Judge Lee S. Arian, Case Number: 23STCV03767, Date: 2024-07-01 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 23STCV03767, Date: 2024-07-01 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV03767 Hearing Date: July 1, 2024 Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27

MOTION TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTION; MOTION TO DEEM REQUESTS FOR ADMISSIONS ADMITTED; REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS

Hearing Date: 6/1/24¿

CASE NO./NAME: 23STCV03767 SUSANA DELGADO, et al. vs MARTIN CARRILLO-MORALES

Moving Party: Plaintiff

Responding Party: Defendant Martin Morales

Notice: Sufficient¿

Ruling: MOTION TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTION IS GRANTED; MOTION TO DEEM REQUESTS FOR ADMISSIONS ADMITTED IS DENIED; REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS ARE GRANTED.

On July 17, 2023, Plaintiff propounded Requests for Admissions (RFA), Set One, and Requests for Productions (RFP), Set One, on Defendant Martin Morales. The statutory deadline to respond was August 21, 2023. Plaintiff alleges that the responses at issue were not provided and now moves the Court to compel initial responses and deem RFAs admitted. Defendant filed an opposition arguing that the present motions are untimely, the email for service was incorrect, and the motions are moot because responses were provided on September 1, 2023.

First, the Court disagrees that the present motions are untimely. On June 4, 2024, Plaintiff served and filed the present motion with a hearing date set for July 1, 2024. There are 18 court days between the service of the motion and the hearing date. The motion is timely as the relevant statute provides that a motion is to be served 16 court days before the hearing (CCP § 1005(b)) plus 2 court days for electronic service (CCP § 1010.6(a)(3)(B)).

Second, though there may be an issue with service of the motion, the Court finds that Defendant received actual service of the motion. Defendant’s counsel declares that the motion was not served on the correct email address. On the POS, the email was sent to bpscerritos@kemper.com, but the correct email address for service is bps-cerritos@kemper.com. Further, Defendant alleges that the other email address (hrodriguez2@kemper.com) on the POS belonged to a person who is no longer with the law firm and that email has since been deactivated. (Declaration of Rachel N. Van ¶ 2.) Defendant's counsel further declares that she did not receive an email from Plaintiff relating to the present motion and only received notice of the motion while browsing through the docket. (Id. ¶ 3.) In any event, Defendant did read the moving papers and opposes the present motion on its merits, and the Court will excuse Plaintiff’s clerical error relating to the email address for service. “It is axiomatic that strict compliance with the code's provisions for service of process is not required.” (Ramos v. Homeward Residential, Inc. (2014) 223 Cal.App.4th 1434, 1442) (service should be liberally construed to effectuate service and uphold the jurisdiction of the Court if actual notice has been received by the defendant). The question of service should ultimately be resolved by considering each situation from a practical standpoint. The liberal construction rule, it is anticipated, will eliminate unnecessary, time-consuming, and costly disputes over legal technicalities, without prejudicing the right of defendants to proper notice. (Id.)

Third, Defendant argues that the motion is moot because verified responses were served on September 1, 2023. The parties do not dispute that the discovery requests at issue were served on July 17, 2023, or that Defendant served his responses on September 1, 2023. However, the statutory deadline for Defendant to respond was August 21, 2023, based on 30 days to respond (CCP 2031.260 and 2033.250.) and 2 additional court days for electronic service (CCP § 1010.6(a)(3)(B)). Defendant did not provide any evidence that Plaintiff granted Defendant an extension to serve responses by September 1, 2023. Since the responses were untimely, objections are therefore waived. The Court examined the discovery responses at issue and notes that Defendant’s responses to RFA, Set One, Nos. 3 and 4 consist of only objections. While the Court will not deem those RFAs admitted at this time, it orders Defendant to respond to those RFAs within 10 court days without objection. If Defendant fails to do so, RFA Nos. 3 and 4, Set One, are to be deemed admitted.

Defendant’s responses to RFP, Set One, Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 32, 33, 36, 43, 44, 45, 46, 50, 54, and 55 contain only objections. Since objections are waived, the Court orders Defendant to provide complete and verified responses to the aforementioned requests without objections within 10 court days of today.

Defendant served untimely responses that contained objections. The present motions are not moot, and Plaintiff was justified in bringing the motions. Defendant failed to successfully oppose the motions and sanctions are therefore mandatory. Plaintiff requests sanctions in the amount of $1,875 for each motion; however, due to the simplicity of the motions, the Court lowers the amount to $1,500 for both motions. Defendant and his attorney are jointly and severally ordered to pay Plaintiff sanctions in the amount of $1,500 within 30 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.