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  • Andrea Spears vs. Health Net of California Inc Unlimited Civil document preview
  • Andrea Spears vs. Health Net of California Inc Unlimited Civil document preview
  • Andrea Spears vs. Health Net of California Inc Unlimited Civil document preview
  • Andrea Spears vs. Health Net of California Inc Unlimited Civil document preview
  • Andrea Spears vs. Health Net of California Inc Unlimited Civil document preview
  • Andrea Spears vs. Health Net of California Inc Unlimited Civil document preview
						
                                

Preview

TIMOTHY J. LONG (STATE BAR NO. 137591) FILED tjlong(§orrick.com ENDORSED X 2 ORRICK, HERRINGTON & SUTCLIFFE LLP 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 3000 2018 FEB 28 PH 3:52 Sacramento, CA 95814-4497 SUPERIOI^ CGU;^T OF CAL.ifORNjA Telephone: +1 916 447 8299 COUNTY Or S'ACSA-ME.^TO Facsimile: +1 916 329 4900 5 STEPHANIE GAIL LEE (STATE BAR NO. 285379) stephanie.lee@omck.com 6 ORRICK, HERRINGTON & SUTCLIFFE LLP 777 South Figueroa Street, Suite 3200 7 Los Angeles. CA 90017-5855 Telephone: +1-213-629-2020 8 Facsimile: +1-213-612-2499 9 Attorneys for Defendant HEALTH NET OF CALIFORNIA, INC. 10 11 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 12 COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO 13 ANDREA SPEARS, an individual, on behalf Consolidated Case No. 34-2017-00210560- of herself and on behalf of all persons similarly CU-OE-GDS 14 situated, Plaintiff, DECLARATION OF TIMOTHY J. 15 LONG IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HEALTH NET OF CALIFORNIA, 16 INC.'S MOTION FOR MONETARY HEALTH NET OF CALIFORNIA, INC., a SANCTIONS 17 Califomia Corporation; and Does 1 through 50, inclusive. Date: March 27, 2018 18 Time: 9:00 a.m. Defendants. Dept.: 54 19 Complaint Filed: April 5, 2017 20 FAC Filed: June 29,2017 Consolidated Complaint Filed: Dec. 21, 2017 21 Complaint Filed; August 1, 2017 22 TOMAS R. ARANA, on behalf of himself, all others similarly situated, 23 Plaintiff, 24 V. 25 HEALTH NET OF CALIFORNIA, INC., a 26 Califomia corporation; and DOES 1-50, inclusive, 27 Defendant. 28 DECLARATION OF TIMOTHY J. LONG IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HEALTH NET OF CALIFORNIA, INC.'S MOTION FOR MONETARY SANCTIONS 1 I, Timothy J. Long, hereby declare as follows: 2 1. I am an attomey duly admitted to practice before the courts ofthe State of 3 Califomia and a partner in the law firm of Onick, Henington & Sutcliffe LLP, attorneys of 4 record for Defendant Health Net of Califomia, Inc. ("Health Net"). I make this declaration on 5 personal knowledge and, if sworn as a v^tness, could competently testify to the following facts 6 except where otherwise indicated. 7 2. As the Court will see in the other materials filed in support of Health Net's Motion 8 for Monetary Sanctions against Plaintiff Andrea Spears's counsel, there was no legitimate reason .9 for Plaintiff Spears to have filed five separate discovery motions without first adequately meeting 10 and confening with Health Net's counsel. 11 3. There was especially no legitimate reason for Plaintiff Spears to havefiledher 12 most recent set of motions to compel, specifically the second motion to compel further responses 13 to Plaintiff Spears' first set of requests for production of documents and the second motion to 14 compel further responses to Plaimiff Spears' first set of special intenogatories filed on January 15 17,2018 (collectively, "Second Set of Motions to Compel"). This was particularly true given that 16 her counsel knew that Judge Perkins in Department 35 was already scheduled to decide the issues 17 raised in these motions, Health Net had already provided the data/information sought by counsel 18 or was in the process of doing so, and Health Net had provided counsel with an extension to file 19 these motions in case Judge Perkins did not uUimalely reach all the issues of concern to counsel. 20 Further, Plaintiff Spears filed these motions without any prior meet-and-confer efforts. 21 4. While Plaintiff Spears' counsel ultimately withdrew the Second Set of Motions to 22 Compel, she deliberately waited until well after Health Net had already filed its opposition and 23 supporting papers. And what is patently obvious is that she knew well before Health Net's filing 24 deadline that she was going to withdraw these motions because she had earlier written a letter to 25 the Court to that effect and apparently informed the Court of such by the same letter that she had 26 delivered to the Court via a process server. Needless to say, she chose not to inform Health Net's 27 counsel until sending her 5:20 p.m. email, which was well after the 4:00 p.m. filing deadline. 28 -1- DECLARATION OF TIMOTHY J. LONG IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT HEALTH NET OF CALIFORNIA, INC.'S MOTION FOR MONETARY SANCTIONS 1 5. The attomeys on my team, including me, have spent in excess of ten (10) hours 2 preparing Health Net's Opposition to the second Motion to Compel Further Answers to Special 3 Interrogatories, Set One, and supporting papers. The attomeys on my team, including me, have 4 spent in excess of ten (10) hours preparing Health Net's Opposition to the second Motion to 5 Compel Further Response to Request for Production, Set One, and supporting papers. For this 6 work, our flat hourly rate is $572. 7 6. The attomeys on my team, including me, have spent in excess of ten (10) hours 8 preparing Health Net's Motion for Monetary Sanctions and supporting papers. We anticipate 9 spending an additional four (4) hours drafting the reply brief, preparing for the hearing on this 10 Motion and appearing at hearing. For this work, our flat hourly rate is $572. Health Net's aiso 11 expects to incur the filing fee of $60. 12 7. Although the cost to Health Net has been more, Health Net requests that the Court 13 impose monetary sanctions in the amount of $5,000. The purpose in requesting this amount is to 14 send a message to Plaintiffs Spears' counsel: stop litigating in this manner and take your meet- 15 and-confer obligations seriously. Sanctions in this amount are more than reasonable and Just 16 I declare under penally ofperjury under the laws of the State of Califomia that the foregoing 17 is true and correcL Executed this 28th day of February, 2018. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -2- [NC.'S MOTION FOR MONETARY SANCTIONS