Judge: Mark C. Kim, Case: BC715087, Date: 2022-07-26 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: BC715087    Hearing Date: July 26, 2022    Dept: S27

1.     Background Facts

Plaintiff, Armanak Bagramyan initiated this action against Defendants, Siamak Kalhor, Shahab Saba, and Cyberset Corp. on 7/24/18.  The Court granted Defendants’ petition to compel arbitration on 3/27/19.  On 11/20/19, Plaintiff dismissed the arbitration.  On 12/13/19, at a post-arbitration status conference, Plaintiff stated that he dismissed the arbitration because AAA did not have jurisdiction over the parties’ dispute.  The Court asked for briefing on the issue, and on 3/12/20, it again compelled arbitration.  It subsequently denied Plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration of the issue.

On 3/02/22, the arbitrator issued his final award in the action.  He found in favor of Defendants, and he awarded them $48,433.07 in attorneys’ fees and $4,066.85 in costs.  The Court granted Defendants’ petition to confirm the arbitration award on 5/5/22.  Judgment was entered in favor of Defendants in a total amount of $71,852.08 on 5/31/22.

2.     Motion to be Relieved as Counsel

Plaintiff’s counsel moves to be relieved as counsel, contending post-judgment legal services are not part of the scope of services under the parties’ contract, Plaintiff has yet to execute a substituting of counsel due to medical issues, and defense counsel has been unwilling to extend post-judgment discovery requests despite being advised Plaintiff’s counsel was filing a motion to withdraw. 

Counsel declares counsel served the moving papers on Plaintiff at Plaintiff’s last known address, which has been confirmed by telephone and conversation.  Counsel further provides that a copy of the motion will be e-mailed to Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s interpreter and that counsel is informed and believe the interpreter will read the email and explain it to Plaintiff.  Counsel has also served the moving papers on Defendants through counsel.

Counsel has generally met the requirements to be relived as counsel for Plaintiff.  As this action is in post-judgment proceedings and Plaintiff is aware counsel’s scope of services do not include post-judgment services, the Court finds Plaintiff would not be prejudiced by the granting of this motion. 

While the Court is inclined to grant this motion, the Court notes there are several issues with the proposed order granting the motion.  First, item 5a (indicating the attorney is relieved as counsel of record for client effective upon the filing of the proof of service of this signed order upon the client) is not checked.  Second, Plaintiff’s telephone number is not indicated in item 6 of the proposed order.  Finally, a hearing on the application for order for appearance and examination has been scheduled for 10/18/22.  This information must be set forth in item 7 of the proposed order.  The Court will thus continue the motion to allow counsel an opportunity to submit an amended proposed order correcting the identified defects.

Accordingly, the motion to be relieved as counsel is CONTINUED to August 15, 2022.  Counsel is ordered to submit an amended proposed order correcting the above-identified defects.

Moving counsel is ordered to give notice.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the court at gdcdepts27@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit on the tentative as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  If the department does not receive an email indicating the parties are submitting on the tentative and there are no appearances at the hearing, the motion may be placed off calendar.  If a party submits on the tentative, the party’s email must include the case number and must identify the party submitting on the tentative. If any party does not submit on the tentative, the party should make arrangements to appear remotely at the hearing on this matter.