Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 23SMCV04469, Date: 2024-08-16 Tentative Ruling

If the parties wish to submit on the tentative ruling and avoid a court appearance on the matter, the moving party must contact the opposing party and all other parties who have appeared in the action and confirm that each will submit on the tentative ruling. Please call the court no later than 4:30 p.m. on the court day before the hearing, leave a message with the court clerk at (310) 260-3629 advising her that all parties will submit on the tentative ruling and waive hearing, and finally, serve notice of the Court's ruling on all parties entitled to receive service. If any party declines to submit on the tentative ruling, then no telephone call is necessary, and all parties should appear at the hearing.

Case Number: 23SMCV04469    Hearing Date: August 16, 2024    Dept: I

The motions to compel are GRANTED.  Total sanctions in the amount of $1480 are GRANTED against plaintiff, but not counsel, and are payable within 30 days.

Plaintiff filed a negligence action.  Defendant served form interrogatories, special interrogatories, and requests for production.  Plaintiff did not respond.  Because no explanation or justification was given for the failure to respond, the motion must be GRANTED.  The court notes that it has reviewed the RFP’s and they are appropriate.  Verified responses without objection other than privilege will be served within 30 days and will be Code-compliant.  If anything is withheld on the basis of privilege, a log will be provided at the same time.  Documents will also be provided at the same time.

Defendant seeks $1460 for each motion concerning interrogatories and $1260 for the RFP motion.  There was no opposition to the motions and hence no reply.  Accordingly, the court assumes that it took 4 hours to draft one of the motions and only 1 hour for each of the other motions because they were largely the same—just different attachments.  The court will also award .5 hours for the joint hearing.  The requested hourly rate of $200/hour is reasonable.  Finally, the three filing fees are appropriate.