PwC urged the California Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive a $2.5 million sanction against the city of Los Angeles for yearslong discovery misconduct in an underlying utility billing dispute, arguing the trial court’s inherent authority to impose such penalties isn’t limited to nonmonetary sanctions.
Julian W. Poon of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP appeared before California Supreme Court justices, who were asked to clarify whether trial courts have independent authority to issue monetary sanctions for discovery abuse under California Code of Civil Procedure sections 2023.030 and 2023.010, or whether that authority is limited to situations described in the Civil Discovery Act, which governs specific methods of obtaining discovery, like interrogatories, depositions, and inspections.
Poon argued that when a litigant engages in systemic, pervasive patterns of discovery abuse like the one perpetuated by the city of Los Angeles that transcend discrete types of misconduct described in the Discovery Act’s method-specific chapters, courts need sufficient remedies to address such abuse, including monetary sanctions.
