Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 22SSMCV00743, Date: 2023-12-19 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22SSMCV00743    Hearing Date: December 19, 2023    Dept: I

Defendant brings motions to compel.  According to defendant, plaintiff provided bad faith and unverified responses to the discovery in question.  Plaintiff’s response is that the issue is moot because verifications have been sent and defendant did not adequately meet and confer.

The court believes plaintiff acted in bad faith.  The long and short of it is that it took these motions to cause plaintiff to respond.  Plaintiff cannot buy itself that kind of delay with impunity.  Accordingly, the motions are GRANTED.  Plaintiff has five court days to provide verified responses without objection other than privilege to the discovery at issue.  If documents are required, they will be provided at the same time.  If plaintiffs are actually on active duty in the IDF, the court will give them additional time.  Plaintiff recently filed another brief stating that supplemental responses have been served.  If plaintiff believes that these responses comply with the court’s order of today, plaintiff may stand on those answers.  However, if a further motion is required, it would be for a violation of this order, not a new motion relating to new discovery.  In other words, the court does not find the motion to be moot.

A few words.  Plaintiff contends that two motions should have been filed rather than one.  Plaintiff is right about that, but the court will overlook that defect this time, and this time only.

Plaintiff also contends that the delay was caused by the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, where plaintiffs are apparently located.  Had the responses been due after October 7, the court would have had a lot of sympathy for that argument, and would have expected the defense to work with plaintiff to arrive at a reasonable accommodation.  But the responses were due long before October 7.  The months’ long delay pre-dating that event remains unexplained and unexcused.

The court also agrees that sanctions are appropriate and the request for sanctions is GRANTED as against plaintiffs only (not counsel) in the amount of $1005.  Sanctions are payable within 30 days.