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1 Todd A. Angstadt (SBN 166404)
Brennain J Garber (SBN 295770)
2 PHILLIPS, SPALLAS & ANGSTADT LLP ELECTRONICALLY
505 Sansome Street, Sixth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
F I L E D
3 Superior Court of California,
Telephone (415) 278-9400 County of San Francisco
Facsimile (415) 278-9411
4 07/30/2020
Clerk of the Court
Attorneys for Defendants
5 HUI WU, WEI ZHANG, STEVE YU ZHANG,
BY: EDNALEEN ALEGRE
Deputy Clerk
INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the
6 ZHANG FAMILY TRUST, and SHUYI ZHANG
INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the
7 ZHANG FAMILY TRUST
8
9 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
10 CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, UNLIMITED JURISDICTION
11
12 SEAN C. MCKEAN, ) Case No.: CGC-19-579145
)
Plaintiff, )
13
)
) MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND
14 v. ) AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF
) DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN
15 HUI WU, WEI ZHANG, STEVE YU ZHANG-, ) ORDER TO COMPEL DISCOVERY
SHUYI ZHANG, IN THEIR CAPACITIES AND ) RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR
16 STEVE YI ZHANG &. SHUYI ZHANG AS CO- ) SANCTIONS
TRUSTEE OF THE ZHANG FAMILY LIVING )
17 TRUST, AND DOES 1 THROUGH 25, INCLUSIVE, ) Date: August 31, 2020
) Time: 9:30 a.m.
18 Defendants. ) Department: 501
)
19 ) DISCOVERY
20 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES
21 I. Introduction
22 Defendant Hui Wu (“Defendant”) brings this motion to compel responses to the following
23 discovery requests:
24 1) Defendant HUI WU’S Requests For Production To Plaintiff Sean C. McKean, Set One;
25 (Exhibit A)
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MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL
DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS
1 At the time of writing of this motion Sean C. McKean’s (“Plaintiff”) responses are more than
2 four months overdue, defendant’s attorney has attempted to meet and confer to no avail and no further
3 extension to respond to the discovery has been granted. (Declaration of Brennain Garber) Plaintiff’s
4 counsel can author documents and send mail, since he has served his own requests for production and
5 multiple meet and confer requests related to Defendant’s responses to discovery. (Declaration of
6 Brennain Garber)
7 Plaintiff’s failure to respond is unnecessarily increasing the costs of litigation and is wasting
8 judicial resources. As such, defendant requests an order compelling plaintiff to respond to Exhibit A,
9 and an order to pay monetary sanctions in the amount of $675 no more than ten (10) days following the
10 Court's ruling on this matter.
11 II. Statement of Facts
12 This case involves a residential tenancy at 229 2nd Avenue #2, San Francisco, California
13 (“subject property”). Sean McKean was a tenant at the subject property beginning in 2010. In Mid-2017
14 Mr. McKean’s landlords served him with an owner move-in eviction notice. Mr. Mckean failed to move,
15 and unlawful detainer eviction proceedings were instigated. The unlawful detainer was resolved when
16 Mr. McKean agreed to leave by February 16, 2018, for money, per a settlement agreement.
17 On January 11, 2019, plaintiff filed their initial Complaint. On February 7, 2020, Defendant
18 served discovery requests, including Defendant HUI WU’S Requests For Production To Plaintiff Sean
19 C. McKean, Set One. (Exhibit A.)
20 In March 2020, a shelter in place order was issued by the City and County of San Francisco due
21 to COVID-19. Given the unprecedented circumstances, Defendant’s counsel granted multiple discovery
22 extensions to the Plaintiff. (Exhibit B.) Then on March 19, 2020, the Honorable Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye
23 issued a series of orders granting the Superior Court of San Francisco County authority to declare the the
24 dates from March 18, 2020 through June 1, 2020 court holidays. (Exhibit C) On June 10, 2020, Defense
25 counsel inquired about where the Plaintiff’s Requests for Production were and Plaintiff’s Counsel’s
26 office indicated that they would get the responses to Defense counsel within the next week. (Exhibit D.)
