Judge Lee W. Tsao, Case Number: 22NWCV01213, Date: 2024-01-17 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee W. Tsao, Case: 22NWCV01213, Date: 2024-01-17 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22NWCV01213 Hearing Date: January 17, 2024 Dept: C

Ruiz v. General motors

CASE NO.: 22NWCV01213

HEARING: 1/17/24 @ 9:30 AM

Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Further Responses is GRANTED with the limitations set forth below. Plaintiff’s request for sanctions is DENIED.

Moving Party to give NOTICE.

Plaintiff Carolina Ruiz (Plaintiff) moves to compel further responses from Defendant General Motors, LLC (Defendant) to her Requests for Production (set one).

Background

On September 21, 2022, Plaintiff filed a Complaint against 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).)

Meet and Confer

The Court finds that the parties adequately met and conferred.

Discussion

Plaintiff seeks to compel further responses to Requests Nos. 16, 19-32, 37-41, 45, and 46. Defendant objected to each Request and initially did not produce any documents. Defendant has produced some documents during the meet and confer process.

Requests Nos. 16 and 19-32 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. 16 and 19-32 with the limitation that it shall produce responsive documents published from the date of purchase to the date of filing.

Requests Nos. 37-41 seek codes related to similar vehicles and customer complaints and labor operations codes from 2017 to present. These requests are overbroad because they seek information not related to Plaintiff’s vehicle. Therefore, these requests will be limited to codes related to repairs made to Plaintiff’s vehicle. Defendant is ordered to provide further responses to Requests Nos. 37-41 with the codes applicable to repairs made to Plaintiff’s vehicle.

Requests Nos. 45-46 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 repairs and customer complaints concerning 2017 Chevrolet Silverados sold in California. Defendant is ordered to provide further responses to Requests Nos. 45-46 as to 2017 Chevrolet Silverados sold in California.

Sanctions

The court shall impose a monetary sanction against the party who unsuccessfully makes or opposes a motion to compel further responses to interrogatories or demand for production of documents unless the party subject to the sanction acted with substantial justification or the sanction would otherwise be unjust. (CCP §§ 2030.300(d), 2031.310(h), 2033.290(d).)

Defendant acted with substantial justification in opposing Plaintiff’s numerous overbroad requests and has provided some responsive documents prior to Plaintiff filing her Motion.

Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Further Responses is GRANTED with the limitations set forth above. Defendant is ordered to serve its responses within 30 days of this Order. Plaintiff’s request for sanctions is DENIED.