SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA  

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT 

 

 

I. Motions to Compel¿ 

On March 30, 2023, Defendant Chedraui USA, Inc. d/b/a El Super, erroneously sued as Bodega Latina Corp. (“Defendant”) propounded request for production of documents (“RPDs”), set one, on Plaintiff Manuel Navarrette (“Plaintiff”). Defendant agreed to extend the deadline for Plaintiff to provide discovery responses up to June 23, 2023. To date, Plaintiff has not served any responses. Defendant therefore seeks an order compelling Plaintiff to respond, without objections, to the outstanding discovery and to pay sanctions.  

Any opposition was due on or before November 13, 2023; none was filed.  

For a motion to compel discovery responses, all a propounding party must show is that it properly served its discovery requests, that the time to respond has expired, and that the party to whom the requests were directed failed to provide a timely response. (See Leach v. Superior Court (1980) 111 Cal.App.3d 902, 905 906.) Where a party fails to serve timely responses to discovery requests, the court may make an order compelling responses. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.300; Sinaiko Healthcare Consulting, Inc. v. Pacific Healthcare Consultants (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 390, 403.) A party that fails to serve timely responses waives any objections to the request, including ones based on privilege or the protection of attorney work product. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.300, subd. (a).)     

Therefore, because the evidence shows Plaintiff was properly served with discovery and failed to respond, Defendant’s motion is GRANTED.  

Plaintiff is ordered to serve verified responses to Defendant’s RPDs, set one, without objections, within fifteen (15) days. (CCP §§ 2031.300 (a),(b).) 

 

II. Sanctions¿ 

Sanctions are mandatory against any party, person, or attorney who unsuccessfully makes or opposes a motion to compel a response to interrogatories, unless a court makes certain findings.¿ (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.300(c).)¿Plaintiff did not file any opposition. However, sanctions may be awarded, even though no oppositions were filed pursuant to CRC 3.1348(a). Defendant seeks sanctions in the amount of $1,700 for each motion.  

A court has discretion to award sanctions that are “suitable and necessary to enable the party seeking discovery to obtain the objects of the discovery he seeks” but they should not be punitive in nature or levied for the purposes of punishing an offending party. (Vallbona v. Springer (1996) 43 Cal.App.4th 1525, 1545.)   

Therefore, Defendant is awarded 1 hour to prepare the motion and one hour to appear at the hearing, all at the requested rate of $225 per hour, for a total of $450 in attorney fees.  

Sanctions are imposed against Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s attorney of record, jointly and severally.  Plaintiff and/or Plaintiff’s counsel are ordered to pay sanctions to Defendant, by and through counsel of record, in the total amount of $450, within fifteen (15) days. 

 

Moving party is ordered to give notice.