Judge Lee W. Tsao, Case Number: 23NWCV01749, Date: 2024-10-16 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee W. Tsao, Case: 23NWCV01749, Date: 2024-10-16 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23NWCV01749 Hearing Date: October 16, 2024 Dept: C

CHAVEZ v. GENERAL MOTORS LLC and DOES 1 through 10, inclusive

CASE NO.: 23NWCV01749

HEARING: 10/16/24 @ 10:30 A.M.

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiff Kira Lynn Chavez’s motion to compel further responses to Request for Production of Documents, Set One is CONTINUED to March 12, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. in Dept. SE-C.

Moving Party to give NOTICE.

This is a Song-Beverly action. Plaintiff moves to compel further responses to Requests for Production of Documents, Set One, request numbers 1 through 3; 7 through 9, 12, 17, 19, 22, 24, 30, 35, 38, 40-41, 49, 54, 56-57, 66, 74-77, and 86.

Timeliness

Notice of the motion to compel further must be provided within 45 days of service of the verified response or on or before any specific later date to which the parties have agreed. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.310, subd. (c).) This 45-day deadline runs from the date the verified response is served and is extended for service by mail in accordance with Code of Civil Procedure sections 1010.6, subdivision (a)(4) and 1013, subdivision (a). Failure to timely move to compel within the specified period constitutes a waiver of any right to compel a further response. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.310, subd. (c).)

The 45-day rule to bring a motion to compel is mandatory and jurisdictional “in the sense that it renders court without authority to rule on motions to compel other than to deny them.” (Sexton v. Super. Ct. (1997) 58 Cal.App.4th 1403, 1410.)

On November 2, 2023, Defendant served unverified responses to Plaintiff’s first set of requests for production of documents, and Defendant served verifications on December 11, 2023. (Decl. Sanaia, ¶ 24, Ex. 9.)

Adding the days for electronic service, the clock ran on January 29, 2024. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1010.6, subd. (a)(3), 2016.050.) Plaintiff filed on January 29, 2024.

Thus, Plaintiff is timely.

Meet and Confer

The motion shall be accompanied by a meet and confer declaration. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.310, subd. (b)(2).) A meet and confer declaration in support of a motion shall state facts showing a reasonable and good faith attempt at an informal resolution of each issue presented by the motion. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2016.040.)

For purposes of determining whether a motion to compel discovery was preceded by a reasonable and good faith effort to meet and confer, such an attempt at informal resolution requires something more than bickering with opposing counsel; rather, the law requires that counsel attempt to talk the matter over, compare their views, consult, and deliberate. (Clement v. Alegre (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 1277, 1294.)

On December 26, 2023, Plaintiff sent a meet and confer letter regarding the responses she received. (Decl. Sanaia, ¶ 30, Ex. 12.) On January 29, 2024, Plaintiff sent another meet and confer letter. (Decl. Sanaia, ¶ 32, Ex. 14.) On January 30, 2024, Defendant responded to the meet and confer letter. (Decl. Keshishian, ¶ 6, Ex. A.) Plaintiff filed the instant motion on January 29, 2024. On October 3, 2024, Defendant filed an opposition, addressing the discovery requests by category.

Given that Plaintiff sent a second meet and confer letter the same day she filed the instant motion and Defendant responded the day after, the Court is not persuaded that counsel have exhausted their meet and confer obligations pursuant to the Code. In addition, the Court advises both parties to refer to the case management conference order they received issued in Department F about Song-Beverly discovery. It addresses many of the discovery requests at issue.

The Court believes that further meet and confer efforts will resolve many of the issues before the Court. Therefore, Counsel are ORDERED to make further efforts to resolve the issues presented. If, after exhausting those efforts, court intervention is needed, counsel may appear and argue the merits on the continued hearing date. If counsel are unable to informally resolve their discovery disputes, then counsel are instructed to submit a REVISED JOINT SEPARATE STATEMENT with a detailed outline of the remaining disputed issues for which a ruling is required. The revised joint separate statement must be FILED on or before March 1, 2025.