Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Asking HOA for critical information
I am a plaintiff in pro per. I sued my HOA and another condominium owner for damages done to my unit. The HOA pitched in and fixed the common areas. I dismissed them from my lawsuit in prejudice and continued my lawsuit against the owner of the other condominium. May be I should have never dismissed them from my lawsuit.
I am now asking the HOA to tell me how much they spent on fixing the common areas of my unit so that I can use these figures to show the extent of damages to my unit during trail.
The HOA attorney is refusing to provide me with this information and arguing that I have already dismissed them with prejudice and I can not demand/ force them into giving me any information that they do not want to.
I believe it is my right to ask the HOA to show me how much they have spent to fix my unit.
If there any way I can get this information from the HOA?
Do I need to ask the HOA attorney or the president of the Board of Directors?
Thank you so much!
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Asking HOA for critical information
You will have to subpoena that information.
Re: Asking HOA for critical information
You can issue (or have the court issue) a subpoena duces tecum (i.e. for business records) pertaining to discrete categories that you identify. It would have to be served on the agent for service of process or the HOA's corporation. You can require a deposition in person of the custodian of records, or they can provide copies of the records. They might demand a deposition fee, however, so be prepared to shell out the money for that purpose.
Re: Asking HOA for critical information
With respect to the litigation, dismissing the HOA means that you can no longer serve them with discovery as if they were a party. However, you can subpoena the HOA to appear at a deposition to ask the questions you believe to be pertinent.
However, I do not see the relevance or admissibility of the HOAs cost to repair the common area. The only relevant information is how much YOU spent to fix YOUR unit. Whether the HOA spent $1 or $1 million, that has no impact on your damages.
Re: Asking HOA for critical information
What they spent is not your damage, and not recoverable by you, so don't bother issuing a subpeona. If you didn't spend anything out of pocket, you have no case left.
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