Judge: William A. Crowfoot, Case: 21STCV30275, Date: 2023-01-06 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV30275    Hearing Date: January 6, 2023    Dept: 27

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

On August 16, 2021, plaintiff Fabienne Sanegor (“Plaintiff”) filed this action against defendant Walmart Inc. (“Defendant”) arising from injuries allegedly caused by a defective spin bike pedal Plaintiff purchased from Defendant.  On October 12, 2022, Plaintiff served Requests for Admission (Set One) on Defendant.  No responses were received by the statutory deadline and on November 28, 2022, Plaintiff filed this motion to deem admitted.  Plaintiff also requests monetary sanctions in the amount of $2,000. 

Where a party fails to timely respond to a request for admission, the propounding party may move for an order that the genuineness of any documents and the truth of any matters specified in the requests be deemed admitted.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (b).)  The party who failed to respond waives any objections to the demand, unless the court grants them relief from the waiver, upon a showing that the party (1) has subsequently served a substantially compliant response, and (2) that the party’s failure to respond was the result of mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subds. (a)(1)-(2).)

The court shall grant a motion to deem admitted requests for admissions, “unless it 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, subd. (c).)

Defendant opposed Plaintiff’s motion on the grounds that a response to Plaintiff’s Requests for Admission (Set One) were served before the hearing.  Defendant did not attach a copy of the responses, but on December 27, 2022, Plaintiff’s counsel filed a declaration attaching the responses, which failed to include a verification.  Without the verification, the Court cannot conclude that the response is substantially compliant with Code of Civil Procedure section 2033.220. 

Accordingly, Plaintiff’s motion to deem admitted is GRANTED.

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).) 

Plaintiff requests $2,000 in sanctions on the grounds that he has spent 2 hours drafting this motion and expects to spend 2 hours to draft a reply brief and attend the hearing.  This amount is unreasonably high for a motion of this type with little legal analysis; both the moving papers and reply brief consist largely of statutes copied and pasted from the Code of Civil Procedure.  A lawyer with Plaintiff’s counsel’s experience billing at $500 per hour should be able to draft this motion in less time, or an attorney with a lower billing rate should have been assigned to the task.  Accordingly, Plaintiff’s request for sanctions is GRANTED and imposed against Defendant and counsel of record, jointly and severally, in the reduced amount of $560, payable within 20 days of the date of this order.

Moving party to give notice.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SSCDEPT27@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit on the tentative as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  Please be advised that if you submit on the tentative and elect not to appear at the hearing, the opposing party may nevertheless appear at the hearing and argue the matter.  Unless you receive a submission from all other parties in the matter, you should assume that others might appear at the hearing to argue.  If the Court does not receive emails from the parties indicating submission on this tentative ruling and there are no appearances at the hearing, the Court may, at its discretion, adopt the tentative as the final order or place the motion off calendar.