Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27¿ 

¿ 

MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS 

Hearing Date: 6/10/24¿¿ 

CASE NO./NAME: 22STCV07713 TRENNA KERTRELL JONES vs RAMON SOLTERO VILLA 

Moving Party: Defendant RAMON SOLTERO VILLA 

Responding Party: Plaintiff¿¿ 

Notice: Sufficient 

 

Ruling: MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS ARE GRANTED 

 

On October 24, 2023, Defendant propounded Form Interrogatories, Special Interrogatories, and Requests for Production, Set One, on Plaintiff Trenna Kertrell Jones. Plaintiff's responses were due on November 24, 2023. On that date, Plaintiff did not provide responses. Defendant granted Plaintiff several extensions, with a final due date set for April 4, 2024. As of May 9, 2024, the date on which the present motions were filed, no responses had been provided. 

Plaintiff filed an opposition arguing that counsel has not been able to locate Plaintiff and asks the Court not to impose sanctions against counsel as they have been diligent in trying to locate Plaintiff to respond to the discovery requests. 

Plaintiff’s counsel does not dispute that responses were not provided prior to hearing. Thus, the present motions to compel are granted. If Plaintiff initiated the lawsuit, Defendant is certainly entitled to discovery to formulate a defense, and Defendant has been more than accommodating by delaying the filing of the present motions for more than five months. Plaintiff is ordered to provide complete and verified discovery responses without objections to Defendant within 20 days of today. 

Defendant requests sanctions in the amount of $561.65 per motion, which the Court finds reasonable. Sanctions are mandatory and the Court does not find that Plaintiff acted with substantial justification. Given Plaintiff’s counsel's efforts in locating and attempting to communicate with Plaintiff to provide the discovery response at issue, sanctions will be against Plaintiff only. Plaintiff is ordered to pay sanctions in the amount of $1,650 to Defendant 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 without leave.