Discovery: California Supreme Court Decides That General Discovery Statutes Allow A Trial Judge, Where Specific Discovery Sanctions Statutes Do Not Cover Egregious Discovery Abuses, To Inherently Impose Monetary Sanctions For Abuses

However, Notice/Causation/Reasonableness Principles Are Still In Play, Just Under Specific Discovery Abuse Statutes.

               In City of Los Angeles v. Pricewaterhousecoopers, LLP, Case No. S277211 (Cal. Supreme Ct. Aug. 22, 2024) (published), the California Supreme Court decided that the general sections of the Civil Discovery Act, CCP § 2023.010 and § 2023.030, allow a trial judge to impose monetary sanctions for egregious discovery abuses, rather than being relegated to imposition of discovery violations under specific sections of the Discovery Act where the egregious conduct falls outside of the specific discovery sections.  That meant that the $2.5 million in discovery sanctions was being reinstated.  However, our state supreme court was careful to observe that notice/causation/reasonableness principles, as applicable in specific discovery abuse provisions, would also be in play under more general “inherent” power of the court situations.