Judge Lynne M. Hobbs, Case Number: 21STCV07504, Date: 2023-08-10 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lynne M. Hobbs, Case: 21STCV07504, Date: 2023-08-10 Tentative Ruling

PLEASE NOTE:

The parties are encouraged to meet and confer concerning this tentative ruling to determine if there is an agreement to submit.

Regardless of whether there is any such agreement, each party who wishes to submit must send an email to the Court at SSCdept30@LACourt.org indicating the party's intention to submit.

Include the word "SUBMITS" in all caps and the case number in the subject line of the email and in the body provide the date and time of the hearing, your name, your contact information, the party you represent, whether that party is a plaintiff, defendant, cross-complainant, cross-defendant, claimant, or non-party.

If a party submits but still intends to appear at the hearing, include the words "SUBMITS BUT WILL APPEAR" in the subject line of the email.

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.

Unless all the parties have submitted, the Court will hear argument from any party that appears at the hearing and wishes to argue. The Court may change its tentative as a result of the argument and adopt the changed tentative as the final order at the end of that hearing, even if all the parties are not present.

Be advised that after the Court has posted/issued a tentative ruling, the Court has the inherent authority to prohibit the withdrawal of said motion and may adopt the tentative ruling as the order of the Court.

Case Number: 21STCV07504 Hearing Date: November 30, 2023 Dept: 30

CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL DOWDING vs HILARY SUSAN ROSE, et al.

Motion to Compel Compliance

Tentative

The motion is DENIED along with the request for sanctions. Defendant Quality Rentals to give notice.

Discussion

On June 16, 2023, Plaintiff served discovery Requests to Quality Rentals, Inc. including Requests for Production. (Zeesman Decl., 3; Exh. A.) On August 7, 2023, Defendant served the discovery responses. (Id., Exh. B) Plaintiff now requests that Defendant Quality Rentals, Inc. be ordered to produce the documents responsive to the Requests for Production, Set One, requests Nos. 1-4, 8, 12-16, 20, 22, and 33-42, as the documents have been identified and no privilege log has been indicated and production has not been made.

Plaintiff’s motion actually seeks further responses. As such, the parties must participate in an informal discovery conference, and meet and confer, then Plaintiff may move to compel further. The motion at hand, to compel compliance with a statement of compliance under Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.320(a) provides, “If a party filing a response” thereafter fails to permit the inspection, copying, testing, or sampling “in accordance with that party’s statement of compliance,” then a motion to compel compliance under this section is proper. Here, the responses provided by Defendant do not state Defendant will comply. Rather, the responses are either objections, or state that Defendant does not have the requested documents. Therefore, there is no statement of compliance here, making section 2031.320 inapplicable in the facts at hand. The only required showing is that the responding party failed to comply as agreed. (Standon Co., Inc. v. Superior Court (1990) 225 Cal.App.3d 898, 903.) There was no agreement here.