Chudasama v. Mazda Motor Corp

After Chudasama and his wife (Plaintiffs) got into an accident while they were driving a 1989 Mazda MPV minivan, they sued Mazda Motor Corp. (Defendant) based on claims of products liability and fraud. Over two years, the parties engaged in lengthy discovery disputes. Among other unreasonable tactics, Plaintiffs asked for almost every document that Defendant had in its possession, and Defendant barely gave Plaintiffs anything and tried to delay discovery several times. After the court decided not to rule on Defendant’s discovery objections, Defendant moved to dismiss the fraud claim. The court decided not to rule on the motion. Then, Defendant wanted a protective order to shield confidential business documents from discovery. The parties disputed the terms of the protective order. After the court ruling on the protective order adopted almost precisely mirrored the proposed protective order made by Plaintiffs, Defendant decided to withhold numerous amounts of properly discoverable information. Subsequently, Plaintiffs filed a motion to compel Defendant to respond to their endless list of interrogatories and production requests. After a hearing on the parties’ discovery disputes, the court made it clear to the parties that it had no intention of ruling on any discovery disputes; otherwise, the court will issue sanctions. The court wanted the parties to work out the discovery disputes together without the court’s intervention. After more discovery disputes, the court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions against Defendant for continuing to be uncooperative with discovery. The court ruled to enter a default judgment against Defendant and ordered Defendant to pay Plaintiffs’ expenses. In addition, the court ordered to vacate Defendant’s protective order. Defendant appealed.