Judge: Melvin D. Sandvig, Case: 22CHCV00473, Date: 2023-04-19 Tentative Ruling

Counsel wishing to submit on a tentative ruling may inform the clerk or courtroom assisant in North Valley Department F47, 9425 Penfield Ave., Chatsworth, CA 91311, at (818) 407-2247.  Please be aware that unless all parties submit, the matter will still be called for hearing and may be argued by any appearing/non-submitting parties. If the matter is submitted on the court's tentative ruling by all parties, counsel for moving party shall give notice of ruling. This may be done by incorporating verbatim the court's tentative ruling. The tentative ruling may be extracted verbatim by copying and specially pasting, as unformatted text, from the Los Angeles Superior Court’s website, http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org. All hearings on law and motion and other calendar matters are generally NOT transcribed by a court reporter unless one is provided by the party(ies).

Case Number: 22CHCV00473    Hearing Date: April 19, 2023    Dept: F47

Dept. F47

Date: 4/19/23

Case #22CHCV00473

MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE CROSS-COMPLAINT

Motion filed on 3/8/23.

MOVING PARTY: Defendant Quiroz & Sons Roofing, Inc.

RESPONDING PARTY: Plaintiff State Farm General Insurance

RELIEF REQUESTED: An order granting Defendant Quiroz & Sons Roofing, Inc. leave to file a cross-complaint against Gevorg Saribekyan.

RULING:

On 6/28/22, Plaintiff State Farm General Insurance (Plaintiff) filed the underlying subrogation complaint against Defendant Quiroz & Sons Roofing, Inc. (Defendant) for negligence.  Plaintiff alleges that Defendant caused a “water loss” at a residential property in Porter Ranch, California when a Defendant contractor “fell through a soft spot” at the property of their insured, Gevorg Saribekyan, and “stepped on a sprinkler line.”  Plaintiff seeks over $200,000.00 in damages.  On 8/8/22, Defendant filed its answer to the complaint denying the foregoing allegations. 

On 3/8/23, Defendant filed and served via electronic mail the instant motion seeking an order granting Defendant Quiroz & Sons Roofing, Inc. leave to file a cross-complaint against Gevorg Saribekyan for implied indemnity, equitable indemnity, contribution, negligence, premises liability, fraud, intentional misrepresentation and declaratory relief.  The proof of service for the motion indicates that it was served on Plaintiff’s counsel at csong@wl-llp.com.  However, the email address of record for Plaintiff’s counsel is ccastro@wl-llp.com.  The email address csong@wl-llp.com does not appear on any of the papers filed by Plaintiff; however, papers filed on behalf of Plaintiff set forth the name of attorney Catherine Y. Song at Watkins & Letofsky, LLP.  No response to the motion has been filed. 

If counsel for Plaintiff appears at the hearing and concedes receipt of the motion and/or has no objection to the relief requested, the motion will be granted on the grounds that it would be in the interests of justice and judicial economy to have the cross-claims tried in the same action as the proposed cross-claims arise from the same set of facts and circumstances as those in the complaint, Defendant has acted in good faith and there is no indication that any party will suffer prejudice if the motion is granted.  See CCP 428.50(c); Silver Organizations Ltd. (1990) 217 CA3d 94, 98-99.

If counsel for Plaintiff does not appear and/or contends that Plaintiff did not receive proper notice of the motion, the matter will be continued so that that the motion can be properly served on Plaintiff’s counsel.

If the motion is granted, Defendant is ordered to separately file the proposed Cross-Complaint  by 4:00 p.m. on 4/21/23.