Chong

BACKGROUND

Chong filed a complaint against Respondents for personal injuries sustained after a

motor vehicle accident. During the course of discovery, Chong failed to respond to

Respondents' discovery requests. The trial court ordered Chong to provide full and

complete responses without objections. Chong failed to comply with the court's order in

that he provided late responses, refused to answer numerous interrogatories, and included

objections. When Chong failed to timely cure the deficiencies, Respondents moved for

terminating sanctions, which were granted.

On August 16, 2013, Chong moved to reconsider and set aside the court's order

granting terminating sanctions. Chong's motion included a request for relief under Code

of Civil Procedure section 473 based on his attorney's mistake, inadvertence, surprise or

neglect. The trial court ruled it could not proceed on the reconsideration motion because

at that point, there was no written terminating sanctions order.

On October 3, 2013, the trial court served its order granting motion for terminating

sanctions on the parties. On October 9, 2013, Respondents served a notice of ruling on

their…