Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 21STCV04325, Date: 2022-12-20 Tentative Ruling

The Court generally uploads tentative rulings the morning of the hearing.  Because of that, the parties cannot submit on the tentative the night before and not appear.  However, if after reviewing the tentative ruling ALL COUNSEL submit, they should tell the Court's judicial assistant when checking in and the Court will endeavor to either not hear the case in light of the submission or, if the Court believes that a hearing is still needed for some other reason, then the Court will be inclined to give priority.

In some cases, tentative rulings may be given by email the morning of the hearing rather than on the tentative ruling site.  Please check your email if you have not seen the tentative.  The email is generally sent to the persons who have signed up for a remote hearing.

For those appearing in the courtroom, the Court will provide a hard copy of the tentative ruling. 

Case Number: 21STCV04325    Hearing Date: December 20, 2022    Dept: R

The ex parte application is GRANTED.  Plaintiff has been trying to take depositions but at least from the moving papers, it appears that defendant has not been quick to schedule them.  The court agrees that plaintiff may need this discovery and, accordingly, the MSJ will be continued as requested or to a date agreed upon by the parties.  Defendant will give dates for the witnesses.  The parties ought to be able to work on this, but they will meet and confer THIS WEEK on the subject.  Defendant will have the schedules of all witnesses and counsel for the next three months with her or him at the meeting.  The meeting will be attended by counsel for each party who will be taking and defending the depositions.  There will be no delegation.  The MSJ will be continued until at least 6 weeks after the final deposition.  The court notes that the parties ought to be able to work this out amongst themselves without court intervention.