Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 23SMCV04069, Date: 2025-03-14 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23SMCV04069    Hearing Date: March 14, 2025    Dept: I

The court will inquire.  The case was filed on August 30, 2023 and the trial date was set on February 22, 2024.  The court likely said at that CMC that it would not entertain a request for a continuance due to its overcrowded trial calendar.

The parties contend that they have been unable to complete discovery.  However, it does not look like anyone really started discovery until late last year at best.  Plaintiff’s initial document demand was served this year.  Key witnesses have not been deposed and the court has trouble really seeing the reason.  In short, the court is not sure that there has been diligence here.  And to move the trial date is not fair to the court or other litigants.  The current trial date of May 12, 2025, was set for this case, and that slot was therefore unavailable to other cases, who were given later slots as a result.  If the court winds up without a trial on May 12, 2025, it makes the rest of the court’s calendar more difficult.  And whenever this case is moved, it will or might need to dislodge another case where the parties have acted diligently.

The court will also inquire as to how the mediation worked.  The mediation completion date was January 15, 2025, so the court will be interested in how that went forward given that it seems that virtually no discovery was done by that date.

The likelihood is that the motion will be DENIED due to a lack of any showing of diligence and therefore a lack of good cause.