Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 21STCV45806, Date: 2024-01-02 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV45806    Hearing Date: April 11, 2024    Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian

Department 27

Tentative Ruling

Hearing Date:                4/11/2024 at 1:30 p.m.

Case No./Name.:         21STCV45806 DELIA RAMIREZ vs MOKHTAR ZHOOBIN

Motion:                              MOTION TO COMEPL RESPONSES TO DEFEDANTS FORM INTERROGATORIES, SET TWO, AND FOR SANCTIONS

Moving Party:                 Defendant Mokhtar Zhoobin

Responding Party:      Plaintiff

Notice:                                Sufficient

Ruling:                               MOTION TO COMPEL RESPONSES TO DEFEDANT’S FORM INTERROGATORIES, SET TWO, AND FOR SANCTIONS IS GRANTED

Background

On December 15, 2021, Plaintiff initiated the current slip and fall case. On November 10, 2023, Defendant Mokhtar Zhoobin served his second set of Form Interrogatories on Plaintiff. Plaintiff failed to submit discovery responses by the statutory due date. On December 29, 2023, Defendant inquired about the status of Plaintiff’s discovery responses, but received no response. Consequently, on February 7, 2024, Defendant moved the court to compel Plaintiff’s responses. 

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.)

Analysis 

It is undisputed that Plaintiff failed to serve an initial response within the statutory deadline. Plaintiff filed an opposition but did not show that substantially compliant responses were served prior to the hearing date. Therefore, the current Motion to Compel is GRANTED.

Sanctions are mandatory against the party, the attorney, or both whose failure to serve a timely discovery response forced Defendant to file the present motion. Defendant has requested sanctions in the amount of $572.00, which the Court deems reasonable. Given Plaintiff’s counsel's due diligence in attempting to contact Plaintiff and current efforts to withdraw as counsel, sanctions will be imposed on Plaintiff only. Plaintiff is hereby ORDERED to pay sanctions in the amount of $572.00 to Defendant within 20 days from 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 without leave.