Judge: William A. Crowfoot, Case: 22AHCV00467, Date: 2025-01-14 Tentative Ruling


Case Number: 22AHCV00467    Hearing Date: January 14, 2025    Dept: 3

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - NORTHEAST DISTRICT

 

WILLIAM ZHANG,

                    Plaintiff(s),

          vs.

 

KEMI CAI, et al.,

 

                    Defendant(s).

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      CASE NO.: 22AHCV00467

 

[TENTATIVE] ORDER RE: PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO COMPEL RESPONSES TO REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS BY DEFENDANT NICK CHUI; REQUEST FOR MONETARY SANCTIONS

 

Dept. 3

8:30 a.m.

January 14, 2025

 

On July 15, 2022, plaintiff William Zhang (“Plaintiff”) filed this action against defendant Nick Chui (“Defendant”). On March 29, 2024, Plaintiff served Requests for Production of Documents, Set Two on Defendant. Despite extensive communications with Defendant’s attorney about overdue responses, no responses have been received. This motion was filed on October 17, 2024.

Where a party fails to serve timely responses to discovery requests, the court may make an order compelling responses. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.300.)

In opposition, Defendant argues that responses were served within 2 weeks after this motion was filed. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Motion is DENIED as moot.

Sanctions may be awarded under in favor of a party who files a motion to compel discovery, even though the requested discovery was provided to the moving party after the motion was filed. (C.R.C. 3.1348.) Defendant argues that sanctions should not be imposed because the parties were in communication about the missing discovery responses in October 2024 when the motions were filed. This is insufficient to show that sanctions are not warranted because the discovery requests were propounded in March 2024. Nevertheless, the amount requested by Plaintiff is excessive. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s request for monetary sanctions is GRANTED and imposed against Defendant in the reduced amount of $560 for 1 hour at Plaintiff’s counsel’s hourly rate of $500 and $60 in filing fees, to be paid within 20 days of the date of this Order.

Moving party to give notice.

 

Dated this 14th day of January 2025

 

 

 

 

William A. Crowfoot

Judge of the Superior Court

 

 

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at ALHDEPT3@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.