Lawzilla Additional Information:
Per the Los Angeles court records plaintiff is represented by attorney Hamed Yazdanpanah who is being sanctioned by the court. Update: from reviewing the court file Lawzilla believes the final sanctions imposed against attorney Yazdanpanah and his client were $530.

Superior Court of California
County of Los Angeles
Department 97

Juan Carlos Escobar,

Plaintiff,

v.

William Rowe, et al.,

Defendants.

Case No.: BC610848

Hearing Date: April 4, 2018 (1:30 pm)

[TENTATIVE] order RE:

defendant’S motions to compel discovery responses

Defendant William Rowe (“Defendant”) has filed two motions to compel responses from Plaintiff Juan Carlos Escobar (“Plaintiff”) to: (1) Request for Production of Documents (“RPD”), set one; and (2) Form Interrogatories (“FROG”), set one. Defendant also filed a third motion to deem admitted the Requests for Admissions (“RFA”), set one.

Motions to Compel

Defendant requests that the Court take judicial notice of the Minute Order issued on January 16, 2018. The Court grants the request and takes judicial notice of the January 16, 2018 Minute Order under Evidence Code § 452(d) as a record of this Court. However, the Court notes that “[t]aking judicial notice of a document is not the same as accepting the truth of its contents or accepting a particular interpretation of its meaning.” (Joslin v. H.A.S. Ins. Brokerage (1986) 184 Cal.App.3d 369, 374.)

On September 5, 2017, Defendant served the RPD and FROG on Plaintiff. Plaintiff’s discovery responses were due on October 10, 2017. On January 2, 2018 Defendant received unverified responses from Plaintiff. As of the filing of the motions on February 23, 2018, Defendant has not received verifications from Plaintiff. Plaintiff has not filed an opposition to any of Defendant’s motions.

“Unsworn responses are tantamount to no responses at all.” (Appleton v. Superior Court (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 632, 636.) Therefore, Defendant’s motions to compel responses to the RPD and FROG are granted pursuant to CCP §§2030.290 and 2031.300. Plaintiff is ordered to serve verified responses to Defendant’s RPD and FROG, without objections, within thirty (30) days of notice of this order.

Motion to Deem Admitted

Defendant also moves under CCP §2033.280 to deem the RFA admitted. Where there has been no timely response to a request for admission under CCP § 2033.010, 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, as well as for a monetary sanction. (Code of Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (b).) 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 of Civ. Proc., § 2033.280, subd. (c).)

On December 5, 2017, Defendant served on Plaintiff the RFA. On January 2, 2018 Defendant received unverified responses from Plaintiff. As of the filing of this motion on February 23, 2018, Defendant has not received verifications from Plaintiff.

Plaintiff has not filed any opposition to Defendant’s motion to deem the RFA admitted. Nor has Plaintiff otherwise demonstrated that Plaintiff has served, before the hearing on the motion, verifications to the RFA. As noted above, “[u]nsworn responses are tantamount to no responses at all.” (Appleton v. Superior Court (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 632, 636.) Accordingly, Defendant’s unopposed motion for an order deeming the RFA admitted is granted pursuant to CCP §2033.280. Plaintiff is deemed to have admitted the truth of all matters specified in the RFA as of this date.

Sanctions

Defendant requests sanctions against Plaintiff and his attorney. The Court finds Plaintiff’s failure to respond a misuse of the discovery process. Sanctions have been sufficiently noticed against Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s counsel. The Court grants sanctions for 2.5 hours to prepare the motions and appear at the hearing, at $175.00 per hour, plus three $60 filing fees, for a total of $617.50. Plaintiff Juan Carlos Escobar and Plaintiff’s counsel Hamed Yazdanpanah are ordered to pay monetary sanctions in the amount of $617.50 to Defendant, by and through counsel, within thirty (30) days of notice of this order.

Defendant is ordered to provide notice of this order.

DATED: April 4, 2018 ___________________________

Elaine Lu

Judge of the Superior Court