Case Number: BC516990??? Hearing Date: April 25, 2016??? Dept: 98
ALBERTO ADAME,
Plaintiff,
vs.
BRAGG CRANE SERVICE, et al.,
Defendants.
CASE NO: BC516990
[TENTATIVE] ORDER RE: DEFENDANT?S DISCOVERY MOTIONS AND REQUESTS FOR SANCTIONSDept. 98
1:30 p.m.
April 25, 2016
On August 1, 2013, Plaintiff Alberto Adame (?Plaintiff?) filed this action against Defendants Bragg Crane Service (?Bragg Crane?) and Bragg Companies for alleged damages arising out of an August 1, 2011 vehicle collision. On November 10, 2015, Bragg Crane served Plaintiff with Request for Admissions, Set One; Form Interrogatories, Set Two; Special Interrogatories, Set One; and Request for Production, Set One. At the time of the filing of these Motions, Plaintiff had not served any responses. Plaintiff filed Oppositions on April 14, 2016, which state that responses to all of Bragg Crane?s outstanding discovery requests have been served. Therefore, Bragg Crane?s Motions are MOOT.
The only remaining issue is whether sanctions should be imposed and, if so, in what amount. As to Bragg Crane?s Motion to deem requests for admissions as admitted, sanctions are mandatory. Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. ? 2033.280(c). As to Bragg Crane?s second Motion, the Court must impose monetary sanctions, unless it finds Plaintiff acted with substantial justification or that circumstances make the imposition of the sanction unjust. Id., ?? 2031.300(c), 2030.290(c).
Plaintiff?s Counsel states that he immediately contacted the client to arrange a meeting so that responses could be prepared, but Plaintiff was unable to do so due to unforeseen circumstances relating to work. No further explanation for the delay in responses is provided. Counsel argues that sanctions should be denied or substantially reduced and imposed solely against Plaintiff, asserting that the imposition of sanctions otherwise would be unjust.
The Court finds sanctions to be appropriate here. Bragg Crane requests monetary sanctions in the amount of $985.00 for each of its two Motions, contending that each took 2.5 hours to prepare and will require 2.5 hours to prepare replies and appear at the hearing, at a rate of $185.00 per hour. Two $60.00 filing fees were also incurred. The Court finds 1 hour to prepare each Motion and 1 hour to appear at the joint hearing, along with the filing fees, to be sufficient to compensate Bragg Crane. There Court therefore awards Bragg Crane a total of $675.00 in monetary sanctions against Plaintiff.
Dated this 25th day of April, 2016
Hon. Holly J. Fujie
Judge of the Superior Court