Judge: Randall J. Sherman, Case: 2022-01243344, Date: 2023-08-04 Tentative Ruling

Defendant Container Supply Company, Inc.’s Motion to Compel Further Responses to Requests for Production of Documents to Plaintiff Franco Perez (Set One) and Production of Responsive Documents and for Monetary Sanctions is denied.  Plaintiff’s Opposition Request for Sanctions is denied.

Plaintiff served a responsive, code-compliant response to defendant’s document request, and will not be compelled to provide further responses.  Although defendant asserts that plaintiff should change his response from “the documents in question have never existed” to “the documents were destroyed”, defendant has not shown that any of the emails or texts that plaintiff no longer has would have been responsive to any of the document requests.  Specifically, defendant has not shown that the missing documents relate to any of the allegations in the Complaint.  If defendant is looking for more specific information, it should serve further requests that are more specific than those using the phrase “that relate to any of the allegations in the Complaint”.  Plaintiff also is correct in noting that he cannot be compelled to produce documents that do not exist.

Both sides’ requests for monetary sanctions are denied because each side acted with substantial justification.  Defendant’s request for evidentiary sanctions is not well-taken because if plaintiff attempts to offer documents at trial that he should have produced in discovery, he will be precluded from doing so, a remedy which applies whether there is a discovery motion or not.  An evidence sanction is not the solution to this issue.

Plaintiff is ordered to give notice of the ruling unless notice is waived.