Judge: Robert B. Broadbelt, Case: 19STCV32649, Date: 2024-02-02 Tentative Ruling

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Case Number: 19STCV32649    Hearing Date: February 2, 2024    Dept: 53

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles – Central District

Department 53

MOVING PARTY:                 Plaintiff Carl Mueller

RESPONDING PARTIES:    Defendants Walmart, Inc., and Wal-Mart Associates, Inc.

Motion to Compel Further Responses to Requests for Production of Documents

The court considered the moving, opposition, and reply papers filed in connection with this motion.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff Carl Mueller (“Plaintiff”) moves the court for an order compelling defendants Walmart, Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. (“Defendants”) to produce responsive documents to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production of Documents, numbers 54, 55, 106, 107, and 108 that are unredacted.  (Reply, p. 2:16-19 [sole matter before the court is whether Defendants should produce unredacted documents].)

The court notes that, in opposition, Defendants have produced evidence showing that they served supplemental responses on August 31, 2022.  (Ruiz Decl., Ex. B.)  The court exercises its discretion to consider whether Defendants’ supplemental responses and document production are sufficient.  (Sinaiko Healthcare Consulting, Inc. v. Pacific Healthcare Consultants (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 390, 409 [“Whether a particular response does resolve satisfactorily the issues raised by a motion is a matter best determined by the trial court in the exercise of its discretion, based on the circumstances of the case”].)

The court grants Plaintiff’s motion to compel Defendants’ further responses to Requests for Production of Documents, numbers 54-55 and 106-108 because Defendants’ objections in those responses are without merit.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.310, subd. (a)(3).)  The court finds that Defendants have not met their burden to show that the information redacted from the documents produced by Defendants is subject to objections that have merit.

ORDER

The court grants plaintiff Carl Mueller’s motion to compel further responses to requests for production of documents, set one.

Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.310, the court orders defendants Walmart, Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. to produce to plaintiff Carl Mueller the documents identified on pages 7:26-8:17 of plaintiff Carl Mueller’s “Reply to Motion to Compel Further Responses to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production of Documents, Set One,” filed with the court on January 26, 2024, in unredacted format, within 20 days from the date of this order.  Defendants Walmart, Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. may designate those documents as confidential subject to the protective order entered in this case on June 16, 2022.

The court orders plaintiff Carl Mueller to give notice of this ruling.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

DATED:  February 2, 2024

_____________________________

Robert B. Broadbelt III

Judge of the Superior Court