Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 22STCV18420, Date: 2024-06-06 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV18420    Hearing Date: June 6, 2024    Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27 

MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES

Hearing Date: 6/6/24 

CASE NO./NAME: 22STCV18420 ABRAHAM GALVEZ vs SILVIA MENDIOLA GARCIA

Moving Party: Defendant Silvia Garcia

Responding Party: Plaintiff

Notice: Sufficient 

Ruling: MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES ARE GRANTED.

Legal Standard

A defendant may make a demand for inspection, copying, testing, or sampling without leave of court at any time. Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.020, subd. (a); Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.020, subd. (a).) 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).)¿¿¿ 

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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).)¿¿¿ 

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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.¿ 

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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.)

Discussion

On December 21, 2023, Defendant Silvia Garcia served her Form Interrogatories, Request for Production, and Special Interrogatories, Set One on Plaintiff Abraham Galvez. Plaintiff did not serve discovery responses by the statutory due date of January 23, 2024. On April 8, 2024, Defense counsel served Plaintiff’s counsel with a formal meet and confer letter advising that Plaintiff's responses were overdue and requesting verified responses by April 22, 2024, to avoid the need to bring this motion. No responses were served, nor was there any communication indicating any intent to comply. Defendant now moves the Court to compel initial responses to the discovery requests at issue.

It is undisputed that Plaintiff did not file timely responses. No opposition was filed or any other documents indicating that the discovery responses at issue were served prior to the hearing. Thus, the present motions are granted, and Plaintiff is ordered to serve full and complete discovery responses without objections within 20 days of today.

Defendant did not request sanctions.

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.