Judge: Thomas D. Long, Case: 23STCP03883, Date: 2025-01-16 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCP03883    Hearing Date: January 16, 2025    Dept: 48

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

On October 20, 2023, Petitioner California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health filed a Petition to compel compliance with administrative subpoena.

On June 20, 2024, the Court granted the Petition and ordered Respondent to produce the requested documents within 30 days.  Respondent appealed.

Respondent did not appear at the October 18, 2024 Order to Show Cause Re: Respondent’s Failure to Comply with Administrative Subpoena.

At the continued OSC on December 10, 2024, the Court again continued the OSC and ordered supplemental briefing on Petitioner’s Ex Parte Application for Issuance of Citation and Order to Show Cause re Contempt.

On December 20, 2024, Respondent filed a motion to stay this action.

MOTION TO STAY

Respondent seeks a stay of this case pending appeal.  Respondent argues that it “faces contempt, infringement of its Fourth Amendment protections, and [Respondent] will have needlessly opened its books to Petitioner” without a stay.  (Motion at p. 11.)  According to Respondent, “The documents subject to the Compelling Order include privilege information, such as proprietary information, trade secrets, and personal identifiable information of third parties.”  (Id. at p. 12, footnote omitted.)

Alternatively, Respondent requests a temporary stay to allow it to file a petition for writ of supersedeas.  (Motion at pp. 16-17; see California Rules of Court, rule 8.824.)  Petitioner suggests that the Court grant Respondent four additional weeks to comply with the June 20, 2024 order and petition for supersedeas.  (Opposition at p. 17.)

The motion is GRANTED IN PART.  This action is STAYED through and including February 19, 2025.

The Court will lift the stay on February 20, 2025.  Before that date, Respondent must either fully comply with the June 20, 2024 production order or file a petition for writ of supersedeas.  If Respondent has done neither, the Court will proceed with the Order to Show Cause Re: Respondent’s Failure to Comply with Administrative Subpoena.

OSC RE: CONTEMPT

Respondent’s counsel asserts that they “mistakenly believed that the present civil action was automatically stayed.  As such, Uber inadvertently failed to appear for the October 18, 2024, Order to Show Cause hearing.  Thereafter, Uber was informed that a stay was not automatic.”  (Motion, Tsui Decl. ¶ 10.)

In its opposition to Respondent’s motion for stay, Petitioner states that it “does not seek a contempt citation at this time in [light] of Respondent’s assertion that it did not realize until on or after October 18, 2024 that its appeal did not automatically stay enforcement of the order.”  (Opposition at p. 11.)  Petitioner concedes, “If Respondent only recently realized that filing an appeal did not automatically stay enforcement of the order, then a contempt citation at this time might be considered premature.”  (Id. at p. 12.)

With Court’s grant of a temporary stay, the Order to Show Cause Re: Respondent’s Failure to Comply with Administrative Subpoena is CONTINUED to February 20, 2025 at 8:30 a.m.

Moving party to give notice.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SMCDEPT48@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit.  If all parties in the case submit on the tentative ruling, no appearances before the Court are required unless a companion hearing (for example, a Case Management Conference) is also on calendar.

         Dated this 16th day of January 2025