Judge William A. Crowfoot, Case Number: 23AHCV00867, Date: 2024-09-24 Tentative Ruling

Judge: William A. Crowfoot, Case: 23AHCV00867, Date: 2024-09-24 Tentative Ruling

On April 18, 2023, plaintiff Orlando Garcia (“Plaintiff”) filed this action against defendant Los Pozitos, Inc. (“Defendant”). On September 15, 2023 Plaintiff served Form Interrogatories (Set One), Special Interrogatories (Set One), Requests for Production of Documents (Set One), and Requests for Admissions (Set One) on Defendant. No responses were received. Defendant did not serve any responses and ignored Plaintiff’s attempts to meet and confer. As a result, Plaintiff filed this motion for an order compelling Defendant to serve verified discovery responses without objections and deeming the truth of the matters within Requests for Admissions (Set One) admitted. The motion is unopposed.

Where a party fails to serve timely responses to interrogatories and inspection demands, the court may make an order compelling responses. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2030.290, 2031.300; Healthcare Consulting, Inc. v. Pacific Healthcare Consultants (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 390, 403.) A party that fails to serve timely responses waives any objections to the request, including ones based on privilege or the protection of attorney work product. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2030.290, subd. (a), 2031.300, subd. (a).) The Code of Civil Procedure provides that the court shall impose a monetary sanction against the party who unsuccessfully makes or opposes a motion to compel, unless the party acted with substantial justification or the sanction would otherwise be unjust. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2030.290, subd. (c), 2031.300, subd. (c).)

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).) 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).)

Defendant did not oppose this motion and it is undisputed that Defendant did not serve responses to Defendant’s discovery requests. There is also no evidence that substantially compliant responses to Defendant’s Requests for Admissions (Set One) have been served before the hearing.

However, “[e]very direction of a court or judge, made or entered in writing, and not included in a judgment, is denominated an order. An application for an order is a motion.” (Code of Civ. Proc., § 1003.) Government Code section 70617 requires payment of a $60 filing fee for each motion filed with the Court. Here, Plaintiff seeks 4 orders regarding 4 different discovery devices but filed only one motion. Plaintiff may not circumvent the Government Code with an omnibus filing; accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s motion on the condition that Plaintiff pay 3 additional filing fees and file proof of payment with the Court.

The Court also GRANTS Plaintiff’s request for sanctions on the same condition and imposes sanctions against Defendant and counsel of record, jointly and severally, in the reduced amount of $640, consisting of 1 hour at a billing rate of $400 ($100 per motion) and $240 in filing fees.

Defendant is ordered to pay sanctions and serve verified responses, without objections, to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production of Documents (Set One), Special Interrogatories (Set One), and Form Interrogatories (Set One) no later than 20 days after Plaintiff files proof that the 3 additional filing fees have been paid.

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.