SARAH RACHAL VS. CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO ET AL

Matter on calendar for Friday, July 11, 2025, Line 3, DEFENDANT CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO's Motion To Compel Discovery Responses And Request For Monetary Sanctions Against Plaintiff.

Defendant the City and County of San Francisco's motion to compel further responses and for sanctions is granted in part. Plaintiff Sarah Rachal did not timely respond to discovery and waived objections. Rachal's opposition states that her failure to timely respond was inadvertent. CCP 2031.300 allows a court to relieve a party from a waiver of objections on a noticed motion provided that the party's late discovery responses are in substantial compliance with the discovery statute. After the filing of the motion to compel, Rachal served responses containing objections. Rachal's responses are not in substantial compliance.

The court orders further responses to RFP Nos. 2 and 3 and orders Rachal to amend her remaining responses to conform to CCP 2031.210(a)(1) and (2) and CCP 2031.230. In other words, the responses should state either that production will be entirely allowed or, where Rachal lacks the ability to comply because some documents are not in her possession, she must provide the information stated by 2031.230. The court orders further responses to special interrogatory Nos. 2-23, 25, and 27-30 and to form interrogatories 8.8 and 14.1. If Rachal has no responsive facts presently in her knowledge, she may so state. Amended responses ordered herein shall be made within three weeks of entry of this order.

The City seeks sanctions. The relevant statutes state that sanctions shall be awarded to the party who opposes a discovery motion unless the court finds the party acted with substantial justification or other circumstances make imposition of the sanction unjust. (See CCP 2030.290(a), 2031.300(c).) The court does not find substantial justification here and orders Rachal to pay $850 to the City within 30 days of entry of this order.

For the 9:00 a.m. calendar, all attorneys and parties may appear in Department 301 remotely or in person. Remote hearings will be conducted by videoconference using Zoom. (Dept. 301 Zoom ID 161 502 4290; Passcode 700956.) To appear remotely at the hearing, go to the court's website at sfsuperiorcourt.org under "Online Services," navigate to "Tentative Rulings," and click on the appropriate link, or dial the corresponding phone number.

Any party who contests a tentative ruling must send an email to contestdept301tr@sftc.org with a copy to all other parties by 4pm stating, without argument, the portion(s) of the tentative ruling that the party contests. The subject line of the email shall include the line number, case name and case number. The text of the email shall include the name and contact information, including email address, of the attorney or party who will appear at the hearing. Counsel for the prevailing party is required to prepare a proposed order which repeats verbatim the substantive portion of the tentative ruling and must email it to contestdept301tr@sftc.org prior to the hearing even if the tentative ruling is not contested.