Professional Career Colleges, Magna Institute, Inc. v. Superior Court

Opinion

McDANIEL, Acting P. J.

This case presents an issue of first impression under the Civil Discovery Act of 1986, Code of Civil Procedure section 2016 et seq.

1

Because we determine that the procedure employed by plaintiff must be considered an impermissible attempt to circumvent the plain provisions of section 2030, subdivision (/), it was error for the trial court to grant plaintiff’s motion to compel further responses to interrogatories. Accordingly, we will issue a peremptory writ as prayed.

[492]

Although no copy of the complaint has been made part of the record, it appears from the papers filed in support of plaintiff’s motion in the trial court that he was a former student at petitioner Professional Career Colleges (PCC). He had become dissatisfied with the training and courses provided in the “private security” curriculum and filed this action in which he alleges at least causes of action based on fraud and breach of contract. Among his contentions is one that instructors failed to provide sufficient hours of class time to enable him to qualify for a state certificate, and that instructors were frequently absent from scheduled classes.

Plaintiff served a first set of interrogatories on defendant PCC on May 25, 1988. Included as Interrogatory Number 10 was a demand that PCC state the present or last known address of each student who was enrolled in the private security certificate program in the period between July 27, 1987, and October 10, 1987. On July 14, 1988, PCC served its responses, in which it objected to Number 10 on the basis that it was irrelevant, interfered with the “attorney work privilege” and invaded the privacy of the students.

Plaintiff made no motion to compel further response, although on August 26, 1988, counsel apparently wrote to PCC’s attorney to express the opinion that the objections were not well taken. We note that this letter came 43 days after PCC served its objections; in his motion to compel, plaintiff did not indicate what response, if any, had been made.

On September 1, 1988, plaintiff served a second set of interrogatories on PCC. Although most of the questions were new, the question set out as Number 10 of the first set reappeared as Number 14 of second set. The sole change was that it now sought the name, as well as the address, of each student, and specified that the persons about whom information was sought had been enrolled in the private security program “at Professional Career Colleges.” Plaintiff has not contended that these changes were significant; it is evident that the first question, although it asked only for addresses, would necessarily have elicited names as well. The parties both argued on the assumption that the second interrogatory was for all intents and purposes the same as the first.