27 On June 19, 2020, having granted no further extensions for Plaintiff to respond to discovery Defendant’s
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MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL
DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS
1 counsel asked when he could expect the production responses. (Exhibit E.) Thereafter, Plaintiff’s
2 counsel indicated that the production was taking time due to having to produce records which were
3 collected during the earlier unlawful detainer action involving the same parties. (Exhibit F.) In response,
4 Defendant’s counsel indicated that, for the time being, those specific documents would not need to be
5 produced, since they already may be in possession of them, but to please respond to the other production
6 by June 26, 2020. (Exhibit F.) On July 21, 2020, having still not received the production responses,
7 Defense counsel gave Plaintiff one last opportunity to produce them. (Exhibit G.) As of July 27, 2020 at
8 12:15 p.m. Plaintiff still has not produced any documents or otherwise responded to the requests for
9 production. (Declaration of Brennain Garber) Exhibit H is a true and correct copy of defense counsel’s
10 Jluy 24, 2020 email in which he attempted to meet and coffer with Plaintiff’s counsel to figure out a date
11 that would work for defense counsel to bring the motion to compel, I also gave Plaintiff’s counsel
12 another opportunity to get the discovery to me by the end of the day, in lieu of filing a motion.
13 III. Argument
14 a. Defendant is Entitled to an Order Compelling Plaintiff to Respond to the Pending Written
Discovery Requests
15
16 Pursuant to CCP §2031.300 (c), if a party to whom production requests are directed fails to serve
17 a timely response, the party propounding the requests may move for an order compelling response to
18 them. Additionally, all objections to the discovery are waived. CCP §2031.300(a).
19 Plaintiff has not indicated (through actions) that he is willing to provide responses, even after
20 extensive meet and confer attempts. Defense counsel has attempted to meet and confer to give plaintiff a
21 chance to respond. Still Plaintiff appears unwilling to do so. As such, defendant is entitled to an order
22 compelling responses to the pending written discover requests without objections.
23 b. An Award of Sanctions is Mandatory and Should be Granted
24 Despite more than adequate time to respond as well as an effort to meet and confer, Plaintiff has
25 yet to produce any responses to the pending discovery requests. Pursuant to CCP § 2031.300(c):
26 “Except as provided in subdivision (d), the court shall impose a monetary sanction under
27 Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010 ) against any party, person, or attorney
28 who unsuccessfully makes or opposes a motion to compel a response to a demand for
3
MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL
DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS
1 inspection, copying, testing, or sampling, unless it finds that the one subject to the
2 sanction acted with substantial justification or that other circumstances make the
3 imposition of the sanction unjust.”
4 Thus, this Court should sanction plaintiff Sean McKean in the amount of $675, which includes
5 the cost of filing and preparation of this motion as set forth in the Declaration of Brennain Garber.
6
7 Conclusion
8 For all the above reasons defendant respectfully asks the Court to grant Defendant’s motion and
9 issue an order compelling plaintiff to respond to the following discovery, within ten (10) days of
10 receiving notice of the Court’s order without objections:
11 1) Defendant HUI WU’S Requests For Production To Plaintiff Sean C. McKean, Set One; (Exhibit A)
12 Further, plaintiff Sean C. McKean should be ordered to pay costs, sanctions and attorney's fees
13 in the amount of $675 to defendant within ten (10) days of the hearing of this motion.
