Lacambra vs. First Team Real Estate et al
There was a hearing yesterday on a motion filed by First Team et al for sanctions and to terminate my case. To my great distress, there were two previous depositions that I have failed to appear on. The first deposition ended up as a no show because the opposition had sent papers to an address they knew I was evicted from. The papers eventually arrived but were delayed considerably. On the first motion, Judge Honer sanctioned me to pay $120.00 and ordered me to appear at the offices of Thomas Lucero, Esq. of Manning and Marder in Los Angeles on the 31st of August 2008 at 10AM.
Complying to Judge Honer's order, I had planned to take the train from OC to LA on the 30th of August and sleep at the train station so I can be on time for my deposition. On the 29th of August, an earthquake with the magnitude of 5.4 was felt in the LA Region disrupting train services. For most of the day, the Metrolink website was flooded with viewer requests that the website only had the message “Come Back Again Later”. Uncertain of train service the next day, I changed plans and decided to take the car instead. Any other day that would have been a simple enough task. Unfortunately, that day, I didn’t have enough gas. The Google Map showed a roundtrip of 110.4 miles. At the prevailing gas prices then of $4.10, I had to come up with $30.18. With that plan, I immediately sprung into action and went around different churches and organizations but was declined in all instances because of lack of resources. I even went to a place called “Save Our Selves” (SOS) in Costa Mesa, CA who are recipients of “benevolent dollars” from churches. There too my request was declined despite showing them a “court order to appear”.
On the afternoon of the 30th, I phoned Thomas Lucero, the Defense Counsel for First Team et al and explained my situation to him. My desperation prompted me to ask him to send money, to which he replied, “we’ll send you money if you drop the case”. Naturally, his offer was declined. Before the end of the conversation, I pointed to him that it would cost his clients more money to file a motion rather than send me money.
The hearing for “Motion for Terminating and Sanctions” was presided by Hon. David McEachen. One issue raised by the opposition was the fantastical claim that the First Amended Complaint (FAC) has not been received by First Team. To contradict that claim my opposition papers included three separate “Proof of Service”. I explained to Judge McEachen that the FAC has already been sent. To my great relish he replied, “I don’t doubt you”, implying in effect that the opposition was lying and offered the opposition to get a copy from the clerk’s office. In the end, as mandated by law, Judge McEachen gave me 10 days to comply with the opposition’s request for documents, response to interrogatories, request for admissions and a deposition. The order was to have all these done by the 9th. I agreed to appear at their offices in LA with all the documents at hand.
If that story wasn’t amazing enough, consider that I have been waging my fight without money and as an indigent. The original Defense Counsel on this case was a seasoned attorney by the name of Fredric W. Trester . I suspect that I was troublesome enough to him on some of my opposition papers that I was passed on to one of their top guns – a Harvard-trained attorney by the name of Thomas Y. Lucero . Given my situation, they should have dispatched me a long time ago. But, here I am - still standing. If this gets in front of a jury in Santa Ana and it likely will on the 17th of November, someone will have to pick up chunks of the opposition from the courtroom floor because I will absolutely obliterate them. Someone will have to explain how an obviously gifted attorney trained by Harvard Law School ended up with the big “L” (LOSER). But the most annoying question that he will grapple with for the rest of his life is this: “Why didn’t you settle the case with that homeless guy named ROBERT?”
