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1 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
2 FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
3 DEPARTMENT 308 HON. EMILIE H. ELIAS, JUDGE
4
5 BARRY BERNSON, et al., ) ) 6 Plaintiffs, ) ) SUPERIOR COURT 7 vs. ) CASE NO. VC 046 716 ) 8 CITY OF DOWNEY, et al., ) ) 9 Defendants. ) ___________________________________) 10
11 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
12 Thursday, January 31, 2008
13 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL:
14 FOR THE PLAINTIFF: IN PRO PER (See end of appearance page.) 15
16 FOR IRG DEFENDANTS: FAINSBERT, MASE & SNYDER, LLP BY: DAVID S. WHITE, ESQ. 17 RICHARD E. WIRICK, ESQ. 11835 West Olympic Boulevard 18 Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California 90064 19 (310)473-6400
20
21
22 (Appearances continued on next page.) 23
24 DAVID A. SALYER, CSR, RMR, CRR Official Court Reporter 25 License No. 4410
26
27
28
1 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL: (CONTINUED)
2 FOR BOEING: BARG, COFFIN, LEWIS & TRAPP 3 BY: DONALD E. SOBELMAN, ESQ. One Market 4 Steuart Tower, Suite 2700 San Francisco, California 94105-1475 5 (415)228-5400
6
7 FOR CITY OF DOWNEY: CARPENTER, ROTHANS & DUMONT BY: JONATHAN D. REDFORD, ESQ. 8 888 South Figueroa Street Suite 1960 9 Los Angeles, California 90017 (213)228-0400 10
11 FOR DREAMWORKS: EVERT, WEATHERSBY & HOUFF BY: ROGER C. WILSON, ESQ. 12 (678)651-1200
13
14 IN PRO PER: JEFF M. HILL
15 LEONARD J. MARTIN
16 FRANK SERRAO
17 HAROLD & DEREK NORRBOM
18 JOHN IZUMI
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28 1
1 CASE NUMBER: VC 046 716
2 CASE NAME: BERNSON V. CITY OF DOWNEY
3 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008
4 DEPARTMENT 308 EMILIE H. ELIAS, JUDGE
5 REPORTER: DAVID A. SALYER, CSR 4410
6 TIME: 10:30 A.M.
7 -o0o-
8 THE COURT: Okay. Good morning. We're on Bernson.
9 Where to begin on this. I had motions to compel, and
10 then I have miscellaneous things that are just sent in to me
11 like notice of lodging, special opposition to a notice of
12 motion and motion that was filed yesterday. We don't read
13 things filed yesterday for today.
14 And then there are just things coming in. I also have
15 some status conference statements.
16 We just can't do it this way, everybody. If you're
17 going to have to represent yourselves, you have to comply with
18 the rules. We just don't take things like notice of lodging.
19 We don't do anything with things that are notice of lodging.
20 What am I supposed to do with this? We don't take
21 oppositions that come in on the day of a hearing. We don't
22 work that way.
23 So that is how -- if you're going to represent
24 yourselves, you have to comply with the rules. That is all I
25 can do.
26 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, may I speak?
27 THE COURT: Yes, sir. What is your name?
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Harold Norrbom.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 2
1 THE COURT: Mr. Norrbom.
2 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Kind of the mess we're in right
3 now is back to the 23rd of October and that transcript. On
4 that day, for some reason throughout the whole proceeding, it
5 kept getting interrupted, and the subject changed constantly
6 through the whole thing.
7 We're having trouble with what the transcript says.
8 The defendants are reading the parts that they want to read
9 and sending them to us, and we're reading it, and we're not
10 reading the same thing.
11 And so we have like the old case management that we're
12 also reading, and what was stated in that case management is
13 not what is happening now.
14 THE COURT: But what's happening is that they sent you
15 discovery and you have to respond.
16 So you have to either comply with it -- you have to
17 comply with the discovery requests that are sent out unless
18 you have valid objections and these objections aren't good.
19 And then if they don't like them, they bring a motion
20 to compel, and then you have to oppose it in the proper way,
21 or else the motions get granted.
22 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We were under the impression on
23 that day that when Mr. White stood up and volunteered to send
24 out the discovery that -- and in his discovery states that it
25 goes to his office. That's where we were sending it.
26 THE COURT: It's supposed to do that.
27 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
28 THE COURT: He sends you discovery. You send back the
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 3
1 responses to the discovery to his office. We don't get any of
2 that. We don't want any of that.
3 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: No. I understand that, your
4 Honor.
5 THE COURT: Then if he doesn't like your responses,
6 then he files a motion to compel with me, with the Court, and
7 then you have to file an opposition to the motion to compel
8 with the Court in a timely fashion, and then I rule on it.
9 None of this is occurring.
10 MR. SERRAO: Your Honor, Frank Serrao, in pro per.
11 We did respond to the best of our abilities in the
12 30 days. We were inundated, we feel, around the holiday
13 season, and it was almost impossible for us to do all the
14 discovery. We signed the medical releases right away like
15 they asked us to.
16 Now, in our original CMO, there were releases in there
17 for just about every other production of documents that they
18 wanted that we would have signed in a heartbeat if they would
19 have provided those. It would have made everything easier.
20 We didn't get that release.
21 Everything would have gone smoother, and they would
22 have had everything by now, considering the holidays.
23 THE COURT: If you want to talk to them about signing
24 releases, feel free to talk to them about signing releases.
25 Otherwise, you have to follow the way the court system
26 works. And it's just not happening, and so all these motions
27 are going to end up being granted.
28 You have to file -- to send them things without
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 4
1 verifications are not responsive. You have to have
2 verifications, or it's a worthless response to give. I can't
3 give you legal advice, but you have to comply with the Code.
4 I have to have you do that.
5 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, myself and my son have
6 responded to them.
7 THE COURT: What is your name?
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Harold Norrbom and Derek Norrbom.
9 THE COURT: Okay. You did not provide verified
10 responses to the special interrogatories.
11 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We did.
12 THE COURT: You did do it. I'm sorry.
13 There was some other ones that they thought were
14 deficient, and they want more response to them.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: And I have been responding to all
16 of them, your Honor. I'm perfectly happy to respond to them.
17 The problem I had, because I was under the impression
18 that everything went to Mr. White's office, and Mr. White, I
19 guess, didn't get the letter that I sent to him verifying that
20 I was responding to the City of Downey, I think it was.
21 They filed the motion. They are the only ones that
22 have filed the motion because they did not receive that
23 letter.
24 Then I corresponded with them on the phone, and I
25 e-mailed them the copy of that letter, but they had already
26 filed that motion.
27 THE COURT: I don't know what we're talking about.
28 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, I'm not sure either. I'm David
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 5
1 White.
2 I'm not sure either what they are talking about. I
3 have never -- either I nor my firm have ever been appointed
4 any kind of clearinghouse or coordinating counsel in this
5 case.
6 There was one time when your Honor said notice, giving
7 notice of a particular order, which we gave, but at no time
8 have I assumed or been ordered to assume the responsibility of
9 coordinating all of the plaintiffs' documents, and yet they
10 seem to send things to my office expecting that we're going to
11 copy them all to defendants.
12 Your Honor appointed Joseph Decker at one point, very
13 early, as coordinating counsel. Mr. Decker left his firm and
14 consequently left this case.
15 THE COURT: Who is with the City of Downey?
16 MR. REDFORD: I am, Jonathan Redford.
17 THE COURT: So he sent you this discovery.
18 MR. SERRAO: It all came from Mr. White.
19 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It all came from Mr. White's in
20 the defendants' joint request for production of documents. It
21 states right in it that we send it to Mr. White, which I did
22 and I am doing.
23 THE COURT: The form interrogatories came from
24 Mr. White.
25 MR. WHITE: We're not moving against Mr. Norrbom. We
26 don't have a motion pending.
27 THE COURT: I'm just trying to pick one at random.
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: What he's saying is the only
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 6
1 person who filed against me was the City of Downey because it
2 wasn't --
3 MR. SERRAO: It wasn't forwarded.
4 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We were supposed to give it to
5 Mr. White, and Mr. White did but not in time for them to not
6 file a motion.
7 THE COURT: The City of Downey, you sent out the
8 discovery.
9 MR. REDFORD: Defendant sent out discovery jointly,
10 your Honor.
11 THE COURT: Okay. And the expectation was that people
12 would respond collectively, then?
13 MR. REDFORD: To Mr. White's office.
14 THE COURT: So you agree with the plaintiffs;
15 everything is supposed to go to Mr. White's office?
16 MR. REDFORD: Right.
17 I think the confusion is that the City of Downey
18 independently was meeting and conferring with these plaintiffs
19 with respect to their responses as nothing in this Court's
20 last order indicated that Mr. White's office was to take the
21 lead with respect to meeting and conferring.
22 So to protect their clients' interests, that is why we
23 started the ball rolling.
24 THE COURT: Do you all agree that only one copy --
25 let's back up.
26 I will order them to do further responses and
27 verifications. Okay? Where are they supposed to send them?
28 Who is going to get them?
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 7
1 MR. SERRAO: I have a case management order here
2 stating that we only had to send it to this coordinating
3 counsel and nobody else when we are in pro per.
4 I understand that it was to Joseph Decker, who is
5 not --
6 THE COURT: He is not around.
7 MR. SERRAO: We understand that. We assumed that when
8 Mr. White stepped up --
9 THE COURT: I'm asking the defense. Who wants to take
10 all this paper? Somebody has to take it.
11 MR. SERRAO: We would like Dreamworks, if possible.
12 THE COURT: Who is Dreamworks?
13 MR. MARTIN: I just heard Dreamworks come up from one
14 of the defendants.
15 MR. REDFORD: There might be one on the phone.
16 THE COURT: Is Dreamworks on the phone?
17 MR. WILSON: Your Honor, Roger Wilson on the phone for
18 Dreamworks.
19 Our local counsel was going to be there. I think he
20 might be running a little late from another hearing.
21 THE COURT: Somebody has to take this stuff. Some
22 defense firm has to volunteer so the individuals know who to
23 send it to. We need a base to send it to.
24 I'm waiting for the defense. Somebody has to step up
25 to the plate.
