Judge: Lisa R. Jaskol, Case: 21STCV12888, Date: 2024-02-07 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV12888    Hearing Date: March 14, 2024    Dept: 28

Having considered the moving papers, the Court rules as follows. 

BACKGROUND 

On April 5, 2021, Plaintiffs Lorette Benson (“Plaintiff”) and Andrew Benson filed this action against Defendants Darren Danes (“Danes”), Stafford Environmental Services, Inc. (“Stafford”), and Does 1-100 for negligence. 

On February 15, 2023, Danes and Stafford ("Defendants") filed an answer. 

On August 22, 2023, Plaintiff filed a substitution of attorney form substituting herself as a self-represented litigant in place of her former attorneys. 

On February 13, 2024, Defendants filed a motion titled in part, “Motion for Order Compelling Plaintiff, Lorette Benson to (1) Answer Request for Admissions, Set No. One . . . .”  Defendants also requested sanctions.  The motion was set for hearing on March 14, 2024.  Plaintiff did not file an opposition. 

Trial is currently scheduled for August 14, 2024. 

LEGAL STANDARD  

          Code of Civil Procedure section 2033.280 provides: 

“If a party to whom requests for admission are directed fails to serve a timely response, the following rules apply: 

“(a) The party to whom the requests for admission are directed waives any objection to the requests, including one based on privilege or on the protection for work product under Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 2018.010). The court, on motion, may relieve that party from this waiver on its determination that both of the following conditions are satisfied:  

“(1) The party has subsequently served a response that is in substantial compliance with Sections 2033.210, 2033.220, and 2033.230.  

“(2) The party’s failure to serve a timely response was the result of mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect.  

“(b) The requesting party may move for an order that the genuineness of any documents and the truth of any matters specified in the requests be deemed admitted, as well as for a monetary sanction under Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010).  

“(c) The court shall make this order, unless it finds that the party to whom the requests for admission have been directed has served, before the hearing on the motion, a proposed response to the requests for admission that is in substantial compliance with Section 2033.220. It is mandatory that the court impose a monetary sanction under Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010) on the party or attorney, or both, whose failure to serve a timely response to requests for admission necessitated this motion.”  

(Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280.)  

DISCUSSION  

Defendants’ motion is titled in part, “Motion for Order Compelling Plaintiff, Lorette Benson to (1) Answer Request for Admissions, Set No. One . . . .”  While the motion’s title asks for an order compelling a response, the motion’s text initially asks for “an order that the truth of each matter specified in the Requests for Admission served on Plaintiff, Lorette Benson, on November 6, 2023, be deemed admitted and conclusively established for all purposes in this action.”  (Motion p. 2.)  Yet the motion’s conclusion again “requests that the Court order Plaintiff to provide responses to Defendants’ Request for Admission, Set One, fully, verified and without objections.”  (Motion p. 4.) 

Code of Civil Procedure section 2033.280 “ensures that litigants receive formal notice of the need to prepare responses and some additional time to accomplish that task before the devastating effects of failing to respond to [requests for admission] are visited upon them.”  (L. Edmon & C. Karnow, Cal. Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial (Rutter 2023) ¶ 8:1374.2, p. 8G-25.)  Defendants’ motion did not provide the required notice.  Because of the motion’s conflicting requests for relief, Plaintiff may not have realized that Defendants are apparently seeking an order that would devastate her case by deeming admitted the matters specified in Defendants’ requests for admission. 

The Court denies the motion and request for sanctions. 

CONCLUSION 

          The Court DENIES the motion titled in part “Motion for Order Compelling Plaintiff, Lorette Benson to (1) Answer Request for Admissions, Set No. One . . . .” filed by Defendants Darren Danes and Stafford Environmental Services, Inc. on February 13, 2024, including the request for sanctions. 

Moving parties are ordered to give notice of this ruling. 

Moving parties are ordered to file the proof of service of this ruling with the Court within five days.