Case Number: 16K14044 Hearing Date: May 01, 2018 Dept: 94

Plaintiff’s motion to compel responses to production of documents is GRANTED. Defendant is ordered to provide responses to requests for production of documents without objections within 10 days of notice of ruling.

Legal Standard

CCP § 2031.300 allows Plaintiff to move for an order compelling initial responses to requests for production. In addition, CCP § 2031.300 provides for mandatory sanctions against the unsuccessful party unless the court finds they have acted with substantial justification.

The responding party waives any objection to the demand unless the court, on motion, finds that the party has subsequently served responses in substantial compliance and the failure to serve responses timely was the “result of mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect.” (CCP § 2031.300(a).)

Discussion

Plaintiff served RPDs on March 28, 2017 on Defendant’s registered agent, as counsel for Defendant had not yet appeared in the matter. (Decl. Rounds ¶ 3.) On May 4, 2017, Plaintiff emailed a courtesy copy to Defendant’s counsel. (Id. ¶ 4.) On October 31, 2017, Plaintiff sent a letter to Defendant’s counsel with courtesy copies of the RPDs. (Id. ¶ 5.)

Defendant served responses on April 18, 2018 with objections to request no. 5. (Decl. Bernstein, Exh. 1.) Defendant contends that the RPDs were not received until May 4, 2017. (Decl. Bernstein ¶ 5.)

As discussed above, Defendant waives objections to discovery if responses are untimely served. Here, Defendant’s responses are approximately ten months late. Defendant has not moved for relief from waiver of objection. Further, Defendant does not provide any reason for the late responses. Accordingly, Defendant has waived objections.

Plaintiff’s motion to compel responses to production of documents is GRANTED. Defendant is ordered to provide responses to requests for production of documents without objections within 10 days of notice of ruling. Sanctions are GRANTED in the amount of $900.00.