26 MR. SOBELMAN: May I speak for the defendants?
27 Don Sobelman for the Boeing Company.
28 THE COURT: Yes.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 8
1 MR. SOBELMAN: Perhaps what we can do is in the noticed
2 order that we will send out presumably after this hearing, the
3 case management conference, the defendants can, after meeting
4 and conferring among themselves, appoint a firm to be the lead
5 coordinating counsel for discovery, but we would like,
6 perhaps, a few days to decide who that will be and set up a
7 system that will work.
8 THE COURT: You can take the lead in setting up that
9 system, but I expect an order telling the plaintiffs where to
10 send everything.
11 MR. SOBELMAN: Yes.
12 THE COURT: That means verifications and all of that.
13 So all of these things have to be sent, and I don't
14 have oppositions to any of these motions. They are going to
15 get sent so they will be granted.
16 MR. SERRAO: Excuse me, your Honor. I don't know if
17 they received it yet -- they should have received it -- but I
18 did answer a lot more of it.
19 I know I didn't do it within the timeframe, but it was
20 the holiday season. I couldn't get to all that stuff. I have
21 been going through five months of therapy trying to get my
22 hand back working again.
23 I was inundated, to be honest with you, during the
24 holiday season.
25 THE COURT: Okay.
26 MR. MARTIN: Your Honor, the case management, back to
27 the case management again, but the case management basically
28 is kind of all we really had to go by or the transcript.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 9
1 And the case management was stating that they were
2 allowed to send us just form and special interrogatories and
3 then that we had six weeks to respond to those, and then after
4 responding to those, then we had another -- how long was it?
5 MR. SERRAO: Six weeks.
6 THE COURT: It's okay. You have to do it.
7 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We understand that.
8 Then they gave it to us all at once, and it was
9 entirely duplicative and --
10 THE COURT: It is what it is. Then you come to me.
11 The bottom line is you have to do it, and if you want
12 an extension, you call them to get an extension, and you get
13 an extension.
14 I'm not arguing with you. I'm ordering you now to do
15 it. You tell me now when you're going to get the supplemental
16 responses and the verified responses to them.
17 MR. SERRAO: I would like to ask a question.
18 THE COURT: I want an answer to my question. When?
19 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, I have requests from
20 several places. I understand that they also had the medical
21 releases and they are having trouble getting papers from
22 those. I requested them from the doctors or whoever it was.
23 THE COURT: When? It's a simple question.
24 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We can't get an answer from them.
25 THE COURT: Yes, Mr. Martin.
26 MR. MARTIN: Can we have 30 days?
27 THE COURT: 30 days for further responses, and that
28 means in 30 days you do it. That means I grant the motions as
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 10
1 prayed for and you provide the supplemental.
2 If you provide some, you provide them, but they are not
3 good without verifications. I won't count that as providing
4 them.
5 MR. SERRAO: Can we sign a release for some of that
6 stuff like they provided in the case management order?
7 THE COURT: I have no idea whether they will take it in
8 lieu of it. You are welcome to meet and confer and talk to
9 them.
10 MR. SERRAO: It was in the case management order so we
11 thought it was an order.
12 THE COURT: That doesn't mean they don't want their
13 answers to interrogatories. It doesn't mean that.
14 Mr. Martin, what do you want to say?
15 Mr. Martin, you have to stop filing random things with
16 the Court.
17 MR. MARTIN: Okay. I will stop filing random things
18 with the Court. Thank you, your Honor.
19 THE COURT: Okay.
20 MR. MARTIN: These are some of the things I received in
21 the last month or so.
22 As far as filing things random, I do have some things I
23 brought today. If it's okay with the Court, I would like to
24 pass it to all the plaintiffs and defendants here, and if that
25 will take care of --
26 THE COURT: What are they?
27 MR. MARTIN: The special oppositions to all their
28 motions to compel.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 11
1 THE COURT: No. That's late. The motions are being
2 heard today.
3 MR. MARTIN: Okay.
4 THE COURT: They are not timely.
5 We can't read things, Mr. Martin. In order to rule on
6 matters, it's really best that we read the papers. We can't
7 be handed papers at the beginning of a hearing.
8 The bottom line is if you need an extension to respond
9 to their discovery, you ask for an extension. If you think
10 they have too much discovery, you call them up and say, "You
11 have too much. Can I do this and this and this," but you have
12 to do that. Otherwise, you have to answer the discovery.
13 So I will grant the motions as prayed for and --
14 MR. SERRAO: Can I speak about the transcript one more
15 time?
16 THE COURT: No. It doesn't --
17 MR. SERRAO: It did say limited and minimal discovery.
18 THE COURT: Then you have to come in here, and you have
19 to file -- you cannot just walk in here on the day of a
20 hearing and just start arguing.
21 You have to comply with it. You have to file an
22 opposition. You have to say this was too much. You have to
23 say these are copies. You have to say what you want to do.
24 You can't just do this.
25 MR. SERRAO: I did oppose the oppositions on time --
26 excuse me -- the motions, and I did state that in there, that
27 it was cumulative, duplicative, it wasn't limited, so on and
28 so forth.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 12
1 MR. MARTIN: Leonard Martin.
2 Can we get the 30 days -- can we get it on one of them
3 and after that is done 30 days on the next and 30 days on the
4 next?
5 THE COURT: This will go on forever.
6 Are there many sets? You aren't sending out
7 duplicative sets, are you? It's one set of interrogatories.
8 MR. WHITE: We were ordered to send a set.
9 THE COURT: So why does he have a big stack?
10 MR. WHITE: You have to ask Mr. Martin, your Honor.
11 MR. MARTIN: There are four different things.
12 THE COURT: There were four things, so there should be
13 35 interrogatories.
14 How many interrogatories did you send?
15 MR. SERRAO: More than that.
16 MR. REDFORD: 55, your Honor.
17 THE COURT: 55 interrogatories.
18 How many requests for production? That pile is too
19 big. What he is holding in his hand is too big.
20 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: I have twice that at home.
21 THE COURT: It shouldn't be that big.
22 MR. REDFORD: 74 requests for production, your Honor.
23 THE COURT: So that's not that thick.
24 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, they have checked 17.1
25 which --
26 THE COURT: They get to do that.
27 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: I had 100-some pages to that one
28 answer.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 13
1 THE COURT: I understand the answers but not -- the --
2 Mr. White, would you just look at the captions of what he is
3 showing there.
4 Are all those discovery requests?
5 MR. WHITE: Mr. Martin's stack is -- do you really want
6 me to go through each thing here?
7 Isn't this your whole file?
8 MR. MARTIN: This is just on Boeing. This is just
9 from -- these two -- this is from your office. This is
10 from -- these two piles are from --
11 MR. WHITE: That's on the motions, the declarations.
12 MR. MARTIN: This is the last 30 days.
13 THE COURT: These are not the discovery requests.
14 MR. WIRICK: These are motions to amend the complaint
15 to add new parties.
16 THE COURT: Okay. Then forget it.
17 I will give you 45 days to answer this discovery.
18 MR. MARTIN: This all has to do with the discovery.
19 THE COURT: I will give you until March 14th.
20 MR. SERRAO: Your Honor, can we object to something if
21 we objected in the correct way?
22 THE COURT: You can object to something if you object
23 in the correct way. Then they bring a motion to compel.
24 MR. SERRAO: Exactly.
25 THE COURT: Then you have to file your opposition to
26 the motion to compel explaining why it shouldn't be compelled.
27 Some of these reasons why you didn't produce things are
28 not really good reasons why these things are not produced.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 14
1 It just says, "We object to it. We object to these
2 requests. Plaintiff hereby objects to these requests."
3 That's not an objection. You have to make a valid
4 objection as to why they shouldn't be answered. You have to
5 give objections with grounds, reasons, and then you have to
6 file oppositions to motions.
7 MR. SERRAO: I did.
8 THE COURT: I know, but you didn't really give this --
9 you just have to give the stuff.
10 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We were sent a letter also that
11 stated on one of the issues that if we did file a motion, then
12 they were going to file even more motions and more sanctions
13 and more everything else. They are --
14 THE COURT: No. They get to do this.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: I understand.
16 THE COURT: So do it. Respond to their discovery, and
17 get your verifications. Get your verifications in. Okay?
18 Maybe if they will accept some release, I don't know if
19 that solves some of the document requests. You can wait for a
20 minute and talk to counsel.
21 MR. SERRAO: It would solve a lot of the issues.
22 THE COURT: I don't know if it solves them for them.
23 They may want your verified responses.
24 Why don't you take a minute, counsel, and talk to them.
25 I can't tell you that that would do it. I'm not going to
26 start hearing it for the first time in argument here. It's
27 not how it's going to work. I'm not doing it.
28 MR. SERRAO: If I may interrupt, if we do get a defense
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 15
1 coordinated counsel, are we then going to follow what is going
2 on in the CMO? Do we just throw this out the window, the case
3 management order?
4 THE COURT: Do you know what he is talking about?
5 MR. WIRICK: There is an early case management order
6 that designates Dreamworks counsel in Long Beach as the
7 defense coordinated counsel.
8 THE COURT: I think what he is saying is if he gives
9 these releases, he thinks he doesn't have to do the discovery.
10 MR. WHITE: That is part of the problem. That is the
11 gist we have gotten -- this is David White -- that the
12 plaintiffs seem to think that if we want medical records,
13 we're supposed to go to the doctor and get the medical records
14 even if they have them.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We signed the release for them.
16 MR. SERRAO: We signed a release for them.
17 THE COURT: You don't want to just order them up with
18 your copy service?
19 MR. WHITE: We're going to have to probably do that.
20 We also don't have all the releases, do we?
21 MR. SERRAO: We --
22 THE COURT: Sir, it's not your turn.
23 MR. WHITE: We do have all the releases.
24 THE COURT: So can you just get the medical records?
25 Won't that be easier?
26 MR. WHITE: There is nothing easy about this,
27 unfortunately.
28 THE COURT: I understand.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 16
1 MR. WHITE: We're looking for needles in haystacks
2 here. All we have heard about is sinusitis and allergic
3 rhinitis.
4 THE COURT: I'm just asking, can you get the medical
5 records, if you have the releases, and just order them? I
6 think that is an easier way to do it.
7 MR. WIRICK: It's not just all medical records. There
8 are a lot of exposure dates.
9 THE COURT: I'm not saying all the discovery, but why
10 don't you take a minute with these individuals and see if the
11 medical releases eliminate some of the questions. I don't
12 have any idea whether it does or doesn't.
