FRED KAYNE et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. THE GRANDE HOLDINGS LIMITED, Defendant and Appellant., 198 Cal. App. 4th 1470

Summary

The investors alleged that the holding company was the alter ego of its insolvent subsidiary. After a lengthy document production dispute, the holding company produced a large quantity of additional documents, which were in complete disorder. The holding company refused to label the documents. After the investors filed a motion for sanctions requesting the costs they had incurred to organize the documents, the holding company asserted that it had found the documents in the same disordered condition in which it produced them. It offered two declarations of employees who had no knowledge of the condition of the documents when they were found. The trial court sanctioned the holding company for willful abuse of discovery procedure and failure to comply with Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.280, subd. (a). The court concluded that the trial court acted within its discretion under Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2023.010, 2031.320, 2023.030, when it found, in the absence of any admissible evidence to the ...