Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 22STCV40746, Date: 2024-11-21 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV40746    Hearing Date: November 21, 2024    Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27

MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS

Hearing Date: 11/21/24 

CASE NO./NAME: 22STCV40746 ISIDRO ARGUELLO RAZO vs HALEY MORRISON MECH, et al.

Moving Party: Defendants Thomas Mech and Haley Morrison Mech

Responding Party: Plaintiff

Notice: Sufficient

Ruling: GRANTED

On July 30, 2024, Defendants Thomas Mech and Haley Morrison Mech served Plaintiff with their Form Interrogatories (Set One), Requests for Production of Documents (Set One), and Special Interrogatories (Set One). Defendants subsequently sent Plaintiff several meet-and-confer emails regarding the overdue discovery responses. However, as of October 21, 2024, when these motions were filed, Defendants had not received any communication or discovery responses from Plaintiff. Defendants now move the Court to compel Plaintiff to serve initial responses.

 It is undisputed that Plaintiff failed to serve discovery responses within the statutory deadline. Additionally, Plaintiff has not filed any opposition to the motion or any other document indicating that responses were served prior to the hearing.

Accordingly, Defendants’ motions to compel are GRANTED. Plaintiff is ordered to provide complete and verified responses to Defendants’ Form Interrogatories (Set One), Requests for Production of Documents (Set One), and Special Interrogatories (Set One), without objections, within 20 days of the date of this order.

Defendants also request $455.34 in sanctions for each motion. The Court finds this amount reasonable. Sanctions are mandatory under Code of Civil Procedure sections 2030.290(c) and 2031.300(c) where no substantial justification is shown, and the Court finds that Plaintiff acted without substantial justification. Sanctions in the amount of $1200 are imposed against Plaintiff and Plaintiff's counsel, jointly and severally, payable to Defendants within 20 days of the date of this order.

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.