Court filing
Letter dated March 14, 2022 by Kolawole Ahmadou, Kiana Dervin — Marshall v. Prestamos CDFI, LLC (Dkt. 30, E.D. Pa. No. 5:21-cv-04337)
Filed March 14, 2022 in Marshall v. Prestamos CDFI, LLC; one of 344 filings from this case.
Record facts
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Filed | 2022-03-14 |
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania · No. 5:21-cv-04337-JMG · Doc. 30 · 2022-03-14 · Docket on CourtListener
Full text
1055 Thomas Jefferson St. NW Suite 540 Washington, DC 20007 Tel: 202.463.2101 Fax: 202.463.2103 AL • CA • DC • DE • FL • IA • ID • IL • MA • MO • NJ • NY • PA • TX • WV | baileyglasser.com March 14, 2022 Via CM/ECF Judge John M. Gallagher United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Edward N. Cahn Courthouse & Federal Bldg. 504 W. Hamilton Street, Suite 4701 Allentown, Pennsylvania 18101 Re: Marshall, et al. v. Prestamos CDFI, LLC, No. 5:21-cv-04337-JMG (E.D. Pa.) Dear Judge Gallagher: We write on behalf of Plaintiffs pursuant to section II.C.2 of Your Honor’s Policies and Procedures in reply to Defendant Prestamos CDFI, LLC’s (“Defendant”) February 25, 2022 response (ECF 27) (“Defendant’s Response”) to Plaintiffs’ February 14, 2022 letter (ECF 22) (“Plaintiffs’ Letter”). Plaintiffs’ Letter requests a telephone conference for the Court to resolve a discovery dispute. Defendants’ Response opposes that conference. The Court should hold the conference and resolve the parties’ discovery dispute. As is clear from the parties’ filings, the parties dispute whether discovery should be stayed and bifurcated. And because of that dispute, Defendant has persisted in thus far continuing to fail to produce even one document or any other meaningful discovery despite the fact that this case was filed October 1, 2021 and Plaintiffs served document requests and interrogatories on November 16, 2021. Defendant’s contentions in its Response that Plaintiffs filed their Letter “without notice” regarding “a purported discovery dispute” and that Plaintiffs “rushed the matter to the Court” and Plaintiffs’ Letter “is premature” are therefore completely undermined by the parties’ submissions and Defendant’s acknowledgment in its Response that it seeks the very stay and to bifurcate to which Plaintiffs object. ECF 22, 27. In addition, Defendant’s Response also acknowledges that Plaintiffs served a subpoena on Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. (“CPLC”), Defendant’s corporate parent. ECF 27 at 2. Defendant’s Response fails to disclose, however, that the same counsel representing Defendant in this litigation also represents CPLC in connection with that subpoena; that CPLC is therefore similarly and predictably stonewalling and thus has also failed to produce even a single document and apparently refuses to produce any responsive documents; and that, in its formal written responses and objections to 32 of the 33 document requests in that subpoena, CPLC Lawrence J. Lederer llederer@baileyglasser.com Case 5:21-cv-04337-JMG Document 30 Filed 03/14/22 Page 1 of 2 Judge John M. Gallagher March 14, 2022 Page 2 AL • CA • DC • DE • FL • IA • ID • IL • MA • MO • NJ • NY • PA • TX • WV | baileyglasser.com explicitly objects on the specific ground, among others, that the requested discovery is “the subject of a dispute that should be resolved before seeking discovery from CPLC.” (emphasis added.) The Court should not countenance such gamesmanship. That is so particularly in the circumstances here which involve the status and potential disposition -- indeed, potential theft -- of the unfunded PPP proceeds that the U.S. Small Business Association approved and the federal government advanced and guaranteed for Plaintiffs and other putative members of the proposed nationwide class at issue in this litigation. In sum, Defendant’s bald assertion that “there is no time-sensitive evidence to which Plaintiffs require immediate access” (ECF 27 at 3) could not be further from the truth. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Lawrence J. Lederer Lawrence J. Lederer LJL:ss cc: All counsel of record (via CM/ECF) Case 5:21-cv-04337-JMG Document 30 Filed 03/14/22 Page 2 of 2
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- gov.uscourts.paed.589575.30.0.pdf
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- 80,143 bytes
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