Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 22SMCV02662, Date: 2024-10-07 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22SMCV02662    Hearing Date: October 7, 2024    Dept: I

The matter is here for a final status conference.  The court gave its FSC order on July 27, 2023.  On October 2, 2024, defendant submitted a number of unilateral documents including: (1) Defendant’s Witness List; (2) Defendant’s Exhibit List; (3) Defendant’s Proposed Verdict Form; (4) Defendant’s Proposed Jury Instructions; and (5) Defendant’s Proposed Statement of the Case.  The court assumes that defendant is not planning to use any depositions other than for impeachment and does not want a jury questionnaire.  Plaintiff has submitted nothing.

The court will inquire as to how this came to be.  If defendant has diligently tried to engage plaintiff but plaintiff has not engaged, the court will consider the proper sanctions, which could be that defendant’s lists are deemed the parties’ lists and plaintiff will be barred from calling any other witnesses or introducing any other documents.  Further, plaintiff will be deemed to have waived any objections to the jury instructions, verdict form, or short statement of the case.  On the other hand, if the problem is just that no one engaged or no one engaged until the last minute, then the court will need to deem the case not ready for trial and set a hearing to re-set the trial date and determine appropriate sanctions.

Defendant also submitted three in limine motions.  They are untimely and will not be considered.