13 There may be questions in there that say, "What is the
14 name of all treating doctors?" We will still need that. The
15 releases won't do any good unless you know what doctors to
16 send the releases to.
17 MR. SERRAO: We sent the list of doctors that we went
18 to.
19 THE COURT: Verified?
20 MR. SERRAO: I don't know what you mean by "verified."
21 THE COURT: I'm sorry. You have to do them verified.
22 You will have to get the Code. I cannot give you legal
23 advice.
24 MR. SERRAO: Okay.
25 THE COURT: Okay.
26 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: One last thing, please.
27 THE COURT: What?
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Back to the case management, it
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 17
1 said in the case management that when the defendants are going
2 to read a Code to us that they explain what the Code actually
3 meant in it.
4 THE COURT: I don't know what you're talking about.
5 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's in the case management order.
6 THE COURT: They cannot give you legal advice.
7 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's not legal advice. They just
8 cited Code.
9 THE COURT: That's all they have to do.
10 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: In the case management, it says
11 they need to explain that Code.
12 THE COURT: Does somebody know what he is talking
13 about?
14 MR. SERRAO: Basically they have to send us a letter
15 with each thing stating that --
16 THE COURT: Read me the sentence. Just tell me the
17 paragraph.
18 MR. SERRAO: "With respect to the service of discovery
19 responses or documents filed with the Court, any plaintiff
20 proceeding in pro per in this case shall be required to mail
21 documents at issue to plaintiffs' coordinating counsel and
22 defendants' coordinating counsel at the above addresses but
23 shall not be required to serve any other plaintiffs or
24 defendants."
25 THE COURT: That has nothing to do with the Code.
26 MR. SERRAO: I'm getting there.
27 "Any discovery motion or documents served by a
28 defendant on one or more unrepresented plaintiffs shall
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 18
1 include a letter or other notification clearly informing such
2 plaintiffs of procedure for plaintiffs' service of documents
3 set forth in this paragraph."
4 THE COURT: That just means they are going to tell you
5 who to serve it on.
6 MR. SERRAO: But we haven't gotten any of that.
7 THE COURT: That's not explaining the Codes to you.
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's in there.
9 MR. SERRAO: I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Norrbom is
10 talking about is in there.
11 THE COURT: The bottom line of this is I'm granting the
12 motions. The defense is -- one of the defense is to prepare
13 an order.
14 Actually, Downey should prepare an order, and in the
15 order you are to indicate who is going to be the designated
16 recipient of the discovery responses. Okay?
17 So I need that in the order so that they know. You
18 give a name and address, and also it should include the name
19 and address of the -- the phone number of the person they are
20 to have any meet and confer conversations with. Okay?
21 So that will take care of that.
22 Now, having said that, in the case management
23 statement, there is an offer by the defense to go off to
24 mediation and split the bill with you all in a way that
25 basically the defense is paying for most of the mediation.
26 I guess the question to the plaintiffs is whether you
27 want to go to that.
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We would like time to speak to an
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 19
1 attorney about that.
2 THE COURT: You have been given time to speak to
3 attorneys. Are you getting attorneys?
4 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: About that specific thing, we're
5 not sure who those judges are. They are not talking about
6 lawyers like they are neutral evaluation that you were
7 speaking about.
8 THE COURT: No. They think it will take more time, and
9 they are willing to pay -- they are willing to submit the
10 first 300 and pay the additional 1,000 or $1500 to go for
11 longer.
12 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We're wondering, are there only
13 two judges that are in that program?
14 MR. SOBELMAN: Your Honor, may I speak to this issue?
15 THE COURT: Yes.
16 MR. SOBELMAN: What we did is go on the court's
17 website. The court has two programs, a neutral evaluation
18 which is free and a mediation program which costs money for
19 the parties.
20 We did not find any retired judges who were on the
21 court's panel for neutral evaluators who had toxic tort or
22 environmental experience.
23 So we then looked at the list of approved mediators on
24 the court's website, and we found two judges, retired judges,
25 who are on the court's panel and approved to be mediators in
26 toxic tort cases.
27 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: There are only two.
28 MR. SOBELMAN: There are only two that we identified,
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 20
1 Judges Wagner and Katz.
2 We have since, among the defendants, conferred, and we
3 believe that Judge Wagner would actually be appropriate for
4 this matter.
5 I do have a few printouts of the information from the
6 court's website concerning Judge Wagner I could hand to the
7 plaintiffs.
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We would like to see that.
9 THE COURT: My sense of these things that while it's
10 good if the plaintiff is comfortable with the person going,
11 with the person you are going to -- first of all, nobody can
12 make you settle.
13 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Right.
14 THE COURT: That it's really important that the defense
15 is comfortable because, if they're not comfortable, they don't
16 offer any money.
17 So there needs to be somebody that the defense -- you
18 know, the defense and the adjustors and that will be receptive
19 to listening to.
20 But I'm not ordering you to it. It's just a suggestion
21 that you go to this.
22 They think it will take time. They are offering to pay
23 for -- to take a full day on this and see if any of these
24 matters can be worked out. I don't know that you're ready to
25 go now or whether you need this discovery before you can go.
26 MR. SERRAO: That is another issue, your Honor.
27 THE COURT: I need to go in a minute.
28 MR. SERRAO: We have discovery issues because in the
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 21
1 transcript it says the stay was lifted, and so we sent out
2 discovery, and now they don't want to answer it. They want to
3 get protective orders for all the stuff that we're asking for
4 and --
5 THE COURT: Sir, I cannot -- you can bring your motions
6 to compel in the proper format, and I will rule on them.
7 MR. SERRAO: Okay.
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
9 THE COURT: I can't just off the cuff just tell them to
10 answer things. So I can't do that.
11 MR. SOBELMAN: Your Honor, defendants have one question
12 regarding that.
13 We were actually seeking the Court's advice on this
14 matter because defendants could file a motion for protective
15 order based on our belief that discovery was overbroad based
16 on the Court's prior ruling.
17 A notice of entry of order was sent out by defendants
18 after the last status conference where the judge specifically
19 laid out the categories for discovery. We sent a meet and
20 confer letter saying the defense felt this was beyond that.
21 We obviously don't want to, you know, incur the costs
22 associated with a motion for protective order. We don't want
23 to bring motions that are going to be difficult for the
24 plaintiffs to respond to if we don't need to.
25 We have offered to respond to their discovery to the
26 extent it is responsive to the Court's order at the prior
27 status conference. We have not heard back yea or nay whether
28 the plaintiffs are willing to.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 22
1 THE COURT: I don't have a clue what you're talking
2 about. The problem is I don't have the discovery. I don't
3 have it. I don't know what you're talking about. So what can
4 I say?
5 If I made a ruling on how broad it could be, then it's
6 how broad it could be. That's all I can do.
7 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, defendants will confer on that
8 issue of plaintiffs' discovery. That is not something that
9 needs to be before the Court. It's not even due yet.
10 THE COURT: It's not even due yet. Maybe you will get
11 some answers you will be happy with. Okay?
12 Yes, Mr. Martin.
13 MR. MARTIN: The date that we have to come back, I
14 would like to ask for two motions to be set for --
15 THE COURT: No. You have to file them. You just pay
16 the fees, and you file the motions. You don't pay the fees if
17 you have a fee waiver and file the motions.
18 You have to comply with the notice statutes on them.
19 You cannot send something down for filing today to be heard
20 tomorrow. It can't be heard like that. That is not the Code.
21 MR. MARTIN: I'm asking for a future date like in
22 45 days to hear the motion.
23 THE COURT: I don't know when you're filing them.
24 MR. MARTIN: I can file them today. I can hand them
25 out to everybody here. I have them with me.
26 THE COURT: You file them, and you can get a date from
27 Esmeralda to get them set on.
28 MR. MARTIN: Okay. When are we back?
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 23
1 THE COURT: We haven't set a date to be back yet. We
2 haven't decided whether you want to go to mediation or what
3 you want to do.
4 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, is discovery open, or
5 is it -- is there --
6 THE COURT: If I issued an order the last time.
7 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: They are asking two questions to
8 them, but those were never questions that I had intentions of
9 asking them.
10 THE COURT: I don't know what you're talking about.
11 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: On the 23rd, Mr. Martin stood up
12 and asked about the relationship or whatever. They are
13 standing on that point that that was a court order by you that
14 we can only ask for those two things, nothing that I want.
15 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, none of this is before the
16 Court.
17 THE COURT: I don't know what you want.
18 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
19 THE COURT: I just can't do it this way. I can't
20 explain it to you, but I can't do it this way. We're going
21 around in circles. I just can't do it.
22 MR. SERRAO: We're just trying to find out if the stay
23 was lifted or it was --
24 THE COURT: Why don't you get a copy of the last order
25 I issued, and that has been lifted.
26 MR. SERRAO: It's very broke up and broad and goes this
27 way and that way, every direction.
28 THE COURT: I don't think the order does.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 24
1 Yes, Mr. Martin.
2 MR. MARTIN: Okay. I have the defendants' update,
3 joint status conference statement January 31st. So this is
4 before the Court today. This is from the defendants.
5 In here it says that we're only to answer two things,
6 the answer to ownership and the answer to corporate
7 relationship.
8 What that means is when we were here on October 23rd, I
9 asked the Court -- I asked you if we could find out -- these
10 were just two questions I asked. Can we find out who the
11 ownership is, who owns the property, and the relationship to
12 the property, and you said yes.
13 So by me asking that question, the defendants put in
14 that those are the only two things we're allowed to ask for in
15 discovery. That is what the plaintiffs are saying.
16 THE COURT: Okay. I --
17 MR. MARTIN: Because I asked the question.
18 THE COURT: I do not have, right in front of me right
19 now, all the prior orders that I have made on this date. I
20 have to get them all. I have to look at it. I can't answer
21 the question.
22 MR. MARTIN: I have a copy of the transcript.
23 THE COURT: I don't want the transcript. I want the
24 order. I don't have it in front of me.
25 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, may I just state for the
26 record, I believe that plaintiffs' discovery to defendants,
27 the response date, is February 8th. Therefore, nobody has
28 responded yet. There is nothing before the Court.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 25
1 Given that the response date hasn't come around on the
2 calendar, we're about eight or nine days until the response
3 date comes -- excuse me. It's due on the 11th.
