Judge: Mark A. Young, Case: 23SMCV01384, Date: 2023-06-22 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23SMCV01384    Hearing Date: December 12, 2023    Dept: M

CASE NAME:           Elm Drive LLC v. Noorani, et al.

CASE NO.:                23SMCV01384

MOTION:                  Motion to Compel Initial Discovery Responses

HEARING DATE:   12/12/2023

Legal Standard

Where there has been no timely response to a Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) section 2031.010 inspection demand, the demanding party must seek an order compelling a response. (CCP § 2031.300.) Failure to timely respond waives all objections, including privilege and work product. Thus, unless the party to whom the demand was directed obtains relief from waiver, he or she cannot raise objections to the documents demanded. There is no deadline for a motion to compel responses. Likewise, for failure to respond, the moving party need not attempt to resolve the matter outside court before filing the motion. Where the motion seeks only a response to the inspection demand, no showing of "good cause" is required.

If a party to whom interrogatories are directed fails to serve a timely response, the propounding party may move for an order compelling responses and for a monetary sanction. (CCP § 2030.290(b).) The statute contains no time limit for a motion to compel where no responses have been served. All that need be shown in the moving papers is that a set of interrogatories was properly served on the opposing party, that the time to respond has expired, and that no response of any kind has been served. (Leach v. Superior Court (1980) 111 Cal. App. 3d 902, 905-906.) 

Pursuant to CCP section 2033.280(b), a 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). “Failure to timely respond to RFA does not result in automatic admissions. Rather, the propounder of the RFA must ‘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 § 2023.010 et seq.” (CCP, § 2033.280(b).) The court “shall” grant the motion to deem RFA admitted, “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.” (CCP, § 2033.280(c).) 

Analysis

            Defendant Behnaz Noorani moves to compel Plaintiff Elm Drive LLC’s responses to the following sets of discovery: 1) Special interrogatories, set one; 2) Form interrogatories, set one; and 3) Request for Inspection Demands, Set One. Defendant also moves to deem Requests for Admissions, set one, as admitted by Plaintiff. As to each motion, Defendant requests sanctions of $1,050.00 against Plaintiff.  

            On May 19, 2023, Defendant served Plaintiff the above sets of discovery. (Michalak Decls., ¶¶ 5, Exs. A-B.) To date, Plaintiff has not responded to the above discovery. Given Plaintiff’s failure to respond, the motions to compel are GRANTED and the motion to deem matters admitted is GRANTED.  Further responses are due without objections within 10 days.

Monetary sanctions are mandatory, unless the imposition of sanctions would be unjust or the party subject to the sanctions acted with substantial justification. (CCP § 2030.290(c).) Plaintiff failed to oppose, and therefore failed to justify their non-response to the discovery.

Defendant requests $1,050.00 per motion in sanctions. Defense counsel declares that each motion took approximately 1.5 hours to prepare, serve, and file, and that he anticipates the hearing on the motions to take at least an additional .5 hour, at an hourly rate of $525.00. (Michalak Decl., ¶¶ 10.) The Court finds the requested fees excessive and duplicative considering that the motions were relatively simple and substantially overlapped. Accordingly, Defendant’s request for sanctions is GRANTED in the reduced total amount of $1,815.00, inclusive of costs, against Plaintiff. Sanctions to be paid to Defendant’s counsel within 30 days.