14
15 Dated: July 30, 2020 PHILLIPS SPALLAS & ANGSTADT LLP
16
By: _______________________________
17
Todd A. Angstadt
18 Brennain Garber
Attorneys For
19 HUI WU, WEI ZHANG, STEVE YU ZHANG,
INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the
ZHANG FAMILY TRUST, and SHUYI ZHANG
20 INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the
ZHANG FAMILY TRUST
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MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL
DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS
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1 Todd A. Angstadt (SBN 166404) Brennain J Garber (SBN 295770) 2 PHILLIPS, SPALLAS & ANGSTADT LLP ELECTRONICALLY 505 Sansome Street, Sixth Floor San Francisco, CA 94111 F I L E D 3 Superior Court of California, Telephone (415) 278-9400 County of San Francisco Facsimile (415) 278-9411 4 07/30/2020 Clerk of the Court Attorneys for Defendants 5 HUI WU, WEI ZHANG, STEVE YU ZHANG, BY: EDNALEEN ALEGRE Deputy Clerk INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the 6 ZHANG FAMILY TRUST, and SHUYI ZHANG INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the 7 ZHANG FAMILY TRUST 8 9 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 10 CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, UNLIMITED JURISDICTION 11 12 SEAN C. MCKEAN, ) Case No.: CGC-19-579145 ) Plaintiff, ) 13 ) ) MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND 14 v. ) AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF ) DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN 15 HUI WU, WEI ZHANG, STEVE YU ZHANG-, ) ORDER TO COMPEL DISCOVERY SHUYI ZHANG, IN THEIR CAPACITIES AND ) RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR 16 STEVE YI ZHANG &. SHUYI ZHANG AS CO- ) SANCTIONS TRUSTEE OF THE ZHANG FAMILY LIVING ) 17 TRUST, AND DOES 1 THROUGH 25, INCLUSIVE, ) Date: August 31, 2020 ) Time: 9:30 a.m. 18 Defendants. ) Department: 501 ) 19 ) DISCOVERY 20 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 21 I. Introduction 22 Defendant Hui Wu (“Defendant”) brings this motion to compel responses to the following 23 discovery requests: 24 1) Defendant HUI WU’S Requests For Production To Plaintiff Sean C. McKean, Set One; 25 (Exhibit A) 26 27 28 1 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS 1 At the time of writing of this motion Sean C. McKean’s (“Plaintiff”) responses are more than 2 four months overdue, defendant’s attorney has attempted to meet and confer to no avail and no further 3 extension to respond to the discovery has been granted. (Declaration of Brennain Garber) Plaintiff’s 4 counsel can author documents and send mail, since he has served his own requests for production and 5 multiple meet and confer requests related to Defendant’s responses to discovery. (Declaration of 6 Brennain Garber) 7 Plaintiff’s failure to respond is unnecessarily increasing the costs of litigation and is wasting 8 judicial resources. As such, defendant requests an order compelling plaintiff to respond to Exhibit A, 9 and an order to pay monetary sanctions in the amount of $675 no more than ten (10) days following the 10 Court's ruling on this matter. 11 II. Statement of Facts 12 This case involves a residential tenancy at 229 2nd Avenue #2, San Francisco, California 13 (“subject property”). Sean McKean was a tenant at the subject property beginning in 2010. In Mid-2017 14 Mr. McKean’s landlords served him with an owner move-in eviction notice. Mr. Mckean failed to move, 15 and unlawful detainer eviction proceedings were instigated. The unlawful detainer was resolved when 16 Mr. McKean agreed to leave by February 16, 2018, for money, per a settlement agreement. 17 On January 11, 2019, plaintiff filed their initial Complaint. On February 7, 2020, Defendant 18 served discovery requests, including Defendant HUI WU’S Requests For Production To Plaintiff Sean 19 C. McKean, Set One. (Exhibit A.) 20 In March 2020, a shelter in place order was issued by the City and County of San Francisco due 21 to COVID-19. Given the unprecedented circumstances, Defendant’s counsel granted multiple discovery 22 extensions to the Plaintiff. (Exhibit B.) Then on March 19, 2020, the Honorable Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye 23 issued a series of orders granting the Superior Court of San Francisco County authority to declare the the 24 dates from March 18, 2020 through June 1, 2020 court holidays. (Exhibit C) On June 10, 2020, Defense 25 counsel inquired about where the Plaintiff’s Requests for Production were