4 None of this is before the Court. We don't really need
5 to discuss that.
6 THE COURT: I understand.
7 What kind of questions did they ask that you are
8 objecting to?
9 MR. WHITE: They asked some very wide-ranging questions
10 about the history of the property and a lot of things that,
11 frankly, there isn't any defendant that can probably answer
12 them anyway.
13 But, you know, we can deal with that when we come
14 around to the response and then they have their remedies. We
15 don't need to discuss this in terms of a protective order is
16 what my point is. We're not seeking a protective order.
17 THE COURT: I think you should make an effort to answer
18 questions that are easily doable.
19 MR. WHITE: That is what we intend.
20 THE COURT: So I think you ought to meet and confer and
21 see what you ought to do.
22 MR. SERRAO: We asked questions that would be part of a
23 real estate transaction that any normal person would ask or
24 have papers through a real estate transaction.
25 THE COURT: Are the questions pertaining to the
26 transfer of property from entity to entity?
27 MR. WHITE: Among other things.
28 THE COURT: Those you ought to answer.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 26
1 MR. WHITE: To the extent we can.
2 THE COURT: Just wait and see when you get your
3 answers.
4 They should be answering that, who owned the property
5 and who controlled the property. I'm sure I let you do that.
6 I can't imagine that I didn't.
7 So now you have 45 days to get these further responses.
8 Are you all ready to go until you get the medicals?
9 You need to talk amongst yourselves and decide whether you
10 want to take the releases on the medicals and get your own
11 medical records.
12 MR. SERRAO: We did that.
13 THE COURT: They need to decide that. They have the
14 right to ask you those questions.
15 So I would really like all that in the order, too, what
16 you all agreed to, what the defense has agreed to accept or
17 not accept, medical releases and employment releases in lieu
18 of questions number X, X, X, X, X. Okay?
19 Now, what do you want to do about coming back? Do you
20 want to wait and come back in 60 days, or is there a chance to
21 go to a mediation prior to that time?
22 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Well, we're actually waiting for
23 some of the discovery or any of the discovery.
24 MR. SERRAO: We would like our discovery that we did on
25 them answered before we go to any neutral evaluation or
26 mediation at this point, your Honor.
27 THE COURT: Okay. How about 9:30 on March 26th?
28 March 26th, 9:30.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 27
1 MR. WHITE: That is a continued CMC, your Honor?
2 THE COURT: Yes.
3 Okay. So we're having -- Downey is going to give
4 notice because you're going to include all this other stuff in
5 there.
6 MR. WHITE: City of Downey.
7 MR. REDFORD: Yes, your Honor.
8 THE COURT: What other Downey is there besides the City
9 of Downey?
10 MR. WHITE: There is Downey Studios, which is one of
11 the IRG defendants. I wasn't just being contentious, your
12 Honor.
13 THE COURT: Yes, sir. Last thing.
14 MR. SERRAO: If I may touch on one more thing, if our
15 request for production of documents or request for whatever it
16 was, we want to be able to go and inspect the property or have
17 somebody inspect the property because they are in the middle
18 of remediation and removing and demolition.
19 THE COURT: Do you have an expert?
20 MR. SERRAO: We could find one. We would like to do it
21 ourselves if possible.
22 THE COURT: What are you going to inspect? What are
23 you going to do?
24 MR. SERRAO: We're going to go in there and get some
25 samples of some of the stuff that's there.
26 THE COURT: It really won't work that way.
27 MR. SERRAO: That's what I'm asking.
28 THE COURT: If you have an expert that you designated
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 28
1 who wants to go out and look at the property and that, I will
2 set up an inspection, but you need -- it's going to have to be
3 an expert.
4 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, given that my clients, the IRG
5 defendants, are being sued in this action concerning whatever
6 is or is not on the property that my clients own, if anybody
7 on behalf of the plaintiffs is going to come on the property,
8 they are going to have to come with their own insurance to
9 cover whoever comes on and whoever gets exposed. Otherwise,
10 we're going to object to that.
11 THE COURT: Right now we need an expert first. You
12 need an expert.
13 MR. WHITE: Them coming back isn't going to further
14 anything.
15 THE COURT: I understand that. So come back when you
16 have an expert.
17 Yes, Mr. Martin.
18 MR. MARTIN: We don't have a lot of pictures. Can we
19 just go take pictures if nothing else?
20 THE COURT: You just can't -- I can't let you just roam
21 the property.
22 Is it open to the public?
23 MR. MARTIN: Yes.
24 MR. WHITE: No, it's not open to the public.
25 MR. MARTIN: People are working there.
26 MR. WHITE: It is not open to the public. There are
27 people that come and go that are there pursuant to license
28 agreements to be there. It is private property. It is so
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 29
1 posted. And the plaintiffs are not allowed on the property.
2 THE COURT: You really need to get some experts out
3 there.
4 You're welcome to take whatever pictures you can
5 through the fence.
6 Yes?
7 MR. SERRAO: In their request for production of --
8 special interrogatories, they call it a public property in
9 there. That is why I can't answer that question because it's
10 a private property.
11 How do I answer a question that says public property?
12 I hate to keep going back to the discovery --
13 THE COURT: I have no idea what the question says.
14 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's a question that's asked, and
15 then it states, "while you were on this public property."
16 Well, we can't say that we were on public property
17 because it's not public property. So it's kind of hard to
18 answer that without just answering the fact that we can't
19 answer it because it's not --
20 THE COURT: Do you all know what they are talking
21 about?
22 MR. REDFORD: Your Honor, I believe the sole cause of
23 action against my client, the City, is for dangerous condition
24 of public property. So as part of our discovery request --
25 THE COURT: It's public property because it's owned by
26 the public.
27 MR. WHITE: That doesn't cover my client's property,
28 Downey Studios. That is only by my clients. It's not public
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 30
1 property. It's posted, and plaintiffs cannot come on there.
2 THE COURT: You can walk on anything that is public and
3 open to the public, but you can't go on to somebody's private
4 property that is closed off.
5 MR. SERRAO: I know. But we still haven't deciphered
6 if it's public or private.
7 MR. WHITE: I'm representing as an officer of the Court
8 and a lawyer for 31 years that my client owns the property and
9 it's not public.
10 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
11 THE COURT: Okay. Get me some experts that you want to
12 go out there for testing. I will be happy to set up the
13 testing.
14 Yes, Mr. Martin.
15 MR. MARTIN: I have a copy of the real estate deal that
16 says Downey IRG owns 80 acres and somebody else, Downey
17 Landing, owns another 80. So they don't own the whole
18 160 acres. So maybe part of it is public, and part of it is
19 private.
20 THE COURT: I have no idea.
21 Is this fenced-in property?
22 MR. MARTIN: The whole thing is fenced in.
23 THE COURT: If the whole thing is fenced in, then it's
24 owned by somebody.
25 You have to get an expert. We set up inspections, and
26 we usually work it out to get inspections. Their inspector
27 comes the same time as your inspector comes so they know where
28 they are taking the soil from and what they are looking for
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 31
1 and what readings they are looking for.
2 A lay person is really not going to be able to go out
3 there and just walk in with dirt, take some dirt, bring it
4 into court and say, "See, this caused me my injuries."
5 In the real world, you're going to need an expert who
6 is going to go out and do all the testing, and then I will set
7 it up.
8 Yes. Last thing.
9 MR. SERRAO: There is an ongoing EPA right now that
10 we're -- that is supposed to be being released, the results of
11 that, in three or four or five months.
12 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: The problem is, your Honor, they
13 have plans to tear down all those buildings.
14 THE COURT: Sir, I cannot prepare your case for you.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Sorry, your Honor.
16 THE COURT: I cannot hire your experts. I just can't
17 do it. I understand you're at a disadvantage, but you don't
18 get the advantage of me being your lawyer and organizing that.
19 It can't do that.
20 So you have to -- if they are doing things out there,
21 then you need to talk to your lawyer. You need to talk to an
22 expert. You need to do what you need to do, but I can't just
23 go and do it for you.
24 Okay. So the defense, the City of Downey, is going to
25 give notice, and you know what you're going to have in this
26 order.
27 MR. REDFORD: Yes, your Honor. Both the City of Downey
28 and the IRG motions to compel are granted.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 32
1 Plaintiffs to give either responses -- because some
2 plaintiffs have not responded at all as of yet -- and further
3 responses by March 14, 2008.
4 Did the Court make any ruling on the request for
5 sanctions?
6 THE COURT: No sanctions.
7 MR. SERRAO: I thought it was March 26th.
8 THE COURT: No. March 26th is our next status
9 conference.
10 Defense counsel are going to designate somebody to
11 receive the responses and to designate a person to handle the
12 meet and confers, and the defense is going to see if any of
13 the categories can be eliminated because of the signing of the
14 releases so you can get the documents directly from those
15 entities. And all that should be contained in the order.
16 MR. REDFORD: Yes, your Honor.
17 THE COURT: And if you're going to excuse the responses
18 to certain requests for production or that, please indicate by
19 number which ones are being excused.
20 And, Mr. Martin, you're welcome to file a motion. You
21 just have to set it on the right notice.
22 Okay. Is everybody happy?
23 Thanks very much.
24 (End of proceedings.)
