Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 22STCV07438, Date: 2022-12-09 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV07438    Hearing Date: December 9, 2022    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

            Plaintiff’s motion to compel initial responses from Defendant to his Form Interrogatories-Employment Law and his Requests for Production is GRANTED. Defendant is sanctioned, jointly and severally with counsel, $1,400.00. Responses and sanctions payment within 30 days of entry of this order.

            On 3/1/2022, Plaintiff Mario Rivas (Plaintiff) filed suit against California ‘Z’ Cars, Inc., alleging: (1) age discrimination; (2) disability discrimination; (3) failure to accommodate; (4) failure to engage in the interactive process; (5) retaliation; (6) failure to investigate; (7) violation of California Labor Code section 1102.5; (8) violation of California Labor Code section 98.6; (9) intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED); and (10) failure to pay minimum and overtime wages.

            Now, Plaintiff moves to compel initial responses from Defendant to his Form Interrogatories and his Requests for Production (RFPs). Plaintiff seeks monetary sanctions in connection with this motion.

            The motion is unopposed.

Discussion

            As a preliminary matter, while Plaintiff consolidated his motions to compel into a single motion, Plaintiff must still pay separate filing fees for what are, fundamentally, two distinct motions. If he has not already done so, Plaintiff must remit payment for two motions to compel discovery.

            On 6/23/2022, Plaintiff electronically served Defendants with his Form Interrogatories—Employment Law and RFPs. On 7/20/2022, Defendant’s counsel confirmed receipt of the First Written Discovery and requested an extension to 8/22/2022 to provide responses. Plaintiff’s counsel granted the extension and made it clear that no further extensions would be granted. (See Marx Decl. ¶7, Exh. J.) Defendants did not respond the First Written Discovery. On 8/26/2022 Plaintiff’s counsel reached out to Defendant’s counsel regarding the responses and Defendants made no response (See Marx Decl. ¶7, Exh. J.] To date, no responses have been received.

            Defendant did not oppose this motion, and thus has not set forth any substantial justification for this failure. Accordingly, sanctions are warranted.

            Defendant is sanctioned, jointly and severally with counsel, $700.00 per motion, for a total of $1,400. ($350/hr x 2 hr x 2 motions.)

It is so ordered.

Dated:  December    , 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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