Judge Lee W. Tsao, Case Number: 22NWCV00933, Date: 2023-12-28 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee W. Tsao, Case: 22NWCV00933, Date: 2023-12-28 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22NWCV00933 Hearing Date: December 28, 2023 Dept: C

whitfield v. general motors

CASE NO.: 22NWCV00933

HEARING: 12/28/23 @ 9:30 AM

Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Further Responses to His Requests for Production is GRANTED with the limitation set forth below. Defendant shall provide further responses within 30 days.

Moving Party to give NOTICE.

Plaintiff Herbert Alan Whitfield (Plaintiff) moves to compel Defendant’s further response to Request for Production (set two) pursuant to CCP § 2031.310.

This Motion is unopposed.

Background

On October 4, 2022, Plaintiff filed a Complaint against Defendant General Motors, LLC (Defendant) for alleged violations of the Song-Beverly Act for failure to repair or repurchase Plaintiff’s vehicle.

Legal Standard

CCP § 2031.310 allows a party to file a motion compelling further answers to document requests if it finds that the response is inadequate, incomplete, or evasive, or an objection in the response is without merit or too general. The motion shall be accompanied with a meet and confer declaration. (CCP § 2031.310(b).)

Discussion

Here Plaintiff is seeking further responses to Requests Nos. 1-64.

Requests Nos. 1, 2, and 4 seek documents related to Plaintiff’s vehicle and, thus, are discoverable in full. Therefore, Plaintiff’s requests for further responses are granted as to all non-privileged documents.

Request Nos. 3, 5-8, and 49-54 seek Defendant’s lemon law policies and procedures. The Requests are overbroad as to time. However, Defendant’s lemon law policies and procedures from the date of purchase to the filing of Plaintiff’s lawsuit are within the scope of discovery because they are relevant to proving whether Defendant followed its policies and procedures as to Plaintiff’s vehicle. Therefore, Defendant is ordered to provide further responses to Requests Nos. 3, 5-8, and 49-54 with the limitation that it shall produce responsive documents published from the date of purchase to the date this lawsuit was filed.

Requests Nos. 9-21 and 25 seek documents related to similar vehicles and customer complaints. These requests are overbroad because they seek documents related to vehicles worldwide. Therefore, these requests will be limited to repairs and customer complaints concerning 2020 Chevrolet Silverado sold in California. Defendant is ordered to provide further responses to Requests Nos. 9-21 and 25 as to 2020 Chevrolet Silverados sold in California.

Requests Nos. 22-24, 26-31, 41-48, and 55-64 seek documents related to Defendant’s internal investigations regarding transmission defects. Plaintiff has pleaded a fraud cause of action, thus, Defendant’s underlying knowledge of the defect is at issue is discoverable. However, the requests will be limited to 2020 Chevrolet Silverados sold in California. Therefore, Defendant is ordered to provide further responses to Requests Nos. 22-24, 26-31, 41-48, and 55-64 as to 2020 Chevrolet Silverados sold in California.

Requests Nos. 32-40 seek TSBs related to transmission defects. Defendant is ordered to provide further responses to Requests Nos. 32-40 limited to 2020 Chevrolet Silverados sold in California.

Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Further Responses to His Requests for Production is GRANTED with the limitations set forth above. Defendant is to provide further responses within 30 days of this Order.