25
26
27
28
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
1 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
2 FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
3 DEPARTMENT 308 HON. EMILIE H. ELIAS, JUDGE
4
5 BARRY BERNSON, et al., ) ) 6 Plaintiffs, ) ) SUPERIOR COURT 7 vs. ) CASE NO. VC 046 716 ) 8 CITY OF DOWNEY, et al., ) ) 9 Defendants. ) ___________________________________) 10
11
12
13 I, DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER OF THE
14 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, FOR THE COUNTY OF
15 LOS ANGELES, DO HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING PAGES, 1
16 THROUGH 32, INCLUSIVE, COMPRISE A TRUE AND CORRECT TRANSCRIPT
17 OF THE PROCEEDINGS TAKEN IN THE ABOVE-ENTITLED MATTER REPORTED
18 BY ME ON January 31, 2008.
19 DATED February 1, 2008.
20
21
22
23 __________________________________
24 DAVID A. SALYER, CSR No. 4410, RMR Official Court Reporter 25
26
27
28
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 1 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
2 FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
3 DEPARTMENT 308 HON. EMILIE H. ELIAS, JUDGE
4
5 BARRY BERNSON, et al., ) ) 6 Plaintiffs, ) ) SUPERIOR COURT 7 vs. ) CASE NO. VC 046 716 ) 8 CITY OF DOWNEY, et al., ) ) 9 Defendants. ) ___________________________________) 10
11 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
12 Thursday, January 31, 2008
13 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL:
14 FOR THE PLAINTIFF: IN PRO PER (See end of appearance page.) 15
16 FOR IRG DEFENDANTS: FAINSBERT, MASE & SNYDER, LLP BY: DAVID S. WHITE, ESQ. 17 RICHARD E. WIRICK, ESQ. 11835 West Olympic Boulevard 18 Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California 90064 19 (310)473-6400
20
21
22 (Appearances continued on next page.) 23
24 DAVID A. SALYER, CSR, RMR, CRR Official Court Reporter 25 License No. 4410
26
27
28
1 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL: (CONTINUED)
2 FOR BOEING: BARG, COFFIN, LEWIS & TRAPP 3 BY: DONALD E. SOBELMAN, ESQ. One Market 4 Steuart Tower, Suite 2700 San Francisco, California 94105-1475 5 (415)228-5400
6
7 FOR CITY OF DOWNEY: CARPENTER, ROTHANS & DUMONT BY: JONATHAN D. REDFORD, ESQ. 8 888 South Figueroa Street Suite 1960 9 Los Angeles, California 90017 (213)228-0400 10
11 FOR DREAMWORKS: EVERT, WEATHERSBY & HOUFF BY: ROGER C. WILSON, ESQ. 12 (678)651-1200
13
14 IN PRO PER: JEFF M. HILL
15 LEONARD J. MARTIN
16 FRANK SERRAO
17 HAROLD & DEREK NORRBOM
18 JOHN IZUMI
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28 1
1 CASE NUMBER: VC 046 716
2 CASE NAME: BERNSON V. CITY OF DOWNEY
3 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008
4 DEPARTMENT 308 EMILIE H. ELIAS, JUDGE
5 REPORTER: DAVID A. SALYER, CSR 4410
6 TIME: 10:30 A.M.
7
8 THE COURT: Okay. Good morning. We're on Bernson.
9 Where to begin on this. I had motions to compel, and
10 then I have miscellaneous things that are just sent in to me
11 like notice of lodging, special opposition to a notice of
12 motion and motion that was filed yesterday. We don't read
13 things filed yesterday for today.
14 And then there are just things coming in. I also have
15 some status conference statements.
16 We just can't do it this way, everybody. If you're
17 going to have to represent yourselves, you have to comply with
18 the rules. We just don't take things like notice of lodging.
19 We don't do anything with things that are notice of lodging.
20 What am I supposed to do with this? We don't take
21 oppositions that come in on the day of a hearing. We don't
22 work that way.
23 So that is how -- if you're going to represent
24 yourselves, you have to comply with the rules. That is all I
25 can do.
26 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, may I speak?
27 THE COURT: Yes, sir. What is your name?
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Harold Norrbom.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 2
1 THE COURT: Mr. Norrbom.
2 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Kind of the mess we're in right
3 now is back to the 23rd of October and that transcript. On
4 that day, for some reason throughout the whole proceeding, it
5 kept getting interrupted, and the subject changed constantly
6 through the whole thing.
7 We're having trouble with what the transcript says.
8 The defendants are reading the parts that they want to read
9 and sending them to us, and we're reading it, and we're not
10 reading the same thing.
11 And so we have like the old case management that we're
12 also reading, and what was stated in that case management is
13 not what is happening now.
14 THE COURT: But what's happening is that they sent you
15 discovery and you have to respond.
16 So you have to either comply with it -- you have to
17 comply with the discovery requests that are sent out unless
18 you have valid objections and these objections aren't good.
19 And then if they don't like them, they bring a motion
20 to compel, and then you have to oppose it in the proper way,
21 or else the motions get granted.
22 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We were under the impression on
23 that day that when Mr. White stood up and volunteered to send
24 out the discovery that -- and in his discovery states that it
25 goes to his office. That's where we were sending it.
26 THE COURT: It's supposed to do that.
27 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
28 THE COURT: He sends you discovery. You send back the
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 3
1 responses to the discovery to his office. We don't get any of
2 that. We don't want any of that.
3 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: No. I understand that, your
4 Honor.
5 THE COURT: Then if he doesn't like your responses,
6 then he files a motion to compel with me, with the Court, and
7 then you have to file an opposition to the motion to compel
8 with the Court in a timely fashion, and then I rule on it.
9 None of this is occurring.
10 MR. SERRAO: Your Honor, Frank Serrao, in pro per.
11 We did respond to the best of our abilities in the
12 30 days. We were inundated, we feel, around the holiday
13 season, and it was almost impossible for us to do all the
14 discovery. We signed the medical releases right away like
15 they asked us to.
16 Now, in our original CMO, there were releases in there
17 for just about every other production of documents that they
18 wanted that we would have signed in a heartbeat if they would
19 have provided those. It would have made everything easier.
20 We didn't get that release.
21 Everything would have gone smoother, and they would
22 have had everything by now, considering the holidays.
23 THE COURT: If you want to talk to them about signing
24 releases, feel free to talk to them about signing releases.
25 Otherwise, you have to follow the way the court system
26 works. And it's just not happening, and so all these motions
27 are going to end up being granted.
28 You have to file -- to send them things without
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 4
1 verifications are not responsive. You have to have
2 verifications, or it's a worthless response to give. I can't
3 give you legal advice, but you have to comply with the Code.
4 I have to have you do that.
5 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, myself and my son have
6 responded to them.
7 THE COURT: What is your name?
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Harold Norrbom and Derek Norrbom.
9 THE COURT: Okay. You did not provide verified
10 responses to the special interrogatories.
11 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We did.
12 THE COURT: You did do it. I'm sorry.
13 There was some other ones that they thought were
14 deficient, and they want more response to them.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: And I have been responding to all
16 of them, your Honor. I'm perfectly happy to respond to them.
17 The problem I had, because I was under the impression
18 that everything went to Mr. White's office, and Mr. White, I
19 guess, didn't get the letter that I sent to him verifying that
20 I was responding to the City of Downey, I think it was.
21 They filed the motion. They are the only ones that
22 have filed the motion because they did not receive that
23 letter.
24 Then I corresponded with them on the phone, and I
25 e-mailed them the copy of that letter, but they had already
26 filed that motion.
27 THE COURT: I don't know what we're talking about.
28 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, I'm not sure either. I'm David
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 5
1 White.
2 I'm not sure either what they are talking about. I
3 have never -- either I nor my firm have ever been appointed
4 any kind of clearinghouse or coordinating counsel in this
5 case.
6 There was one time when your Honor said notice, giving
7 notice of a particular order, which we gave, but at no time
8 have I assumed or been ordered to assume the responsibility of
9 coordinating all of the plaintiffs' documents, and yet they
10 seem to send things to my office expecting that we're going to
11 copy them all to defendants.
12 Your Honor appointed Joseph Decker at one point, very
13 early, as coordinating counsel. Mr. Decker left his firm and
14 consequently left this case.
15 THE COURT: Who is with the City of Downey?
16 MR. REDFORD: I am, Jonathan Redford.
17 THE COURT: So he sent you this discovery.
18 MR. SERRAO: It all came from Mr. White.
19 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It all came from Mr. White's in
20 the defendants' joint request for production of documents. It
21 states right in it that we send it to Mr. White, which I did
22 and I am doing.
23 THE COURT: The form interrogatories came from
24 Mr. White.
25 MR. WHITE: We're not moving against Mr. Norrbom. We
26 don't have a motion pending.
27 THE COURT: I'm just trying to pick one at random.
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: What he's saying is the only
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 6
1 person who filed against me was the City of Downey because it
2 wasn't --
3 MR. SERRAO: It wasn't forwarded.
4 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We were supposed to give it to
5 Mr. White, and Mr. White did but not in time for them to not
6 file a motion.
7 THE COURT: The City of Downey, you sent out the
8 discovery.
9 MR. REDFORD: Defendant sent out discovery jointly,
10 your Honor.
11 THE COURT: Okay. And the expectation was that people
12 would respond collectively, then?
13 MR. REDFORD: To Mr. White's office.
14 THE COURT: So you agree with the plaintiffs;
15 everything is supposed to go to Mr. White's office?
16 MR. REDFORD: Right.
17 I think the confusion is that the City of Downey
18 independently was meeting and conferring with these plaintiffs
19 with respect to their responses as nothing in this Court's
20 last order indicated that Mr. White's office was to take the
21 lead with respect to meeting and conferring.
22 So to protect their clients' interests, that is why we
23 started the ball rolling.
24 THE COURT: Do you all agree that only one copy --
25 let's back up.
26 I will order them to do further responses and
27 verifications. Okay? Where are they supposed to send them?
28 Who is going to get them?
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 7
1 MR. SERRAO: I have a case management order here
2 stating that we only had to send it to this coordinating
3 counsel and nobody else when we are in pro per.
4 I understand that it was to Joseph Decker, who is
5 not --
6 THE COURT: He is not around.
7 MR. SERRAO: We understand that. We assumed that when
8 Mr. White stepped up --
9 THE COURT: I'm asking the defense. Who wants to take
10 all this paper? Somebody has to take it.
11 MR. SERRAO: We would like Dreamworks, if possible.
12 THE COURT: Who is Dreamworks?
13 MR. MARTIN: I just heard Dreamworks come up from one
14 of the defendants.
15 MR. REDFORD: There might be one on the phone.
16 THE COURT: Is Dreamworks on the phone?
17 MR. WILSON: Your Honor, Roger Wilson on the phone for
18 Dreamworks.
19 Our local counsel was going to be there. I think he
20 might be running a little late from another hearing.
21 THE COURT: Somebody has to take this stuff. Some
22 defense firm has to volunteer so the individuals know who to
23 send it to. We need a base to send it to.
24 I'm waiting for the defense. Somebody has to step up
25 to the plate.
