Judge: Nathan R. Scott, Case: Raijin Inc. v. United Studios FR, Date: 2022-09-16 Tentative Ruling

Plaintiff Anthony Cordero’s motion to disqualify counsel is denied.

Plaintiff seeks to disqualify defense counsel, strike the motion to compel arbitration that he filed, and vacate the order confirming the arbitration award.

Defendants Musashi & Associates, Inc., United Shapiro Corporation, Matthew Mattera, and Matthew Shapiro have shown plaintiff waived any objection to Mr. Kushner’s representation by unreasonably delaying in bringing this motion.  (See City and County of San Francisco v. Cobra Solutions, Inc. (2014) 232 Cal.App.4th 468, 473-474.)

Plaintiff waited two months after Mr. Kushner appeared in this case to raise the issue initially.  The court declined to advance the hearing on plaintiff’s initial motion, instead opting to hear the arbitration motion first.

Whatever the merits of the court’s scheduling decision, plaintiff ultimately agreed to arbitration.  (See 6/21/2021 order.)  Plaintiff thus still had the opportunity to raise the disqualification issue in his chosen forum, before the arbitrator.

But plaintiff did not ask the arbitrator to disqualify defense counsel.  (Kushner Decl. ¶¶ 10-12; Boss Decl. ¶¶ 25-26.)  Plaintiff did not participate in the arbitration at all.  Nor did plaintiff timely seek relief from this court regarding any arbitration difficulties.  (See 7/19/22 order.)

Even when defendants filed their petition to confirm in March 2022, plaintiff did not immediately raise the disqualification concern. 

Plaintiff did not file this motion until after the court confirmed the arbitration award in July 2022. 

Waiting until after judgment to file this motion was an unreasonable delay that extremely prejudiced defendants.  (See Cobra Solutions, supra, 232 Cal.App.4th at pp. 473-474; see also Boss decl. ¶¶ 28-29.)  Plaintiff has not justified the delay.

Defendants’ request for judicial notice is granted.

Plaintiff shall give notice.