Maldonado v. Superior Court

Former ICG Telecom salesmen (plaintiffs) sued ICG (defendant) for employment discrimination based on an alleged race-based service policy, after ICG went through bankruptcy and laid off most relevant supervisors and HR staff. The plaintiffs noticed depositions of ICG's most knowledgeable person on termination reasons, related documents, decision-makers, and the challenged policy, along with document requests; ICG designated witness Patricia Haley on employment issues, but she had little personal knowledge of the terminations, wouldn't confirm whether a shown document was a personnel file, failed to bring a requested file, and knew nothing about one plaintiff's employment, while two other designated witnesses on the policy brought no documents and had only general knowledge. The trial court ordered some additional document production but denied the plaintiffs' broader motion to compel further depositions and for evidentiary sanctions, and the plaintiffs appealed.