26 MR. SOBELMAN: May I speak for the defendants?
27 Don Sobelman for the Boeing Company.
28 THE COURT: Yes.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 8
1 MR. SOBELMAN: Perhaps what we can do is in the noticed
2 order that we will send out presumably after this hearing, the
3 case management conference, the defendants can, after meeting
4 and conferring among themselves, appoint a firm to be the lead
5 coordinating counsel for discovery, but we would like,
6 perhaps, a few days to decide who that will be and set up a
7 system that will work.
8 THE COURT: You can take the lead in setting up that
9 system, but I expect an order telling the plaintiffs where to
10 send everything.
11 MR. SOBELMAN: Yes.
12 THE COURT: That means verifications and all of that.
13 So all of these things have to be sent, and I don't
14 have oppositions to any of these motions. They are going to
15 get sent so they will be granted.
16 MR. SERRAO: Excuse me, your Honor. I don't know if
17 they received it yet -- they should have received it -- but I
18 did answer a lot more of it.
19 I know I didn't do it within the timeframe, but it was
20 the holiday season. I couldn't get to all that stuff. I have
21 been going through five months of therapy trying to get my
22 hand back working again.
23 I was inundated, to be honest with you, during the
24 holiday season.
25 THE COURT: Okay.
26 MR. MARTIN: Your Honor, the case management, back to
27 the case management again, but the case management basically
28 is kind of all we really had to go by or the transcript.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 9
1 And the case management was stating that they were
2 allowed to send us just form and special interrogatories and
3 then that we had six weeks to respond to those, and then after
4 responding to those, then we had another -- how long was it?
5 MR. SERRAO: Six weeks.
6 THE COURT: It's okay. You have to do it.
7 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We understand that.
8 Then they gave it to us all at once, and it was
9 entirely duplicative and --
10 THE COURT: It is what it is. Then you come to me.
11 The bottom line is you have to do it, and if you want
12 an extension, you call them to get an extension, and you get
13 an extension.
14 I'm not arguing with you. I'm ordering you now to do
15 it. You tell me now when you're going to get the supplemental
16 responses and the verified responses to them.
17 MR. SERRAO: I would like to ask a question.
18 THE COURT: I want an answer to my question. When?
19 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, I have requests from
20 several places. I understand that they also had the medical
21 releases and they are having trouble getting papers from
22 those. I requested them from the doctors or whoever it was.
23 THE COURT: When? It's a simple question.
24 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We can't get an answer from them.
25 THE COURT: Yes, Mr. Martin.
26 MR. MARTIN: Can we have 30 days?
27 THE COURT: 30 days for further responses, and that
28 means in 30 days you do it. That means I grant the motions as
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 10
1 prayed for and you provide the supplemental.
2 If you provide some, you provide them, but they are not
3 good without verifications. I won't count that as providing
4 them.
5 MR. SERRAO: Can we sign a release for some of that
6 stuff like they provided in the case management order?
7 THE COURT: I have no idea whether they will take it in
8 lieu of it. You are welcome to meet and confer and talk to
9 them.
10 MR. SERRAO: It was in the case management order so we
11 thought it was an order.
12 THE COURT: That doesn't mean they don't want their
13 answers to interrogatories. It doesn't mean that.
14 Mr. Martin, what do you want to say?
15 Mr. Martin, you have to stop filing random things with
16 the Court.
17 MR. MARTIN: Okay. I will stop filing random things
18 with the Court. Thank you, your Honor.
19 THE COURT: Okay.
20 MR. MARTIN: These are some of the things I received in
21 the last month or so.
22 As far as filing things random, I do have some things I
23 brought today. If it's okay with the Court, I would like to
24 pass it to all the plaintiffs and defendants here, and if that
25 will take care of --
26 THE COURT: What are they?
27 MR. MARTIN: The special oppositions to all their
28 motions to compel.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 11
1 THE COURT: No. That's late. The motions are being
2 heard today.
3 MR. MARTIN: Okay.
4 THE COURT: They are not timely.
5 We can't read things, Mr. Martin. In order to rule on
6 matters, it's really best that we read the papers. We can't
7 be handed papers at the beginning of a hearing.
8 The bottom line is if you need an extension to respond
9 to their discovery, you ask for an extension. If you think
10 they have too much discovery, you call them up and say, "You
11 have too much. Can I do this and this and this," but you have
12 to do that. Otherwise, you have to answer the discovery.
13 So I will grant the motions as prayed for and --
14 MR. SERRAO: Can I speak about the transcript one more
15 time?
16 THE COURT: No. It doesn't --
17 MR. SERRAO: It did say limited and minimal discovery.
18 THE COURT: Then you have to come in here, and you have
19 to file -- you cannot just walk in here on the day of a
20 hearing and just start arguing.
21 You have to comply with it. You have to file an
22 opposition. You have to say this was too much. You have to
23 say these are copies. You have to say what you want to do.
24 You can't just do this.
25 MR. SERRAO: I did oppose the oppositions on time --
26 excuse me -- the motions, and I did state that in there, that
27 it was cumulative, duplicative, it wasn't limited, so on and
28 so forth.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 12
1 MR. MARTIN: Leonard Martin.
2 Can we get the 30 days -- can we get it on one of them
3 and after that is done 30 days on the next and 30 days on the
4 next?
5 THE COURT: This will go on forever.
6 Are there many sets? You aren't sending out
7 duplicative sets, are you? It's one set of interrogatories.
8 MR. WHITE: We were ordered to send a set.
9 THE COURT: So why does he have a big stack?
10 MR. WHITE: You have to ask Mr. Martin, your Honor.
11 MR. MARTIN: There are four different things.
12 THE COURT: There were four things, so there should be
13 35 interrogatories.
14 How many interrogatories did you send?
15 MR. SERRAO: More than that.
16 MR. REDFORD: 55, your Honor.
17 THE COURT: 55 interrogatories.
18 How many requests for production? That pile is too
19 big. What he is holding in his hand is too big.
20 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: I have twice that at home.
21 THE COURT: It shouldn't be that big.
22 MR. REDFORD: 74 requests for production, your Honor.
23 THE COURT: So that's not that thick.
24 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, they have checked 17.1
25 which --
26 THE COURT: They get to do that.
27 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: I had 100-some pages to that one
28 answer.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 13
1 THE COURT: I understand the answers but not -- the --
2 Mr. White, would you just look at the captions of what he is
3 showing there.
4 Are all those discovery requests?
5 MR. WHITE: Mr. Martin's stack is -- do you really want
6 me to go through each thing here?
7 Isn't this your whole file?
8 MR. MARTIN: This is just on Boeing. This is just
9 from -- these two -- this is from your office. This is
10 from -- these two piles are from --
11 MR. WHITE: That's on the motions, the declarations.
12 MR. MARTIN: This is the last 30 days.
13 THE COURT: These are not the discovery requests.
14 MR. WIRICK: These are motions to amend the complaint
15 to add new parties.
16 THE COURT: Okay. Then forget it.
17 I will give you 45 days to answer this discovery.
18 MR. MARTIN: This all has to do with the discovery.
19 THE COURT: I will give you until March 14th.
20 MR. SERRAO: Your Honor, can we object to something if
21 we objected in the correct way?
22 THE COURT: You can object to something if you object
23 in the correct way. Then they bring a motion to compel.
24 MR. SERRAO: Exactly.
25 THE COURT: Then you have to file your opposition to
26 the motion to compel explaining why it shouldn't be compelled.
27 Some of these reasons why you didn't produce things are
28 not really good reasons why these things are not produced.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 14
1 It just says, "We object to it. We object to these
2 requests. Plaintiff hereby objects to these requests."
3 That's not an objection. You have to make a valid
4 objection as to why they shouldn't be answered. You have to
5 give objections with grounds, reasons, and then you have to
6 file oppositions to motions.
7 MR. SERRAO: I did.
8 THE COURT: I know, but you didn't really give this --
9 you just have to give the stuff.
10 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We were sent a letter also that
11 stated on one of the issues that if we did file a motion, then
12 they were going to file even more motions and more sanctions
13 and more everything else. They are --
14 THE COURT: No. They get to do this.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: I understand.
16 THE COURT: So do it. Respond to their discovery, and
17 get your verifications. Get your verifications in. Okay?
18 Maybe if they will accept some release, I don't know if
19 that solves some of the document requests. You can wait for a
20 minute and talk to counsel.
21 MR. SERRAO: It would solve a lot of the issues.
22 THE COURT: I don't know if it solves them for them.
23 They may want your verified responses.
24 Why don't you take a minute, counsel, and talk to them.
25 I can't tell you that that would do it. I'm not going to
26 start hearing it for the first time in argument here. It's
27 not how it's going to work. I'm not doing it.
28 MR. SERRAO: If I may interrupt, if we do get a defense
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 15
1 coordinated counsel, are we then going to follow what is going
2 on in the CMO? Do we just throw this out the window, the case
3 management order?
4 THE COURT: Do you know what he is talking about?
5 MR. WIRICK: There is an early case management order
6 that designates Dreamworks counsel in Long Beach as the
7 defense coordinated counsel.
8 THE COURT: I think what he is saying is if he gives
9 these releases, he thinks he doesn't have to do the discovery.
10 MR. WHITE: That is part of the problem. That is the
11 gist we have gotten -- this is David White -- that the
12 plaintiffs seem to think that if we want medical records,
13 we're supposed to go to the doctor and get the medical records
14 even if they have them.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We signed the release for them.
16 MR. SERRAO: We signed a release for them.
17 THE COURT: You don't want to just order them up with
18 your copy service?
19 MR. WHITE: We're going to have to probably do that.
20 We also don't have all the releases, do we?
21 MR. SERRAO: We --
22 THE COURT: Sir, it's not your turn.
23 MR. WHITE: We do have all the releases.
24 THE COURT: So can you just get the medical records?
25 Won't that be easier?
26 MR. WHITE: There is nothing easy about this,
27 unfortunately.
28 THE COURT: I understand.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 16
1 MR. WHITE: We're looking for needles in haystacks
2 here. All we have heard about is sinusitis and allergic
3 rhinitis.
4 THE COURT: I'm just asking, can you get the medical
5 records, if you have the releases, and just order them? I
6 think that is an easier way to do it.
7 MR. WIRICK: It's not just all medical records. There
8 are a lot of exposure dates.
9 THE COURT: I'm not saying all the discovery, but why
10 don't you take a minute with these individuals and see if the
11 medical releases eliminate some of the questions. I don't
12 have any idea whether it does or doesn't.
