Judge Lee S. Arian, Case Number: 19STCV36273, Date: 2024-03-14 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 19STCV36273, Date: 2024-03-14 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 19STCV36273 Hearing Date: March 14, 2024 Dept: 27

Complaint Filed: 10/10/19

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Hon. Lee S. Arian¿¿¿

Department 27¿¿¿

Tentative Ruling¿¿¿

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Hearing Date: 3/14/2024 at 1:30 p.m.¿¿¿

Case No./Name: 19STCV36273 TONIA KNIGHTNER vs DAVID V. MUNGCAL, JR

Motion: DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO COMPEL SPECIAL INTERROGATORIES RESPONSES, SET TWO, REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION, SET THREE AND FOR SANCTIONS

Moving Party: Defendants DAVID V. MUNGCAL, JR and AMANCIO MUNGCAL SAHAGUN

Responding Party: Plaintiff

Notice: Sufficient¿¿¿

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Ruling: DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO COMPEL SPECIAL INTERROGATORIES, SET TWO, IS GRANTED.¿

DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO COMPEL REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION, SET THREE, IS GRANTED

DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SANCTIONS IS DENIED

Background¿

On October 10, 2019, Plaintiff filed the present motor accident lawsuit. On January 24, 2023.Defendants served Special Interrogatories, Set Two, and Requests for Production, Set Three, on Plaintiff. The deadline for Plaintiff’s verified responses was February 27, 2023. Defendants did not receive any discovery responses or a request for an extension by the deadline. Plaintiff eventually served late responses on April 19, 2023, consisting of only objections. (Exhibit B.) Subsequently, on May 4, 2023, defense counsel sent a meet and confer email to Plaintiff’s counsel, seeking verified substantive responses and the withdrawal of objections. On May 15, 2023, Plaintiff provided supplemental responses that contained substantive responses, but were both unverified and contained objections. (Exhibit D.) Defendants now move the Court to compel Plaintiff to serve verified discovery responses to its Special Interrogatories, Set Two, and Requests for Production, Set Three without objections.

Legal Standard

A plaintiff may make a demand for production of documents and propound interrogatories without leave of court at any time 10 days after the service of the summons on, or appearance by, the party to whom the demand is directed, whichever occurs first. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.020, subd. (b); Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.020, subd. (b).) The demand for production of documents is not limited by number, but the request must comply with the formatting requirements in Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.030. A party may propound 35 specially prepared interrogatories that are relevant to the subject matter of the pending action and any additional number of official form interrogatories that are relevant to the subject matter of the pending action. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.030, subd. (a)(1) - (a)(2).)¿¿

The party whom the request is propounded upon is required to respond within 30 days after service of a demand, but the parties are allowed to informally agree to an extension and confirm any such agreement in writing. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.260, subd. (a); Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.260, subd. (a); Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.270, subd. (a) - (b); Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.270, subd. (a) - (b).)¿¿

If a party fails to timely respond to a request for production or interrogatories, the party to whom the request is directed waives any right to exercise the option to produce writings under Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.230, and waives any objection, including one based on privilege or on the protection for work product. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.300, subd. (a); Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.290, subd. (a).)¿¿The party propounding the discovery requests may move for an order compelling responses. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.300, subd. (b); Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.290, subd. (b).) Unlike a motion to compel further discovery responses, a motion to compel initial discovery responses does not have any meet and confer requirements.¿

Code of Civil Procedure section 2023.030, subdivision (a) provides, in pertinent part, that the court may impose a monetary sanction on a party engaging in the misuse of the discovery process to pay the reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, incurred by anyone as a result of that conduct. A misuse of the discovery process includes failing to respond or submit to an authorized method of discovery. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2023.010, subd. (d).)¿¿¿A court has discretion to fix the amount of reasonable monetary sanctions. (Cornerstone Realty Advisors, LLC v. Summit Healthcare Reit, Inc. (2020) 56 Cal.App.5th 771, 791.)¿¿¿¿

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Analysis

It is undisputed that Plaintiff did not serve timely initial discovery responses. Due to Plaintiff's failure to provide timely responses, she has forfeited all objections, including those pertaining to privilege. It is a well-established principle that unverified responses are considered "tantamount to no responses at all." Appleton v. Superior Court, (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 632, 636. Plaintiff’s latest discovery responses are unverified and contain objections. Consequently, Defendant's motion to compel is GRANTED, and Plaintiff is ORDERED to submit verified discovery responses without objections within 30 days from today.

Sanctions

Plaintiff requests sanctions in the amount of $880.00 for each motion. Although a meet and confer is not required to file a motion for initial responses, the parties did engage in communication and met and conferred. Despite these efforts, Defendant chose to file the present motion without initially addressing the deficiencies in Plaintiff’s discovery responses with Plaintiff’s counsel before filing the present motions. Thus, Defendant’s request for sanctions is DENIED.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE:¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

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If a party intends to submit on this tentative ruling,¿the party must send an email to the court at¿sscdept27@lacourt.org¿with the Subject line “SUBMIT” followed by the case number.¿ The body of the email must include the hearing date and time, counsel’s contact information, and the identity of the party submitting.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

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Unless¿all¿parties submit by email to this tentative ruling, the parties should arrange to appear remotely (encouraged) or in person for oral argument.¿ You should assume that others may appear at the hearing to argue.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

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If the parties neither submit nor appear at hearing, the Court may take the motion off calendar or adopt the tentative ruling as the order of the Court.¿ After the Court has issued a tentative ruling, the Court may prohibit the withdrawal of the subject motion without leave.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

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