Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 22STCV21371, Date: 2024-01-16 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV21371    Hearing Date: January 16, 2024    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiff’s motion to compel deposition is GRANTED, with Defendant to respond within the next 10 days by providing three available dates for deposition. Defendant is sanctioned, jointly and severally with counsel, $1,400.00.

            On 6/30/2022, Plaintiff Roger Villalobos (Plaintiff) filed suit against Polaris Industries, Inc. (Defendant), alleging: (1) breach of express warranty (Song-Beverly); (2) breach of implied warranty; (3) breach of express warranty (Commercial Code); (4) violation of the Federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act; and (5) violation of Business and Professions Code section 17200.

            Now, Plaintiff moves to compel Defendant to produce its Person Most Knowledgeable (PMK) for deposition and produce documents.

            The motion is unopposed.

Discussion

            On 9/9/2022, Plaintiff served Defendant with a deposition notice for its PMK. On 11/4/2022, Defendant served objections, indicating that it was unilaterally set and that its counsel and PMK were unavailable on that date.

Plaintiff contends that he attempted to meet and confer to find mutually available dates for deposition, and that “Defendant POLARIS and its counsel have never provided any reasonable dates of availability to Plaintiff’s counsel despite numerous attempts to informally resolve this issue.” (Motion, 2: 12-13.) Indeed, Defendant did not oppose this motion.

Plaintiff’s motion to compel deposition is granted, with Defendant to respond within the next 10 days by providing three available dates for deposition. Defendant is sanctioned, jointly and severally with counsel, $1,400. ($350/hr x 4 hr).

It is so ordered.

Dated:  January    , 2024

   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.  For more information, please contact the court clerk at (213) 633-0517.