Judge: Michael E. Whitaker, Case: 21STCV09811, Date: 2023-03-07 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV09811    Hearing Date: March 7, 2023    Dept: 32

PLEASE NOTE:   Parties are encouraged to meet and confer concerning this tentative ruling to determine if a resolution may be reached.  If the parties are unable to reach a resolution and a party intends to submit on this tentative ruling, the party must send an email to the Court at sscdept32@lacourt.org indicating that party’s intention to submit.  The email shall include the case number, date and time of the hearing, counsel’s contact information (if applicable), and the identity of the party submitting on this tentative ruling.  If the Court does not receive an email indicating the parties are submitting on this tentative ruling and there are no appearances at the hearing, the Court may place the motion off calendar or adopt the tentative ruling as the order of the Court.  If all parties do not submit on this tentative ruling, they should arrange to appear in-person or remotely (which is highly encouraged).  Further, after the Court has posted/issued a tentative ruling, the Court has the inherent authority to prohibit the withdrawal of the subject motion and adopt the tentative ruling as the order of the Court. 

TENTATIVE RULING

MOTION

            Defendant Margarit Vardanyan (Defendant) moves the Court to compel the appearance of Plaintiffs Carol Myers, Anderson Myers, and Dustin Myers (collectively, Plaintiffs) for depositions.  Defendant requests monetary sanctions in connection with the motion.  Plaintiffs have not filed oppositions to the motion.  

            Preliminarily, the Court notes that Defendant has filed one motion to compel the appearance of all three Plaintiffs.  Instead, Defendant should have filed a motion as to each Plaintiff for a total of three motions.  The Court will therefore order Defendant to pay an additional $120 in motion filing fees, at $60 per motion. (Gov. Code, § 70617, subd. (a).)

ANALYSIS

“If, after service of a deposition notice, a party to the action or an officer, director, managing agent, or employee of a party, or a person designated by an organization that is a party under Section 2025.230, without having served a valid objection under Section 2025.410, fails to appear for examination, or to proceed with it, or to produce for inspection any document, electronically stored information, or tangible thing described in the deposition notice, the party giving the notice may move for an order compelling the deponent's attendance and testimony, and the production for inspection of any document, electronically stored information, or tangible thing described in the deposition notice.”  (Code Civ. Proc., § 2025.450, subd. (a).)

Here, Defendant served the subject deposition notices on Plaintiffs on November 7, 2022.  Defendant noticed the depositions of Plaintiffs for December 12, 2022, December 13, 2022 and December 14, 2022.  Plaintiffs failed to appear for the depositions. 

Defendant seeks monetary sanctions in connection with the motion. The Court finds Plaintiffs’ failure to appear for the depositions to be an abuse of the discovery process, warranting monetary sanctions. (See Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2023.010, subd. (d), 2025.450, subd. (g)(1).)  Accordingly, the Court will impose monetary sanctions against Plaintiffs’ counsel, the Law Office of Stephen J. Miller in the amount of $645, which represents three hours of attorney time to prepare the motion and attend the hearing at $155 per hour, as well as the motion filing fees of $180, at $60 per motion.  

CONCLUSION AND ORDER

Therefore, the Court grants Defendant’s motion to compel Plaintiffs to appear for deposition per Code of Civil Procedure section 2025.450, and orders Plaintiffs to appear for deposition within 30 days of notice of the Court’s order, unless Defendant stipulates otherwise.

Further, the Court orders Plaintiff’s counsel, the Law Office of Stephen J. Miller, to pay monetary sanctions in the amount of $645 to Defendant, by and through counsel for Defendant, within 30 days of notice of the Court’s orders.

Finally, the Court orders Defendant to pay an additional $120 in filing fees to the Clerk of the Court on or before March 30, 2023.

Defendant shall provide notice of the Court’s orders and file a proof of service of such.