Opinion ID: 2336375
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 23

Heading: Sanctions in Christopher Case

Text: After motions were filed seeking to declare Respondent a vexatious litigant in the Christopher case, Respondent violated the automatic stay repeatedly and engaged in other improper litigation tactics. In response, the defendants filed two motions seeking sanctions. The first was filed on January 19, 1993, and was heard on June 28, 1993. In its order filed September 24, 1993, the Court found Respondent's entire action to be a sanctionable activity and noted, this judge in more than 13 years of judicial service on this court has never seen more frivolous, bad-faith lawsuit and litigation tactics conducted solely for the purpose of harassment and unnecessary delay, ... By way of example, the Court noted seventeen specific acts by Respondent or his counsel which were grounds for sanctions. Included were Respondent's many frivolous disqualification motions against Judge Kakita, and Respondent's service of three sets of form interrogatories requiring responses from each of the 340 defendants, and two attempts to set depositions of party defendantsthese latter filings all in violation of the automatic stay. The Court ordered sanctions against Respondent and his various attorneys, jointly and severally, in favor of defendants totaling $94,785.99. An additional $7,500 for the five violations of the automatic stay, was ordered payable to the superior court. The second sanction motion in the Christopher case, filed July 21, 1993, was scheduled before Judge Kakita in November 1993. Before he could rule on the motion, he recused himself from the case because Respondent filed suit against him in federal district court. Thereafter the motion was combined with parallel contempt and sanction proceedings in the Castellano case. A multi-day hearing was held. In Christopher, the Court filed a 64-page decision on May 31, 1994, addressing Respondent's actions clarify since January 19, 1993. Thirty specific findings were made by the Court [10] , reflecting, among other matters, violations of the Court's stay order, frivolous and outrageous pleadings filed in attempts to disqualify Judge Kakita, documents filed with incorrect or backdated proof of service declarations, repeated pleadings seeking Judge Kakita's disqualification in violation of Judge Millard's order requiring leave of the Presiding Judge to file them, and numerous premature writs to the Court of Appeals to stymie actions in the superior court. The Court found that Respondent's actions were knowing, made in the face of numerous warning letters sent to his attorneys (and copied to him), and demonstrated Respondent's bad faith, particularly in Respondent's efforts to disqualify Judge Kakita. The Court found that Respondent was at war with the courts, individual judges, his former law firms, and attorneys who were his ex-employees. Three tactics were used primarily by Respondent in directing his attorneys. First, he moved between federal and state court when he felt that the judge in a given case was inclined to rule against himdismissing the case in one court and refiling it in the other jurisdiction. Second, he filed peremptory challenges or recusal motions. Third, he filed premature notices of appeal. In his efforts to disqualify Judge Kakita, Respondent did not hesitate to accuse him of judicial misconduct without any basis in fact or law, but as purely a vindictive matter. The Court ordered that Respondent be sanctioned $237,000 ($37,000 to the Los Angeles Superior Court and the rest to the defendants). His counsel were sanctioned lesser amounts.