13 There may be questions in there that say, "What is the
14 name of all treating doctors?" We will still need that. The
15 releases won't do any good unless you know what doctors to
16 send the releases to.
17 MR. SERRAO: We sent the list of doctors that we went
18 to.
19 THE COURT: Verified?
20 MR. SERRAO: I don't know what you mean by "verified."
21 THE COURT: I'm sorry. You have to do them verified.
22 You will have to get the Code. I cannot give you legal
23 advice.
24 MR. SERRAO: Okay.
25 THE COURT: Okay.
26 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: One last thing, please.
27 THE COURT: What?
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Back to the case management, it
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 17
1 said in the case management that when the defendants are going
2 to read a Code to us that they explain what the Code actually
3 meant in it.
4 THE COURT: I don't know what you're talking about.
5 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's in the case management order.
6 THE COURT: They cannot give you legal advice.
7 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's not legal advice. They just
8 cited Code.
9 THE COURT: That's all they have to do.
10 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: In the case management, it says
11 they need to explain that Code.
12 THE COURT: Does somebody know what he is talking
13 about?
14 MR. SERRAO: Basically they have to send us a letter
15 with each thing stating that --
16 THE COURT: Read me the sentence. Just tell me the
17 paragraph.
18 MR. SERRAO: "With respect to the service of discovery
19 responses or documents filed with the Court, any plaintiff
20 proceeding in pro per in this case shall be required to mail
21 documents at issue to plaintiffs' coordinating counsel and
22 defendants' coordinating counsel at the above addresses but
23 shall not be required to serve any other plaintiffs or
24 defendants."
25 THE COURT: That has nothing to do with the Code.
26 MR. SERRAO: I'm getting there.
27 "Any discovery motion or documents served by a
28 defendant on one or more unrepresented plaintiffs shall
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 18
1 include a letter or other notification clearly informing such
2 plaintiffs of procedure for plaintiffs' service of documents
3 set forth in this paragraph."
4 THE COURT: That just means they are going to tell you
5 who to serve it on.
6 MR. SERRAO: But we haven't gotten any of that.
7 THE COURT: That's not explaining the Codes to you.
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's in there.
9 MR. SERRAO: I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Norrbom is
10 talking about is in there.
11 THE COURT: The bottom line of this is I'm granting the
12 motions. The defense is -- one of the defense is to prepare
13 an order.
14 Actually, Downey should prepare an order, and in the
15 order you are to indicate who is going to be the designated
16 recipient of the discovery responses. Okay?
17 So I need that in the order so that they know. You
18 give a name and address, and also it should include the name
19 and address of the -- the phone number of the person they are
20 to have any meet and confer conversations with. Okay?
21 So that will take care of that.
22 Now, having said that, in the case management
23 statement, there is an offer by the defense to go off to
24 mediation and split the bill with you all in a way that
25 basically the defense is paying for most of the mediation.
26 I guess the question to the plaintiffs is whether you
27 want to go to that.
28 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We would like time to speak to an
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 19
1 attorney about that.
2 THE COURT: You have been given time to speak to
3 attorneys. Are you getting attorneys?
4 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: About that specific thing, we're
5 not sure who those judges are. They are not talking about
6 lawyers like they are neutral evaluation that you were
7 speaking about.
8 THE COURT: No. They think it will take more time, and
9 they are willing to pay -- they are willing to submit the
10 first 300 and pay the additional 1,000 or $1500 to go for
11 longer.
12 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We're wondering, are there only
13 two judges that are in that program?
14 MR. SOBELMAN: Your Honor, may I speak to this issue?
15 THE COURT: Yes.
16 MR. SOBELMAN: What we did is go on the court's
17 website. The court has two programs, a neutral evaluation
18 which is free and a mediation program which costs money for
19 the parties.
20 We did not find any retired judges who were on the
21 court's panel for neutral evaluators who had toxic tort or
22 environmental experience.
23 So we then looked at the list of approved mediators on
24 the court's website, and we found two judges, retired judges,
25 who are on the court's panel and approved to be mediators in
26 toxic tort cases.
27 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: There are only two.
28 MR. SOBELMAN: There are only two that we identified,
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 20
1 Judges Wagner and Katz.
2 We have since, among the defendants, conferred, and we
3 believe that Judge Wagner would actually be appropriate for
4 this matter.
5 I do have a few printouts of the information from the
6 court's website concerning Judge Wagner I could hand to the
7 plaintiffs.
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: We would like to see that.
9 THE COURT: My sense of these things that while it's
10 good if the plaintiff is comfortable with the person going,
11 with the person you are going to -- first of all, nobody can
12 make you settle.
13 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Right.
14 THE COURT: That it's really important that the defense
15 is comfortable because, if they're not comfortable, they don't
16 offer any money.
17 So there needs to be somebody that the defense -- you
18 know, the defense and the adjustors and that will be receptive
19 to listening to.
20 But I'm not ordering you to it. It's just a suggestion
21 that you go to this.
22 They think it will take time. They are offering to pay
23 for -- to take a full day on this and see if any of these
24 matters can be worked out. I don't know that you're ready to
25 go now or whether you need this discovery before you can go.
26 MR. SERRAO: That is another issue, your Honor.
27 THE COURT: I need to go in a minute.
28 MR. SERRAO: We have discovery issues because in the
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 21
1 transcript it says the stay was lifted, and so we sent out
2 discovery, and now they don't want to answer it. They want to
3 get protective orders for all the stuff that we're asking for
4 and --
5 THE COURT: Sir, I cannot -- you can bring your motions
6 to compel in the proper format, and I will rule on them.
7 MR. SERRAO: Okay.
8 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
9 THE COURT: I can't just off the cuff just tell them to
10 answer things. So I can't do that.
11 MR. SOBELMAN: Your Honor, defendants have one question
12 regarding that.
13 We were actually seeking the Court's advice on this
14 matter because defendants could file a motion for protective
15 order based on our belief that discovery was overbroad based
16 on the Court's prior ruling.
17 A notice of entry of order was sent out by defendants
18 after the last status conference where the judge specifically
19 laid out the categories for discovery. We sent a meet and
20 confer letter saying the defense felt this was beyond that.
21 We obviously don't want to, you know, incur the costs
22 associated with a motion for protective order. We don't want
23 to bring motions that are going to be difficult for the
24 plaintiffs to respond to if we don't need to.
25 We have offered to respond to their discovery to the
26 extent it is responsive to the Court's order at the prior
27 status conference. We have not heard back yea or nay whether
28 the plaintiffs are willing to.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 22
1 THE COURT: I don't have a clue what you're talking
2 about. The problem is I don't have the discovery. I don't
3 have it. I don't know what you're talking about. So what can
4 I say?
5 If I made a ruling on how broad it could be, then it's
6 how broad it could be. That's all I can do.
7 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, defendants will confer on that
8 issue of plaintiffs' discovery. That is not something that
9 needs to be before the Court. It's not even due yet.
10 THE COURT: It's not even due yet. Maybe you will get
11 some answers you will be happy with. Okay?
12 Yes, Mr. Martin.
13 MR. MARTIN: The date that we have to come back, I
14 would like to ask for two motions to be set for --
15 THE COURT: No. You have to file them. You just pay
16 the fees, and you file the motions. You don't pay the fees if
17 you have a fee waiver and file the motions.
18 You have to comply with the notice statutes on them.
19 You cannot send something down for filing today to be heard
20 tomorrow. It can't be heard like that. That is not the Code.
21 MR. MARTIN: I'm asking for a future date like in
22 45 days to hear the motion.
23 THE COURT: I don't know when you're filing them.
24 MR. MARTIN: I can file them today. I can hand them
25 out to everybody here. I have them with me.
26 THE COURT: You file them, and you can get a date from
27 Esmeralda to get them set on.
28 MR. MARTIN: Okay. When are we back?
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 23
1 THE COURT: We haven't set a date to be back yet. We
2 haven't decided whether you want to go to mediation or what
3 you want to do.
4 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Your Honor, is discovery open, or
5 is it -- is there --
6 THE COURT: If I issued an order the last time.
7 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: They are asking two questions to
8 them, but those were never questions that I had intentions of
9 asking them.
10 THE COURT: I don't know what you're talking about.
11 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: On the 23rd, Mr. Martin stood up
12 and asked about the relationship or whatever. They are
13 standing on that point that that was a court order by you that
14 we can only ask for those two things, nothing that I want.
15 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, none of this is before the
16 Court.
17 THE COURT: I don't know what you want.
18 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
19 THE COURT: I just can't do it this way. I can't
20 explain it to you, but I can't do it this way. We're going
21 around in circles. I just can't do it.
22 MR. SERRAO: We're just trying to find out if the stay
23 was lifted or it was --
24 THE COURT: Why don't you get a copy of the last order
25 I issued, and that has been lifted.
26 MR. SERRAO: It's very broke up and broad and goes this
27 way and that way, every direction.
28 THE COURT: I don't think the order does.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 24
1 Yes, Mr. Martin.
2 MR. MARTIN: Okay. I have the defendants' update,
3 joint status conference statement January 31st. So this is
4 before the Court today. This is from the defendants.
5 In here it says that we're only to answer two things,
6 the answer to ownership and the answer to corporate
7 relationship.
8 What that means is when we were here on October 23rd, I
9 asked the Court -- I asked you if we could find out -- these
10 were just two questions I asked. Can we find out who the
11 ownership is, who owns the property, and the relationship to
12 the property, and you said yes.
13 So by me asking that question, the defendants put in
14 that those are the only two things we're allowed to ask for in
15 discovery. That is what the plaintiffs are saying.
16 THE COURT: Okay. I --
17 MR. MARTIN: Because I asked the question.
18 THE COURT: I do not have, right in front of me right
19 now, all the prior orders that I have made on this date. I
20 have to get them all. I have to look at it. I can't answer
21 the question.
22 MR. MARTIN: I have a copy of the transcript.
23 THE COURT: I don't want the transcript. I want the
24 order. I don't have it in front of me.
25 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, may I just state for the
26 record, I believe that plaintiffs' discovery to defendants,
27 the response date, is February 8th. Therefore, nobody has
28 responded yet. There is nothing before the Court.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 25
1 Given that the response date hasn't come around on the
2 calendar, we're about eight or nine days until the response
3 date comes -- excuse me. It's due on the 11th.
