Plaintiff’s Motion to Deem Matters Admitted and to Compel Responses to Form Interrogatories and Request for Monetary Sanctions
June 5, 2026 Law and Motion Calendar
HONORABLE MICHAEL L. MAU, Department 20 ________________________________________________________________________ 9:00 AM Line 5 25-CIV-04787 ELETTRA INTERNATIONAL FOODS, LLC VS. LUCIANO GONGORA
ELETTRA INTERNATIONAL FOODS, LLC KEITH M. VELLECA LUCIANO GONGORA PRO SE
Plaintiff’s Motion to Deem Matters Admitted and to Compel Responses to Form Interrogatories and Request for Monetary Sanctions
TENTATIVE RULING:
The unopposed Motion to Compel is GRANTED. Plaintiff shall provide verified responses, without objection to defendant’s Form Interrogatories, Set One, within 14 days.
Plaintiff’s unopposed Motion to Deem Requests for Admissions (Set One) as Admitted, is GRANTED.
The request for sanctions is DENIED without prejudice.
Proof of service was filed demonstrating service of the motion pleadings on the Defendant, but the Motion was unopposed. Per Plaintiff, Defendant has failed to respond at all to this discovery. MPA, pg. 3, lines 17-18; Velleca Decl., ¶ 6.
CCP 2033.280(b) allows the court to enter an order deeming facts in the Request for admissions to be admitted if the party to whom requests for admission are directed fails to serve a timely response. The court shall make this order, 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. “[A] deemed admitted order establishes, by judicial fiat, that a nonresponding party has responded to the requests by admitting the truth of all matters contained therein.” Wilcox v. Birtwhistle (1999) 21 Cal.4th 973, 979.
Therefore, Plaintiff’s unopposed Motion to Compel, and Motion to Deem Requests for Admissions (Set One) as Admitted, are both GRANTED.
Plaintiff’s request for sanctions is denied without prejudice. The declaration of Keith Velleca does not provide sufficient facts to support the amount requested. Mr. Velleca’s declaration instead only states that he “anticipate(s)” spending attorney time or incurring costs, without actually stating specific time spent, or specific costs incurred. There is no indication of the time spent on any specific task.
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June 5, 2026 Law and Motion Calendar PAGE 14 HONORABLE MICHAEL L. MAU, Department 20 ________________________________________________________________________ If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court. Thereafter, Counsel for the prevailing party shall prepare for the Court’s signature a written order consistent with the Court’s ruling pursuant to CRC Rule 3.1312 and provide written notice of the ruling to all parties who have appeared in the action, as required by law and by the CRC. Please note that Local Rule 3.403(b)(iv) states in part “prevailing party on a tentative ruling is required to prepare a proposed order REPEATING VERBATIM the tentative ruling” (emphasis added). The order should be filed or e-filed only, do not email or mail a hard copy to the Court.