Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 23STCV24800, Date: 2025-04-09 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV24800    Hearing Date: April 9, 2025    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiff’s motion to compel Defendant’s PMK Deposition is GRANTED IN PART, DENIED IN PART, consistent with the ruling set forth below.

Accordingly, the Court declines to award sanctions at this time. 

            On 10/11/2023, Plaintiff Maurice Ellis (Plaintiff) filed suit against American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (Defendant) alleging violations of the Song-Beverly Warranty act.

            On 3/26/2025, Plaintiff moved to compel Defendant to produce a Person Most Knowledgeable (PMK).

Discussion

            Plaintiff contends that Defendant has refused to produce its PMK for deposition. In opposition, Defendant contends that it has worked diligently to produce its PMK witness. However, Defendant objects to the scope of the PMK Notice as overbroad.  

            After review, the Court agrees that the PMK Notice is overbroad. For example, Plaintiff seeks information and documentation related to what Plaintiff defined as a “transmission defect” and an “infotainment defect.” However, the Subject Vehicle was never presented to an authorized Honda repair facility for certain symptoms in Plaintiff’s definitions. In addition, for many requests, Plaintiff seeks testimony regarding “all” communications, repairs, etc. for Honda Vehicles, and most of the Requests seek the production of “all” documents.

            Such a scope is clearly overbroad, and could have been reasonably narrowed through good faith meet and confer, which the Court agrees has not taken place here. However, Defendant itself concedes  that Plaintiff is entitled to a PMK deposition. Defendant, within 30 days of entry of this order, is to produce a list of three available PMK deposition dates. This will give the parties sufficient time to meet and confer over the appropriate scope of the deposition in the interim.

            Based on the foregoing, Plaintiff’s motion to compel is granted in part, denied in part, consistent with the ruling set forth above. Accordingly, the Court declines to award sanctions at this time. 

It is so ordered.

Dated:  April    , 2025

   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.