and Plaintiff’s Counsel’s 26 office indicated that they would get the responses to Defense counsel within the next week. (Exhibit D.) 27 On June 19, 2020, having granted no further extensions for Plaintiff to respond to discovery Defendant’s 28 2 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS 1 counsel asked when he could expect the production responses. (Exhibit E.) Thereafter, Plaintiff’s 2 counsel indicated that the production was taking time due to having to produce records which were 3 collected during the earlier unlawful detainer action involving the same parties. (Exhibit F.) In response, 4 Defendant’s counsel indicated that, for the time being, those specific documents would not need to be 5 produced, since they already may be in possession of them, but to please respond to the other production 6 by June 26, 2020. (Exhibit F.) On July 21, 2020, having still not received the production responses, 7 Defense counsel gave Plaintiff one last opportunity to produce them. (Exhibit G.) As of July 27, 2020 at 8 12:15 p.m. Plaintiff still has not produced any documents or otherwise responded to the requests for 9 production. (Declaration of Brennain Garber) Exhibit H is a true and correct copy of defense counsel’s 10 Jluy 24, 2020 email in which he attempted to meet and coffer with Plaintiff’s counsel to figure out a date 11 that would work for defense counsel to bring the motion to compel, I also gave Plaintiff’s counsel 12 another opportunity to get the discovery to me by the end of the day, in lieu of filing a motion. 13 III. Argument 14 a. Defendant is Entitled to an Order Compelling Plaintiff to Respond to the Pending Written Discovery Requests 15 16 Pursuant to CCP §2031.300 (c), if a party to whom production requests are directed fails to serve 17 a timely response, the party propounding the requests may move for an order compelling response to 18 them. Additionally, all objections to the discovery are waived. CCP §2031.300(a). 19 Plaintiff has not indicated (through actions) that he is willing to provide responses, even after 20 extensive meet and confer attempts. Defense counsel has attempted to meet and confer to give plaintiff a 21 chance to respond. Still Plaintiff appears unwilling to do so. As such, defendant is entitled to an order 22 compelling responses to the pending written discover requests without objections. 23 b. An Award of Sanctions is Mandatory and Should be Granted 24 Despite more than adequate time to respond as well as an effort to meet and confer, Plaintiff has 25 yet to produce any responses to the pending discovery requests. Pursuant to CCP § 2031.300(c): 26 “Except as provided in subdivision (d), the court shall impose a monetary sanction under 27 Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 2023.010 ) against any party, person, or attorney 28 who unsuccessfully makes or opposes a motion to compel a response to a demand for 3 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS 1 inspection, copying, testing, or sampling, unless it finds that the one subject to the 2 sanction acted with substantial justification or that other circumstances make the 3 imposition of the sanction unjust.” 4 Thus, this Court should sanction plaintiff Sean McKean in the amount of $675, which includes 5 the cost of filing and preparation of this motion as set forth in the Declaration of Brennain Garber. 6 7 Conclusion 8 For all the above reasons defendant respectfully asks the Court to grant Defendant’s motion and 9 issue an order compelling plaintiff to respond to the following discovery, within ten (10) days of 10 receiving notice of the Court’s order without objections: 11 1) Defendant HUI WU’S Requests For Production To Plaintiff Sean C. McKean, Set One; (Exhibit A) 12 Further, plaintiff Sean C. McKean should be ordered to pay costs, sanctions and attorney's fees 13 in the amount of $675 to defendant within ten (10) days of the hearing of this motion. 14 15 Dated: July 30, 2020 PHILLIPS SPALLAS & ANGSTADT LLP 16 By: _______________________________ 17 Todd A. Angstadt 18 Brennain Garber Attorneys For 19 HUI WU, WEI ZHANG, STEVE YU ZHANG, INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the ZHANG FAMILY TRUST, and SHUYI ZHANG 20 INIVIDUALLY and as CO-TRUSTEE of the ZHANG FAMILY TRUST 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 4 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HUI WU’S MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO COMPEL DISCOVERY RESPONSES AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS