Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27 

 

MOTION TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES¿AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS 

Hearing Date: 11/8/24¿ 

CASE NO./NAME: 20STCV12995 MASON BREAUX vs CARMINITA CORPORATION, et al. 

Moving Party: Plaintiff 

Responding Party: Unopposed 

Notice: Sufficient¿ 

Ruling: GRANTED¿ 

 

On April 1, 2020, Plaintiff the operative complaint. On June 28, 2024, Plaintiff served Defendant BB&H Engineering with his Form Interrogatories, Set One, Special Interrogatories, Set One, and a Request for Production of Documents, Set One. Defendant’s responses were due by July 30, 2024. 

On August 27, 2024, after no responses had been received Plaintiff's counsel reached out to Defendant's counsel by email to inquire about the status of the overdue responses. In reply, Defendant's counsel indicated they would attempt to provide responses by August 30, 2024, but no responses were provided by that date. Plaintiff now moves to compel Defendant to provide initial discovery responses. 

No opposition or other documents were filed indicating that responses were provided prior to the hearing. Accordingly, the motions are granted. Defendant BB&H ENGINEERING, INC. is ordered to provide complete and verified responses to Plaintiff’s Special Interrogatories, Set One; Form Interrogatories, Set One; and Requests for Production, Set One, without objections, within 20 days of today's date. 

Plaintiff requests $1,980 in sanctions. Sanctions are mandatory, and the Court finds that Defendant did not act with substantial justification. However, given the straightforwardness of the issues and the lack of opposition, the Court reduces the sanctions to $1,000 against Defendant and its attorney of record, jointly and severally, payable to Plaintiff within 20 days of today. 

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE:¿ 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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.