Judge Lee S. Arian, Case Number: 23STCV16651, Date: 2024-05-29 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 23STCV16651, Date: 2024-05-29 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV16651 Hearing Date: May 29, 2024 Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27¿

MOTIONS TO COMPEL INTIAL RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS

Hearing Date: 5/29/24¿¿

CASE NO./NAME: 23STCV16651 WILLIAM KIM, et al. vs SOROUGH YEGAN

Moving Party: Defendant Sorough Yegan

Responding Party: Unopposed

Notice: Sufficient¿¿

Ruling: MOTIONS TO COMPEL INTIAL RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS 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).) 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).)

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).)

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.

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 January 19, 2024, Defendant Sorough Yegan served his Demand for Production (Set Number One), Special Interrogatories (Set Number One), and Form Interrogatories (Set Number One) on Plaintiff William Kim. Plaintiff failed to serve discovery responses by the statutory deadline. As of April 15, 2024, the date the present motions were filed, Defendant has not received the outstanding discovery responses. No opposition or other documents showing that the discovery responses were served prior to the hearing have been filed. Thus, the present motions are GRANTED. Plaintiff is ORDERED to serve verified and complete responses to the discovery requests at issue without objections within 20 days of today.

Plaintiff’s non-responsiveness forced Defendant to file the present motions and incur attorney’s fees. Defendant requests attorney’s fees in the amount of $585.00 for each of the three motions. Considering the simplicity of the issues and the lack of opposition, the Court exercises discretion and lowers the sanction amount to $1000 for all three motions. Plaintiff and his counsel are ORDERED, jointly and severally, to pay sanctions of $1000 to Defendant 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.