Lawzilla Additional Information:
Per the Los Angeles court records plaintiff is represented by attorney Victor Block of the Block Law Group who is involved in the sanctions orders from the court.

Case Number: BC655311 Hearing Date: April 30, 2018 Dept: 56

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES – CENTRAL DISTRICT

DANE LEWIS,

Plaintiff,

vs.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY, and DOES 1 through 10, inclusive,

Defendants.

CASE NO.: BC655311

[TENTATIVE] ORDER RE: MOTIONS TO COMPEL/DEEM ADMITTED

8:30 a.m.

April 30, 2018

Dept. 56

Defendant brings two Motions to Compel as to its form interrogatories, set one, special interrogatories, set one, and request for production, set one. Defendant also brings a Motion to Deem Admitted its requests for admission, set one. The aforementioned interrogatories and requests for production were propounded on Plaintiff on November 8, 2017, and the requests for admission were propounded on November 10, 2017. Defendant contends that Plaintiff has failed to serve responses to date. Plaintiff, however, submits a late opposition providing that responses to the aforementioned discovery were served on April 26, 2018. (Block Decl., Exhibit 1.) Thus, the Motions are DENIED as moot.

The Court, however, will award sanctions because Plaintiff necessitated the instant Motions by choosing to wait until the last minute to serve his responses. Defendant requests $4,020 in sanctions for having filed its three discovery Motions (see Kim Decl. ¶ 9); however, this request is premised on four hours for each Motion to draft a reply and attend the Motion hearing, which is duplicative. Additionally, no reply was filed. Finally, Grace C. Kim’s billable rate fluctuates from $200 to $240 per hour for the Motions, despite that the Motions were filed on the same day. The Court will award 2 hours for each Motion and 1 hour for travel time/attending the Motion hearing at $240 per hour. Thus, the Court awards $1,860 in sanctions (7 hours at $240 per hour, plus filing fees). Sanctions are to be paid by Plaintiff within twenty days of this Order.

Finally, the Court notes that Defendant improperly consolidates its Motion to Compel as to form and special interrogatories; Defendant ought to have filed two separate motions for such discovery. Accordingly, this ruling is contingent on Defendant tendering an additional filing fee at the Motion hearing.

Defendant is ordered to give notice of this ruling.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SMC_DEPT56@lacourt.org as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org. If the department does not receive an email and there are no appearances at the hearing, the motion will be placed off calendar.

Dated this 30th day of April 2018

Hon. Holly J. Fujie

Judge of the Superior Court