Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 22SMCV01922, Date: 2022-12-20 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22SMCV01922    Hearing Date: December 20, 2022    Dept: R

The court is in receipt of the request to set trial and the counter-request.  Plaintiff is correct that the trial must be set within 20 days of the date of the request, although plaintiff agrees to a trial between January 17, 2023 and February 2, 2023.

The court can continue the trial, but only if defendant agrees to tender the rent into court during the interim.  The court will inquire whether defendant is willing to do so. 

The court believes that defendant’s trial estimate is the more reasonable.

The court will inquire whether defendant is willing to tender the rent at issue to obtain a later trial date.

The court also notes that there are eight discovery motions set for January 17 and 18.  The parties would be well advised to deal with that informally and immediately rather than coming to court over it.  It appears that the motions are brought by plaintiff contending that discovery was served and that defendant failed to respond.  If that is true, it is not a good tactic for the defense, as it strongly supports the idea that the defense is simply stalling, which would cause the court to deny any request to set the trial beyond next month.