Excerpt: ...19, 2022. That motion was denied as untimely and it did not comply with California Rule of Court 3.1324. As to re-opening discovery, the court stated that it was not clear that re-opening was needed to the extent that the new causes of action were based on the same facts. Further, in that motion, plaintiffs' counsel admitted that he was not sure what discovery was done by prior counsel. In the instant motion, plaintiffs seek to add causes of acti...

Excerpt: ...lopment Corporation, Sweetwater Holdings LLC, and FASP as DOE defendants. Currently before the court is defendants Matthew Dugally, The Dugally Group, LLC, Oberfeld Development Corporation, and Sweetwater Holdings LLC (collectively “DOE defendants”) motion to dismiss and demurrer to the SAC. FASP is a DOE defendant but not a moving party. Hakim opposes. This matter previously came on before the court in September 2022. (9/2/22 MO.) At that po...

Excerpt: ...rm interrogatories. Turning to the RFAs, plaintiff initially sought to compel further responses as to eight of them. Plaintiff withdrew the motion as to three of four as to Kosova. The remaining RFA asks defendant to admit that it “did not disclose to Plaintiff any pre-existing issues” with the car before leasing. The response was that defendant denied “that the subject vehicle had pre-existing issues prior to Plaintiff's lease.” Plaintif...

Excerpt: ...y urges the parties to get this done. Illulian lost the underlying case and he has been ordered to do certain things. His seeming refusal to do them is not a good strategy. While the court does not enjoy contempt proceedings, so long as Illulian faces no more then 180 days in jail the proceeding is a bench trial and the court will reluctantly conduct it. The court hardly relishes such a trial, but if it is needed, Illulian and his wife both face ...

Excerpt: ...aintiff's responses are not sufficient. First, even though not always stated in the form of an objection, some of the introductory text suggesting that plaintiff is not going to produce all documents as requested operates in the same manner as an objection, and that is not sufficient. For example, in the response to request number 1, plaintiff states he will produce all documents as they pertain to the defendant. That is in effect an objection th...

Excerpt: ...ff's employees. One such employee, Venegas, was a bad actor and stole money by creating false documents and submitting them to defendant. Defendant processed the false documents and supposed wages were paid to a non-existent person for the benefit of the erstwhile employee (who had previously been defendant's employee before working directly for plaintiff). Plaintiff contends that defendant breached its contract and committed various torts by not...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiff contends that defendants owe her money. Defendants contend that legally, they do not. At issue here is a motion to compel further responses to certain special interrogatories and requests for production brought by defendants. Preliminarily, plaintiff contends that the meet and confer process was inadequate and she reiterates her request for a discovery referee. (Defendants have no objection to a referee, but they state that they do oppo...

Excerpt: ...formed the procedure so that he could refer plaintiff to PTS for physical therapy. PTS is owned by defendant's wife. Plaintiff has moved to amend the complaint to assert punitive damages and defendant has opposed. The court has continued the motion to allow plaintiff to try and obtain sufficient evidence to warrant the amendment. One avenue plaintiff wants to pursue is PTS's economic interest in plaintiff's referral or the referrals of others by ...

Excerpt: ...ng that the landlord is 93 years old and in very poor health. According to the defense, well before the events leading up to this case she turned management of the property over to her daughter, who is the person with whom plaintiff actually interacted. Defense counsel claims that the defendant actually knows nothing pertinent here and that a deposition will put her in physical jeopardy. Normally, the court would side with plaintiff. While it cou...

Excerpt: ...unsigned. Plaintiff also complains that the description was too vague. And plaintiff argues that the motion is improper because it should be a motion for leave to conduct a second examination rather than a motion to compel. Frankly, many of those objections are not ill-taken. But the court is nonetheless inclined to overlook them and construe the motion as one for leave rather than one to compel. The trial is currently set for March 6, 2023. If d...

Excerpt: ...ere based on the original August 17, 2022 trial date. While the discovery was timely served, the motion was not filed for a timely hearing (even based on the original motion papers). To obtain a ruling, defendant must seek relief from CCP section 2024.020, which requires that discovery motions be set for hearing no less than 15 days before the initial trial date. This is a question of power; the court cannot ignore this deadline. (Pelton‐Shephe...

Excerpt: ...iction proceedings. On August 23, 2022, a notice to pay or quit was served. In October 2022, the parties reached an agreement, confirmed in writing, whereby defendant would make four weekly payments of $26,501.81 each, in return for which plaintiff would dismiss then then-pending UD action. Defendant made the first payment and was late on the next two. The fourth payment was not made. According to plaintiff, there was never an agreement that the ...

Excerpt: ...y McCarty's expert as well as an expert appointed by the court, and the conclusion has been adopted by the criminal court. McCarty has a Guardian ad Litem in this case. Plaintiff here seeks to depose McCarty. McCarty objects based on his mental health issues. McCarty does not object based upon the right against self-incrimination (although McCarty would reserve the right to assert that privilege at any deposition) or on the ground that a depositi...

Excerpt: ... to tax the cost bill submitted on October 6, 2022, by defendants Valley Surgical Center, LLC, Cindy Omidi, Julian Omidi, and Michael Omidi. No hearing is requested at this time.” Not only was there no hearing date in the actual motion, no hearing date was set forth in the caption (likely because, as was stated, no hearing date was requested) and the notice was phrased in the future tense. On November 8, 2022, plaintiff filed a “Renewed Notic...

Excerpt: ...ry low bar. Here, on the day that the opposition was due, defendant sought, ex parte, a continuance under 437c(h). The theory was that defendant suspected that plaintiff had received government assistance to cover lost rents, the implication being that the assistance was in the form of a grant, not a loan, and that recovering the rent as well as the assistance would be a double recovery and windfall. Plaintiff did not make her showing that day ba...

Excerpt: ...f mold in her apartment. (Id. at ¶29.) Plaintiff purportedly contacted management, which sprayed the apartment for treatment and this temporarily alleviated the issue. (Id. at ¶30.) Plaintiff asserts that from 2016 to 2022, she was bitten again and asked management to fumigate again. (Id. at ¶¶31-37.) Management allegedly did not comply with this request. (Ibid.) Plaintiff claims she received a tetanus shot for these bites and the doctor conf...

Excerpt: ... here, but there are also additional motions to compel. Frankly, this case is turning into a procedural quagmire. And it is almost impossible to have a motion without some form of dispute about what was served and when. The Court has addressed these service issues in the past, but apparently to little avail. There is also a history to this case. Last year, there was another discovery dispute. In the course of resolving that dispute, the Court con...

Excerpt: ...vil Procedure section 36. That statute states that a cause of action to recover damages for wrongful death is entitled to preference on motion of a party under 14 years of age unless the Court finds that the moving party does not have a substantial interest in the case as a whole. No one really disputes that this is a wrongful death case or that the children are under 14. The Smuckler defendants seem to contest the age issue, but the Court is not...

Excerpt: ...nding party has the expertise to answer. These are not requests where plaintiff is seeking to force defendant to an early expert witness disclosure; they are requests for information within the responding party's knowledge. The Court also notes that a response to a document request stating that there are no documents to produce must include the information set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.230. The Court also notes that the assert...

Excerpt: ... conclude that it will survive demurrer. Cross‐defendants also claim that they are not liable because the cross‐complaint does not sufficiently allege precisely who is at fault for what. But the cross‐complaint has alleged enough for the pleading stage. Who bears specific responsibility for what, and what (if any) actions were ratified by whom is better tested by summary judgment than demurrer. As to the 789.3 claim, it, too, is a close que...