August 14, 2019

VIA E-MAIL FACSIMILE AND US-MAIL

Ronald S. Whitaker, Esq.

Civil Liability Division
Office of the City Attorney
200 N. Main Street
Suite 600 City Hall East
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Email: ronald.whitaker@lacity.org
Phone: 213.978-7071
Facsimile: 213.978-8789

Re: Gutierrez v. City of Los Angeles, et al.

Case No.: BC676156
Ronald:

I am in receipt of Defendant’s Supplemental Responses to Plaintiff’s discovery. Unfortunately,

there are still issues with Defendant’s responses as outlined below. Please review this
correspondence and provide further responses prior to close of business (5:00 pm) August 28,
2019.

FORM INTERROGATORIES

FORM INTERROGATORIES NO. 16.1-16.8:

Please see Plaintiff’s Form Interrogatories to Defendant City of Los Angeles, Set One for the
language of the Interrogatories.

RESPONSE:
This interrogatory cannot be answered because investigation and discovery has just begun. As
listed in the instructions to these Form Interrogatories, Section 2(d) specifies that "The
interrogatories in 16.0, Defendant's Contentions-Personal Injury should not be used until the
defendant has had a reasonable opportunity to conduct an investigation or discovery of
Plaintiffs injuries and damages". As such, this responding Defendant reserves the right to
supplement, amend and modify this response after having a reasonable opportunity to conduct
investigation and discovery.

A FURTHER RESPONSE IS REQUIRED:

Defendant needs to follow the procedures laid out within the California Code of Civil
Procedure in order to meet its discovery obligation and to respond in a clear and intelligible
manner. Further, an answering party owes a duty to respond in good faith as best he or she
can. Deyo v. Kilbourne (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 771, 783. Further, California Code of Civil Procedure
Section 2030.220 specifies:

3450 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 304 • Los Angeles • CA 90010 • Phone (888) 914-6670 • Fax (888) 914-8322 • www.azizianlaw.com
 (a) Each answer in a response to interrogatories shall be as
complete and straightforward as the information reasonably
available to the responding party permits.
(b) If an interrogatory cannot be answered completely, it shall be
answered to the extent possible.
(c) If the responding party does not have personal knowledge
sufficient to respond fully to an interrogatory, that party shall so
state, but shall make a reasonable and good faith effort to obtain
the information by inquiry to other natural persons or
organizations, except where the information is equally available
to the propounding party.

Defendant’s responses to Form Interrogatory 16.1-16.8 are incomplete. For each of the
aforementioned Form Interrogatories, Defendant asserted identical boilerplate objections
which are improper. As Defendant well knows, Plaintiff is entitled to such information and
Defendant’s responses, or lack thereof, lack the display of a good faith effort to engage in the
discovery process. These boilerplate objection responses are insufficient, as discovery is almost
at an end for this case, and well past the original discovery cut-off date based on the original
trial date. So, the notion that such discovery is just starting and therefore Defendant is unable
to respond is misplaced. Further, Defendant has had the opportunity to depose Plaintiff and is
in possession of responses to their own discovery propounded to the Plaintiff. Accordingly,
please provide a supplemental response that is complete and non-evasive by close of business
(5:00 pm) on July 11, 2019.

SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSE:
This interrogatory cannot be answered because investigation and discovery has just begun. As
listed in the instructions to these Form Interrogatories, Section 2(d) specifies that "The
interrogatories in 16.0, Defendant's Contentions-Personal Injury should not be used until the
defendant has had a reasonable opportunity to conduct an investigation or discovery of
Plaintiff's injuries and damages". As such, this responding Defendant reserves the right to
supplement, amend and modify this response after having a reasonable opportunity to conduct
investigation and discovery.

A FURTHER RESPONSE IS STILL REQUIRED:

Defendant has yet again failed to respond to the discovery requests, claiming the timing is not
right. However, as stated above, Defendant is in possession of Plaintiff’s discovery response,
Plaintiff’s deposition testimony, and it is currently past the time original scheduled for trial in
this matter. Further, it has been over three (3) months since Plaintiff first propounded these
requests, and no substantive response has yet been provided. Please provide substantive,
complete, and verified supplemental responses by close of business (5:00 pm) on August 28,
2019.

Please provide us with complete, verified, and substantive responses to the above-mentioned
discovery by close of business (5:00 pm) August 28, 2019. Ideally, we can resolve these issues
without the need for court intervention. Otherwise The issues will be raised with the court at

3450 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 304 • Los Angeles • CA 90010 • Phone (888) 914-6670 • Fax (888) 914-8322 • www.azizianlaw.com
the informal discovery conference currently scheduled for August 29, 2019 at 11:00 am in
Department 3 of the Spring Street Courthouse. If you need additional time, please contact us
to discuss a mutual extension of time for a response and bringing any motion(s), if necessary.

Sincerely,
AZIZIAN LAW, P.C.

Benjamin A. Azizian, Esq.

CC:
Justin Farahi

3450 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 304 • Los Angeles • CA 90010 • Phone (888) 914-6670 • Fax (888) 914-8322 • www.azizianlaw.com