4 None of this is before the Court. We don't really need
5 to discuss that.
6 THE COURT: I understand.
7 What kind of questions did they ask that you are
8 objecting to?
9 MR. WHITE: They asked some very wide-ranging questions
10 about the history of the property and a lot of things that,
11 frankly, there isn't any defendant that can probably answer
12 them anyway.
13 But, you know, we can deal with that when we come
14 around to the response and then they have their remedies. We
15 don't need to discuss this in terms of a protective order is
16 what my point is. We're not seeking a protective order.
17 THE COURT: I think you should make an effort to answer
18 questions that are easily doable.
19 MR. WHITE: That is what we intend.
20 THE COURT: So I think you ought to meet and confer and
21 see what you ought to do.
22 MR. SERRAO: We asked questions that would be part of a
23 real estate transaction that any normal person would ask or
24 have papers through a real estate transaction.
25 THE COURT: Are the questions pertaining to the
26 transfer of property from entity to entity?
27 MR. WHITE: Among other things.
28 THE COURT: Those you ought to answer.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 26
1 MR. WHITE: To the extent we can.
2 THE COURT: Just wait and see when you get your
3 answers.
4 They should be answering that, who owned the property
5 and who controlled the property. I'm sure I let you do that.
6 I can't imagine that I didn't.
7 So now you have 45 days to get these further responses.
8 Are you all ready to go until you get the medicals?
9 You need to talk amongst yourselves and decide whether you
10 want to take the releases on the medicals and get your own
11 medical records.
12 MR. SERRAO: We did that.
13 THE COURT: They need to decide that. They have the
14 right to ask you those questions.
15 So I would really like all that in the order, too, what
16 you all agreed to, what the defense has agreed to accept or
17 not accept, medical releases and employment releases in lieu
18 of questions number X, X, X, X, X. Okay?
19 Now, what do you want to do about coming back? Do you
20 want to wait and come back in 60 days, or is there a chance to
21 go to a mediation prior to that time?
22 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Well, we're actually waiting for
23 some of the discovery or any of the discovery.
24 MR. SERRAO: We would like our discovery that we did on
25 them answered before we go to any neutral evaluation or
26 mediation at this point, your Honor.
27 THE COURT: Okay. How about 9:30 on March 26th?
28 March 26th, 9:30.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 27
1 MR. WHITE: That is a continued CMC, your Honor?
2 THE COURT: Yes.
3 Okay. So we're having -- Downey is going to give
4 notice because you're going to include all this other stuff in
5 there.
6 MR. WHITE: City of Downey.
7 MR. REDFORD: Yes, your Honor.
8 THE COURT: What other Downey is there besides the City
9 of Downey?
10 MR. WHITE: There is Downey Studios, which is one of
11 the IRG defendants. I wasn't just being contentious, your
12 Honor.
13 THE COURT: Yes, sir. Last thing.
14 MR. SERRAO: If I may touch on one more thing, if our
15 request for production of documents or request for whatever it
16 was, we want to be able to go and inspect the property or have
17 somebody inspect the property because they are in the middle
18 of remediation and removing and demolition.
19 THE COURT: Do you have an expert?
20 MR. SERRAO: We could find one. We would like to do it
21 ourselves if possible.
22 THE COURT: What are you going to inspect? What are
23 you going to do?
24 MR. SERRAO: We're going to go in there and get some
25 samples of some of the stuff that's there.
26 THE COURT: It really won't work that way.
27 MR. SERRAO: That's what I'm asking.
28 THE COURT: If you have an expert that you designated
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 28
1 who wants to go out and look at the property and that, I will
2 set up an inspection, but you need -- it's going to have to be
3 an expert.
4 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, given that my clients, the IRG
5 defendants, are being sued in this action concerning whatever
6 is or is not on the property that my clients own, if anybody
7 on behalf of the plaintiffs is going to come on the property,
8 they are going to have to come with their own insurance to
9 cover whoever comes on and whoever gets exposed. Otherwise,
10 we're going to object to that.
11 THE COURT: Right now we need an expert first. You
12 need an expert.
13 MR. WHITE: Them coming back isn't going to further
14 anything.
15 THE COURT: I understand that. So come back when you
16 have an expert.
17 Yes, Mr. Martin.
18 MR. MARTIN: We don't have a lot of pictures. Can we
19 just go take pictures if nothing else?
20 THE COURT: You just can't -- I can't let you just roam
21 the property.
22 Is it open to the public?
23 MR. MARTIN: Yes.
24 MR. WHITE: No, it's not open to the public.
25 MR. MARTIN: People are working there.
26 MR. WHITE: It is not open to the public. There are
27 people that come and go that are there pursuant to license
28 agreements to be there. It is private property. It is so
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 29
1 posted. And the plaintiffs are not allowed on the property.
2 THE COURT: You really need to get some experts out
3 there.
4 You're welcome to take whatever pictures you can
5 through the fence.
6 Yes?
7 MR. SERRAO: In their request for production of --
8 special interrogatories, they call it a public property in
9 there. That is why I can't answer that question because it's
10 a private property.
11 How do I answer a question that says public property?
12 I hate to keep going back to the discovery --
13 THE COURT: I have no idea what the question says.
14 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: It's a question that's asked, and
15 then it states, "while you were on this public property."
16 Well, we can't say that we were on public property
17 because it's not public property. So it's kind of hard to
18 answer that without just answering the fact that we can't
19 answer it because it's not --
20 THE COURT: Do you all know what they are talking
21 about?
22 MR. REDFORD: Your Honor, I believe the sole cause of
23 action against my client, the City, is for dangerous condition
24 of public property. So as part of our discovery request --
25 THE COURT: It's public property because it's owned by
26 the public.
27 MR. WHITE: That doesn't cover my client's property,
28 Downey Studios. That is only by my clients. It's not public
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 30
1 property. It's posted, and plaintiffs cannot come on there.
2 THE COURT: You can walk on anything that is public and
3 open to the public, but you can't go on to somebody's private
4 property that is closed off.
5 MR. SERRAO: I know. But we still haven't deciphered
6 if it's public or private.
7 MR. WHITE: I'm representing as an officer of the Court
8 and a lawyer for 31 years that my client owns the property and
9 it's not public.
10 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Okay.
11 THE COURT: Okay. Get me some experts that you want to
12 go out there for testing. I will be happy to set up the
13 testing.
14 Yes, Mr. Martin.
15 MR. MARTIN: I have a copy of the real estate deal that
16 says Downey IRG owns 80 acres and somebody else, Downey
17 Landing, owns another 80. So they don't own the whole
18 160 acres. So maybe part of it is public, and part of it is
19 private.
20 THE COURT: I have no idea.
21 Is this fenced-in property?
22 MR. MARTIN: The whole thing is fenced in.
23 THE COURT: If the whole thing is fenced in, then it's
24 owned by somebody.
25 You have to get an expert. We set up inspections, and
26 we usually work it out to get inspections. Their inspector
27 comes the same time as your inspector comes so they know where
28 they are taking the soil from and what they are looking for
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 31
1 and what readings they are looking for.
2 A lay person is really not going to be able to go out
3 there and just walk in with dirt, take some dirt, bring it
4 into court and say, "See, this caused me my injuries."
5 In the real world, you're going to need an expert who
6 is going to go out and do all the testing, and then I will set
7 it up.
8 Yes. Last thing.
9 MR. SERRAO: There is an ongoing EPA right now that
10 we're -- that is supposed to be being released, the results of
11 that, in three or four or five months.
12 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: The problem is, your Honor, they
13 have plans to tear down all those buildings.
14 THE COURT: Sir, I cannot prepare your case for you.
15 MR. HAROLD NORRBOM: Sorry, your Honor.
16 THE COURT: I cannot hire your experts. I just can't
17 do it. I understand you're at a disadvantage, but you don't
18 get the advantage of me being your lawyer and organizing that.
19 It can't do that.
20 So you have to -- if they are doing things out there,
21 then you need to talk to your lawyer. You need to talk to an
22 expert. You need to do what you need to do, but I can't just
23 go and do it for you.
24 Okay. So the defense, the City of Downey, is going to
25 give notice, and you know what you're going to have in this
26 order.
27 MR. REDFORD: Yes, your Honor. Both the City of Downey
28 and the IRG motions to compel are granted.
DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 32
1 Plaintiffs to give either responses -- because some
2 plaintiffs have not responded at all as of yet -- and further
3 responses by March 14, 2008.
4 Did the Court make any ruling on the request for
5 sanctions?
6 THE COURT: No sanctions.
7 MR. SERRAO: I thought it was March 26th.
8 THE COURT: No. March 26th is our next status
9 conference.
10 Defense counsel are going to designate somebody to
11 receive the responses and to designate a person to handle the
12 meet and confers, and the defense is going to see if any of
13 the categories can be eliminated because of the signing of the
14 releases so you can get the documents directly from those
15 entities. And all that should be contained in the order.
16 MR. REDFORD: Yes, your Honor.
17 THE COURT: And if you're going to excuse the responses
18 to certain requests for production or that, please indicate by
19 number which ones are being excused.
20 And, Mr. Martin, you're welcome to file a motion. You
21 just have to set it on the right notice.
22 Okay. Is everybody happy?
23 Thanks very much.
24 (End of proceedings.)
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DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
1 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
2 FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
3 DEPARTMENT 308 HON. EMILIE H. ELIAS, JUDGE
4
5 BARRY BERNSON, et al., ) ) 6 Plaintiffs, ) ) SUPERIOR COURT 7 vs. ) CASE NO. VC 046 716 ) 8 CITY OF DOWNEY, et al., ) ) 9 Defendants. ) ___________________________________) 10
11
12
13 I, DAVID SALYER, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER OF THE
14 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, FOR THE COUNTY OF
15 LOS ANGELES, DO HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING PAGES, 1
16 THROUGH 32, INCLUSIVE, COMPRISE A TRUE AND CORRECT TRANSCRIPT
17 OF THE PROCEEDINGS TAKEN IN THE ABOVE-ENTITLED MATTER REPORTED
18
19 DATED February 1, 2008.
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21
22
23 __________________________________
24 DAVID A. SALYER, CSR No. 4410, RMR Official Court Reporter 25
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