Judge: Kevin C. Brazile, Case: 20STCV41811, Date: 2022-11-22 Tentative Ruling

Hearing Date: November 22, 2022

Case Name: Johnson v. General Motors, LLC, et al.

Case No.: 20STCV21488

Matter: Motion to Compel PMK Deposition

Moving Party: Plaintiff Patsy A. Johnson

Responding Party: Defendant General Motors LLC

Notice: OK

Ruling: The Motion to Compel is granted in part.

Moving party to give notice.

If counsel do not submit on the tentative, they are strongly 

encouraged to appear by LACourtConnect rather than in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This is a lemon law action.  Plaintiff Patsy A. Johnson seeks to compel the deposition of Defendant General Motors, LLC’s PMK.  Defendant has asserted objections as to certain categories of testimony and documents as overbroad and unnecessary.  

Defendant agrees to produce a witness as to all categories of testimony, except category nos. 2-4 and 12.  Therefore, the Motion is denied as moot as to category nos. 1 and 5-11.  The Court will grant the Motion as to category nos. 2-4, which relate to Defendant’s warranty policies and policies for handling customer complaints and ensuring compliance with the Song-Beverly Act.  This testimony might be relevant to civil penalties.  The Motion is denied as to category no. 12, which relates to Defendant’s third-party dispute resolution program and does not seem to be relevant or likely to lead to admissible evidence.

As to documents, Defendant indicates it disputes only category nos. 10-16.  The Motion is, thus, denied as moot as to category nos. 1-9.  The Motion is granted as to category no. 10, which seeks contracts with authorized dealerships that worked on the subject vehicle.  This too might be relevant to civil penalties.  The Motion is denied as to category no. 11, which seeks information as to Defendant’s diagnostic codes, without any substantive, geographic, or temporal limitation.  The Motion is denied as to category no. 12, which vaguely requests all documents that would be used for repurchase review.  As drafted, it seems impossible to provide an accurate production for this request.  The Motion is denied as to category nos. 13-16, which seek information as to other vehicles.  These requests are overbroad and not commensurate with the scope of this action.

The Motion is granted in part as set forth herein.  A PMK with documents should be produced within 30 days. 

Moving party to give notice.

If counsel do not submit on the tentative, they are strongly encouraged to appear by LACourtConnect rather than in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.