Judge orders more sanctions in Porter Ranch leak case

The Los Angeles County judge overseeing the Porter Ranch gas leak litigation ordered another $46,800 in sanctions against Southern California Gas Co. and its attorneys from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

The fine is on top of a $525,000 sanction Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl imposed on the utility and lawyers in late February, citing discovery abuses.

The sum is payable to opposing counsel within 10 days, according to the March 20 order.

According to Kuhl's order, there were many obvious "misstatements of fact" in privilege log descriptions compiled by the Morgan Lewis attorneys.

According to a transcript of the March 20 hearing, Kuhl directly asked Morgan Lewis partner David Schrader how fraudulent claims of privilege could continue to occur.

Schrader responded that only a quarter of staff responsible for conducting privilege reviews could be relied upon.

"So that shrunk down from 40 something down to 10 people who we have a high level of confidence got it right consistently. But we did find some examples of where people got it wrong," Schrader told Kuhl.

Kuhl said in her order the defense put their opposition in the rough spot of having to reverify freshly produced documents on short notice.

"I totally agree with the court. We've been placed in a terrible position," said plaintiffs' counsel Brian J. Panish of Panish, Shea & Boyle LLP in a Tuesday interview. "Additionally the Supreme Court lifted a stay last Tuesday giving us access to more documents that must be produced today,"

The court also struck defendants' Febr. 11 privilege logs on the basis they were unreliable and ordered defendants to re-serve privilege logs within 30 days, accompanied by a declaration from their lead trial counsel, made under penalty of perjury, that all further assertions of privilege were made in good faith and the information contained in the privilege logs accurately described the documents at issue.

In a 27-page ruling in February, justifying the earlier $525,000 sanction, Kuhl said the defense attorneys committed persistent discovery abuse by failing to provide substantive privilege logs regarding some 155,000 documents sought by plaintiffs regarding the gas well's integrity.

Kuhl wrote in her first order that defendants put plaintiffs at a disadvantage going into a June trial, which is likely to be pushed back amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Litigation surrounding the 2015 gas leak has gone on for four years. It comprises 36,000 plaintiffs with nearly 200 law firms representing them. Close to 100 depositions have been completed with around 1.5 million documents circulated.

James J. Dragna, a Morgan Lewis partner who represents the utility, did not respond to a request for comment.

Mona Zeiberg, the firm's chief marketing officer, also did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the order, if the revised privilege logs and declarations are not served within 30 days an additional $50,000 daily sanction will be applied against Southern California Gas Co. and the firm until the order is followed.