Judge Lee S. Arian, Case Number: 23STCV16743, Date: 2024-08-30 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 23STCV16743, Date: 2024-08-30 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV16743 Hearing Date: August 30, 2024 Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27

MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS

Hearing Date: 8/30/24¿

CASE NO./NAME: 23STCV16743 ALAYNA HERCULES, et al. vs RUBEN MARTINEZ SAN DIERO, et al

Moving Party: Defendant Los Angeles Unified School District

Responding Party: Plaintiff¿

Notice: Sufficient¿

Ruling: MOTIONS TO COMPEL INITIAL RESPONSES AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONS ARE GRANTED.

Background

On April 22, 2024, Defendant Los Angeles Unified School District served its form interrogatories, special interrogatories, and demands for production, set one on Plaintiff Alayna Hercules. Defendant granted Plaintiff several extensions, with the final deadline to respond set for July 5, 2024. As of July 16, 2024, when the present motions were filed, Defendant had not received the discovery responses at issue and now moves the Court to compel initial responses.

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).) 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).)

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

No opposition or any other order indicating to the Court that responses have been provided prior to the hearing has been filed. Therefore, the Court grants the present motions and orders Plaintiff to provide complete and verified responses without objections to form interrogatories, special interrogatories, and demands for production, set one, within 20 days of today.

Defendant requests sanctions in the amount of $440 per motion. The Court finds the amount requested reasonable. Sanctions are mandatory, and the Court did not find Plaintiff to have acted with substantial justification. Sanctions in the amount of $1300 are hereby ordered against Plaintiff and her attorney, jointly and severally, payable to Defendant within 20 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.