Judge: Randall J. Sherman, Case: 2018-00982195, Date: 2022-10-28 Tentative Ruling

The Motion of Trustee Defendants for a Protective Order to Stay All Discovery Until at Least 30 Days After This Court Rules Upon Their Motion for Summary Judgment, is off calendar at the moving parties’ request.

The Sovereign Defendants’ Motion for Protective Order and Request for Sanctions is moot in part, granted in part, and denied in part.  The Sovereign Defendants’ request for monetary sanctions is granted against plaintiff’s counsel of record, Catanzarite Law Corporation, in the amount of $1,275, payable within 30 days.

Defendants’ request for a protective order to stay discovery until after the hearing on the pending motions for summary judgment is moot, because those motions have now been heard and thus are no longer pending.

Defendants’ request for a protective order prohibiting plaintiff from deposing Adam Kent, counsel of record for the Sovereign Defendants, is granted.  Depositions of opposing counsel are presumptively improper, severely restricted, and require extremely good cause, a high standard.  Carehouse Convalescent Hospital v. Superior Court (2006) 143 Cal. App. 4th 1558, 1562.  A party is not entitled to depose opposing counsel if the party seeking the deposition has other practicable means to obtain the information.  Id. at 1563.  Defendants have shown that plaintiff may depose Todd Mikles first, and ask him about the Professional Partners Group, LLC invoice for $245,226.68 dated March 31, 2020, and about PPG having the same address as attorney Kent.

Defendants’ request for a protective order prohibiting plaintiff from deposing non-party Robert Sparks is denied.  In the moving papers, defendants filed a declaration from Todd Mikles which stated, “Robert Sparks is neither a named party, nor is he an officer, director, managing agent, or employee of a named party.”  In opposition, plaintiff filed an August 31, 2017 Statement of Information form with the California Secretary of State, showing Robert Sparks as the Corporate Secretary for Sovereign Capital Management Group, Inc., which is a defendant in this case in the Fifth Amended Complaint filed on June 3, 2022.  Defendants’ reply papers do not respond to this evidence, either by showing that Sparks resigned, that someone else is now listed as Corporate Secretary, or otherwise.  Thus, defendants have failed to carry their burden on this motion to establish that Robert Sparks is not a corporate officer of a party, whose deposition may be noticed without a subpoena.  Although defendants assert that Sparks is an attorney, he is not an attorney of record in this case, and plaintiff has shown that there are factual matters that can be asked of him apart from any potentially privileged issues.

Defendants’ request for monetary sanctions is granted as to the estimated three hours defendants spent on the portion of this motion about deposing attorney Kent.  Plaintiff’s position on that portion of this motion lacks substantial justification, and no other circumstances make the imposition of sanctions unjust.

The Sovereign Defendants are ordered to give notice of the ruling.