A former county employee sued the county for discrimination and retaliation in violation of the California Fair Housing and Employment Act.
Over the subsequent two years, the former employee and their counsel willfully failed to comply with the Superior Court’s orders and discovery laws and protocols. Initially, Partner Jesse Maddox and Associate Attorney James Bonnie obtained significant monetary sanctions against the employee and their counsel for the employee’s refusal to answer a request for admission. They also obtained a Court order requiring the employee and their counsel to supplement their written discovery responses.
The employee’s and their counsel’s willful violation of the Court’s orders and the law continued even following the initial sanctions order, including abusing the Attorney-Client privilege objection and refusing to identify documents and communication that the employee lost or were not in the employee’s custody and control. After a particularly egregious discovery dispute, the county moved for terminating sanctions.
At the hearing on the motion, Associate Attorney James Bonnie persuaded the Court that the prior monetary sanctions had been ineffectual and that additional monetary sanctions would therefore be futile.
The Court agreed, finding that the county had been harmed in lost time and taxpayer money in the lengthy and unresolved litigation. The Court also found that the county’s defense was prejudiced because two years after the litigation commenced, the county still had not received discovery to which it was entitled. Based on the entire record of discovery abuses, the Court ordered a terminating sanction of dismissal with prejudice.