Superior Court of California 

County of Los Angeles 

Department 78 

¿ 

 

I. MOTION TO DEEM RFAS ADMITTED 

Defendants ALAL, LLC dba Kei-Ai Los Angeles Healthcare Center, and Aspen Skilled Healthcare, and Tanner Mitchell (collectively, “Defendants”) propounded Request for Admissions, set one, on plaintiff Irma Ybarra, individually and as the personal representative of the estate of decedent Socorro Franco, and plaintiff Ruben Franco (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) on May 16, 2023. (Marshall Decl. ¶ 2; Ex. A, B, C.) On September 20, 2023, Plaintiffs served unverified responses. (Id. ¶ 4; Exh. D, E, F.) Despite communication between Counsel on the issue, Plaintiffs have not served verified responses to date. Defendants therefore seeks an order deeming the Request for Admissions admitted against Plaintiffs, and for Plaintiffs to pay sanctions. 

Under Code of Civil Procedure 2033.280(b), failure to respond to requests for admission in a timely manner allows the requesting party to “move for an order that…the truth of any matters specified in the requests be deemed admitted” by the party that failed to respond.¿ The requesting party’s motion must be granted by the court, “unless [the court] finds that the party to whom the requests for admission have been directed has served, before the hearing on the motion, a proposed response to the requests for admission that is in substantial compliance with Section 2033.220.” (Code Civ. Proc. § 2033.280(c).) 

¿Plaintiffs did not oppose the motion. A failure to oppose a motion may be deemed a consent to the granting of the motion. (CRC, rule 8254(c).) Because there is no evidence Plaintiffs have served verified responses on Defendants prior to the hearing, Defendants’ motion to deem admitted the Request for Admissions, Set One, against Plaintiffs is GRANTED. (CCP §2033.280(b).) 

 

II. SANCTIONS 

Where a party fails to provide a timely response to requests for admission, “[i]t is mandatory that the court impose a monetary sanction under Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010) on the party or attorney, or both, whose failure to serve a timely response to requests for admission necessitated this motion.”¿(Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (c).) Defendants request $1,335.00 for the instant 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.)¿This is a straightforward and simple motion that should not have taken four hours to prepare and draft. The Court will grant reduced sanctions. 

Defendants are awarded 1 hour to prepare the motion and one hour to appear at the hearing, at the requested rate of $255.00 per hour, for a total of $510.00 in attorney fees. Further, Defendants are awarded the motion filing fee of $60.00, as costs. 

Sanctions are imposed against Plaintiffs and their counsel of record, jointly and severally. Plaintiffs and/or Plaintiffs’ counsel are ordered to pay sanctions to Defendants, by and through counsel of record, in the total amount of $570.00, within twenty (20) days. 

 

Moving Party is ordered to give notice. 

 

DATED: September 26, 2024 

__________________________ 

Hon. Michelle C. Kim 

Judge of the Superior Court 

 

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: 

• Parties are encouraged to meet and confer after reading this tentative ruling to see if they can reach an agreement. 

• If a party intends to submit on this tentative ruling, the party must send an email to the court at SMCDEPT78@lacourt.org with the Subject line “SUBMIT” followed by the case number. The body of the email must include the hearing date and time, counsel’s contact information, and the identity of the party submitting. 

• Unless all parties submit by email to this tentative ruling, the parties should arrange to appear remotely (encouraged) or in person for oral argument. You should assume that others may appear at the hearing to argue. 

• If the parties neither submit nor appear at hearing, the Court may take the motion off calendar or adopt the tentative ruling as the order of the Court. After the Court has issued a tentative ruling, the Court may prohibit the withdrawal of the subject motion without leave.