has already complied with the discovery requests at issue in this motion, and that Plaintiff failed to adequately meet and confer.

            The Court agrees that there has been inadequate efforts to meet and confer for several reasons.

 First, Plaintiff filed her motion to compel less than two weeks after sending her meet and confer correspondence. This is insufficient on its face given the breadth of Plaintiff’s motion, and given that Defendant had not yet had a reasonable opportunity to confer with Plaintiff about the requests.  Second, Plaintiff’s motion was filed before the parties’ stipulated protective order had been entered. As such, Plaintiff’s motion was filed before Defendant was even able to complete its promised document production, and before she had a chance to review Defendant’s production and determine whether the documents provided mooted any part of her motion. Third, Defendant has since provided supplemental documents. Fourth, Plaintiff’s motion includes requests to compel production of documents which have already been produced (e.g. Request No. 66), or which Defendant has already unequivocally stated do not exist (e.gs. Request Nos. 69-70). Had a meaningful meet-and-confer process taken place, these oversights would have been resolved.   

            In light of the inadequate meet-and-confer, Plaintiff’s motion must be denied, without prejudice. The Court urges the parties to attempt informal resolution of this motion, and offers that it believes the following categories to be discoverable:

1.      Defendant shall produce the “Warranty Policy and Procedure Manual” published by Defendant and provided to its authorized repair facilities, within the State of California, for the period of 2018 to present.

2.      Defendant shall produce any internal analysis or investigation regarding defects concerning the transmission defect in vehicles for the same year, make, and model of the subject vehicle.

3.       Defendant shall produce any customer complaints relating to defects that are similar to the alleged defects claimed by plaintiff in vehicles within California for the same year, make, and model of the subject vehicle, for the period of 2018 to present.

4.       Defendant shall produce all documents evidencing policies and procedures used to evaluate customer requests for repurchase pursuant to the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, for the period of 2018 to present.

5.       Technical Service Bulletins and Recall Notices for vehicles purchased in California for the same year, make and model of the subject vehicle. 

6.        All other requests for further production are DENIED.

Based on the foregoing, Plaintiff’s motion to compel further is denied.

It is so ordered.

Dated:  September    , 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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