Judge Lee S. Arian, Case Number: 23STCV24947, Date: 2024-12-10 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 23STCV24947, Date: 2024-12-10 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV24947 Hearing Date: December 10, 2024 Dept: 27

Hon. Lee S. Arian, Dept 27¿

MOTION FOR TERMINATING SANCTIONS

Hearing Date: 12/10/24

CASE NO./NAME: 23STCV24947 DONNEL STINSON vs GEVORG KHACHATRYAN, et al.

Moving Party: Defendants Gevorg Khachatryan and Vardan Aghayan

Responding Party: None

Notice: Sufficient¿¿

Ruling: The Court will hear from the parties.

On October 12, 2023, Plaintiff Donnel Stinson (“Plaintiff”) filed a complaint against Defendants Gevorg Khachatryan and Vardan Aghayan (“Defendants”) alleging negligence from a motor vehicle accident.

On February 5, 2024, Defendants served Form Interrogatories, Set One, Special Interrogatories, Set One, and Demand for Production, Set One on Plaintiff. (Daldumyan Decl. ¶ 3.) Plaintiff failed to timely respond. Plaintiff did not respond to meet and confer emails sent on March 21, 2024 and April 8, 2024. (Id. ¶ 5-6.) On May 31, 2024, the Court granted Defendants’ unopposed motions to compel responses to the written discovery. (Min. Order, 5/31/24.) Plaintiff was ordered to serve verified responses without objections within 20 days. The Court also imposed $1,309.95 in monetary sanctions against Plaintiff and his counsel of record, jointly and severally. The sanctions were due within 20 days. (Ibid.) On June 3, 2024, Defendants filed and served notice of the ruling on Plaintiff.

Defendants now assert that Plaintiff has failed to serve responses to the Form Interrogatories and to pay the monetary sanctions. (Daldumyan Decl. ¶ 12.) Defendants concede that Plaintiff served responses to Special Interrogatories and Request for Production on May 10, 2024. (Id. ¶ 10.) However, in a late-filed Opposition, Plaintiff contends that form interrogatory responses were provided to Defendants. The Court will hear from Plaintiff why Plaintiff failed to engage in meet and confer efforts and why, especially in light of that failure, the Court should now consider the very late-filed Opposition. The Court will also seek to determine whether, in fact, Plaintiff responded to the form interrogatories.