Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 22STCV08846, Date: 2024-04-15 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV08846    Hearing Date: April 15, 2024    Dept: 27

HON. LEE S. ARIAN

DEPARTMENT 27

TENTATIVE RULING

Hearing Date:           4/15/2024 at 1:30 p.m. 

Case No./Name:       22STCV08846 GAREN SEMERJIAN vs ISMAEL VANCINI RAMIREZ

Motion:                    MOTIONS TO COMPEL SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR PROUDCITON, INTERROGATORIES, AND FOR SANCTIONS

Moving Party:           Plaintiff

Responding Party:    Defendant Ismael Vancini Ramirez

Notice:                      Sufficient 

Ruling:                              MOTIONS TO COMPEL SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTION AND INTERROGATORIES ARE DENIED 
 
MOTION FOR SANCTIONS IS GRANTED.

On May 12, 2023, Plaintiff served his requests for supplemental responses to his requests for production of documents and interrogatories on Defendant. Defendant failed to provide the supplemental discovery responses by the statutory deadline, prompting Plaintiff to move the court to compel the discovery responses at issue. Defendant opposes the motion, arguing that the responses were provided on April 3, 2024, before the hearing. No reply has been filed contesting Defendant’s contentions. Since the supplemental responses at issue have been provided before the hearing, the present motions are moot and therefore denied.

Sanctions are mandatory against the party, the attorney, or both whose failure to serve a timely discovery response forced Plaintiff to file the present motions. Furthermore, Defendant admits that the failure to provide supplemental responses were “due to the inexcusable neglect and inadvertence of Defense counsel’s calendaring system and personnel changes at the time, and as such, the supplemental responses originally due were never calendared and were ultimately missed.” Plaintiff has requested sanctions in the amount of $ 1,861.65 for each motion. Given the simplicity of the issues involved, the Court exercises its discretion and lowers the sanction amount to $1500.00 for both motions. The Court ORDERS Defendant and his counsel, jointly and severally, to pay sanctions of $1500.00 to Plaintiff within 20 days of today’s date.

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.