Sears

Geoffrey Mousseau appeals from two orders awarding combined discovery sanctions of more than $20,000 to Sears, Roebuck and Co. based on Mousseau’s refusal to comply with deposition and document production subpoenas. Mousseau also appeals from an order rejecting his peremptory challenge to the discovery referee who considered the first of the two sanctions motions and recommended that the trial court impose sanctions. (Code Civ. Proc., § 170.6.) For the reasons set forth below, we dismiss the appeal as to the second sanctions motion and the peremptory challenge issue, and affirm the first sanctions award.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Sears, Roebuck and Co. sued for bad faith when its insurer — National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh — refused to pay Sears’s claim for the theft of $20 million from Sears by Focus Media, Inc., an advertising agency that Sears had once hired. Lawyer Geoffrey Mousseau represented some of Focus Media’s principals, nonparty witnesses who had been subpoenaed as part of Sears’s discovery efforts. Evidence developed during discovery led Sears to believe that Mousseau had helped National Union develop a defense to Sears’s insurance…