Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 23STCV26021, Date: 2025-01-13 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV26021    Hearing Date: January 13, 2025    Dept: 27

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

On July 23, 2023, Plaintiff served Defendant Denali Water Solutions, LLC with Form Interrogatories, Set One, Special Interrogatories, Set One, Requests for Production (RFP), Set One, and Requests for Admission (RFA), Set One. On August 26, 2024, Plaintiff granted Defendant an extension to serve the responses by September 9, 2024. However, responses were not served until November 8, 2024, and the responses were neither verified nor signed by Defendant. Plaintiff attempted to meet and confer regarding the unverified responses, but Defendant has yet to provide verifications. Plaintiff now moves the Court to compel Defendant to provide verified responses to the discovery at issue without objections.

Defendant’s responses were served after the agreed extension date of September 9, 2024, and therefore, Defendant has waived all objections. Moreover, because Defendant’s responses are unverified, they are tantamount to no response at all. (Appleton v. Superior Court (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 632, 636.) Accordingly, Plaintiff’s motion to compel initial responses is proper despite Defendant’s unverified responses. Additionally, Defendant did not file an opposition contesting Plaintiff’s timeline or allegations. Therefore, the motions are granted. Defendant DENALI WATER SOLUTIONS, LLC is ordered to provide complete and verified responses to Plaintiff’s first set of Form Interrogatories, Special Interrogatories, RFP, and RFA without objections within 20 days of today. Should Plaintiff have issues with the substance of the responses or believe the responses are not code-compliant, the present motion is not the appropriate vehicle to address those issues. Instead, a motion to compel further responses would be the proper course of action.

Plaintiff requests sanctions in the amount of $3,310 for each motion. Sanctions are mandatory, as Defendant did not act with substantial justification. Nevertheless, the Court finds the requested amount excessive and reduces the sanctions to $2,000 for all four motions. Sanctions in the amount of $2,000 are ordered against Defendant and its attorney, jointly and severally, payable to Plaintiff within 20 days of today.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SSCDEPT27@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit on the tentative as directed by the instructions provided on the court’s website at www.lacourt.org.  Please be advised that if you submit on the tentative and elect not to appear at the hearing, the opposing party may nevertheless appear at the hearing and argue the matter.  Unless you receive a submission from all other parties in the matter, you should assume that others might appear at the hearing to argue.  If the Court does not receive emails from the parties indicating submission on this tentative ruling and there are no appearances at the hearing, the Court may, at its discretion, adopt the tentative as the final order or place the motion off calendar.