SKAZZI3 Capital Limited v. Pathway Genomics Corporation ( 2019 )

2 DEC 8 0 2019 ; | cumrk Us ICT COOMA tga esi 5 . 7 |. ss UNITED STATESDISTRICTCOURT sis 8 |]. SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 |] SKAZZI3 CAPITAL LIMITED, _ | Case No.: 3:18-cv-00317-BEN-KSC □□□ ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S 12 || Vv. MOTION FOR ASSIGNMEN T . 13 || PATHWAY GENOMICS RESTRAINING JUDGMENT 14 , DEBTOR 5 Defendant. ' [Doc.No. 51] 17 Before the Court is Plaintiff SKAZZI3 CAPITAL LIMITED (“Plaintiff”) Motion 18 for an assignment and an order restraining the judgment debtors, Defendant PATHWAY 19 || GENOMICS CORPORATION (“Defendant” and “Judgment Debtor”). No opposition or 20 has been filed, and the party's respective deadlines have now passed. Having read 21 |jthe Plaintiff's Motion and carefully considered the arguments and the relevant legal 22 authority, and good cause appearing, the Court hereby GRANTS Plaintiffs Motion. 23 BACKGROUND © 24 Plaintiff originally brought this action to enforce an arbitral award obtained against 25 Defendant in Europe. (Doc. No. 15 at 1.) After the suit was filed, Defendant sought to 26 resolve the case without judicial intervention. The party’s negotiations resulted in a good. 27 |) faith Settlement Agreement requiring the Defendant to pay $482,913.00 by way of twelve 28 |/(12) equal monthly installments of $40,242.75. id. To secure the Plaintiff's interest, a || Stipulated Judgment was executed calling for entry of the judgment in the event the 2 Defendant failed to cure any missed payment within seven days of its scheduled due date. 3 || Zd. at 1-2. Defendant defaulted and failed to cure its second settlement payment. Jd. After 4 ||numerous unsuccessful attempts to resolve Defendant's default, Plaintiff sought entry of 5 ||judgment in the amount of $482,913.00, less $40,242.75(amount paid), for a total of 6 $442,670.25. id. The Final judgment was entered by this Court on December 26, 2018. 7 at 4. Subsequently, pursuant to a writ of execution levied by Plaintiff, the Judgment 8 || Creditor recovered $4,199.43 on May 10, 2019. Id. 9 Currently, the Defendant refuses to voluntarily pay the remaining balance of the 10 |) judgment against it. As a result, the Judgment remains unsatisfied and continues to accrue 11 |/interest at a legal rate of 2.64%. Id. 12 For that reason, Plaintiff filed a Motion for Clerks Judgment re Assignment Order 13 Restraining Order on October 25, 2019. (Doc. No. 51.) When the Defendant failed 14 || to respond to the Motion, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Non-Opposition. (Doc. No, 54.) 15 ‘DISCUSSION □ 16 A. Motion for Assignment Order 17 Whether the Plaintiff is entitled to an assignment order is governed by Federal Rule 18 || of Civil Procedure 69(a)(1); which in turn makes California law applicable. See Fed. R. 19 P. 69(a)(1); Hilao v. Estate of Marcos, 95 F.3d 848, 851 (9th Cir. 1996). Under 20 || California Code of Civil Procedure § 708.5 10(a), a judgment creditor can move the court 21 ||to order the judgment debtor to assign to the judgment creditor “all or part of a right to 22 payment due or to become due, whether or not the right is conditioned on future. 23 ||developments[.]” Subsection (b) of the same section requires plaintiff to serve the motion 24 the judgment debtor personally or by mail. Cal. Civ. Proc. § 708.510(b). □ 25 The court has “broad discretion in determining whether to order an assignment and 26 fixing the amount to be assigned[.]” Rutter Group Cal. Prac. Guid. Enf. J. & Debt Ch. 27 ||6G-5, J 6:1440 (2019). The court may only order the assignment of property to the extent 28 necessary to satisfy the money judgment. Cal. Civ. Proc. § 708.510(d). In making that 1 || determination, the court should consider all relevant factors, including: (1) The reasonable 2 |{requirements of a judgment debtor who is a natural person and any person he or she 3 || supports, (2) payments the judgment debtor is required to make, (3) the amount remaining 4 || on the judgment, and (4) the amount being or to be received in satisfaction of the right to 5 || payment that may be assigned. Cal. Civ. Proc. § 708.510(c). 6 While “detailed evidentiary support is not required under § 708.510[,]” “some 7 evidentiary support is still needed.” Legal Additions LLC v. Kowalksi, No. 08-cv-02754- 8 ||EMC, 2011 WL 3156724, at *2 (N.D. Cal. July 26, 2011) (emphasis in original). Section 9 708.510(a) refers to a ‘payment due or to become due,’ which suggests some degree of 10 concreteness to the expected payment is required.” Td. 11 Here, Plaintiff moves the Court for an order assigning it “all interest and rights to [2 |} payment of the identified accounts to satisfy, at least in part,” Plaintiff's judgment against 13 ||Defendant. (Doc. No. 51 at 4.) Specifically, Plaintiff requests that the Court assign 14 Defendant’s rights and interest to payments generated from sales of its testing kits by retail 15 ||portals CVS, Meijer pharmacies, Walmart, and Amazon.com. (See Doc. No. 51-2 76, and 16 at 7.) Additionally, Plaintiff requests the Court order credit card processors American 17 ||Express Corporation, Visa U.S.A. Inc., and Mastercard International Incorporated pay 18 || Plaintiff, rather than Defendant, any and all monetary payments originating from sales of 19 Defendant’s testing kits made on Defendant’s online webpage store, which are due or will 20 || become due to Defendant. (Doc. No. 51 at 7.) 21 Preliminarily, the Court notes that Defendant failed to file any opposition to. the 22 Motion, timely or otherwise. Pursuant to the Court’s Local Rules, failure to file an 23 || opposition to a motion may be deemed consent to granting the Motion. See S.D. Cal. L.R. 24 |17.1(f(3)(a) and (c); see also Trs. of Screen Actors Guild-Producers Pension Plan v. See 25 || You in Sept., LLC, No. CV 09-4230 AHM Wx), 2010 WL 5245960, at *1 (C.D. Cal. 26 ||Dec. 16, 2010).. The Court construes the Defendant’s failure as such; in any event, an 27 || assignment order is warranted based on the record before the Court. 28 Plaintiff has presented some evidence, including a screenshot of the Defendant’s . . 3 1 || webpage, www.pathway.com,. which indicates that at least some of the Defendant’s 2 |)products are available through the aforementioned retail portals. (Doc. No. 51-1 □ 6.) 3 || Plaintiff has also put forth evidence that the aforementioned Credit Card Merchants process _ 4 || credit card transactions for sales of Defendant’s test kits occurring on Defendant’s website 5 ||store. (Doc. Nos. 51 at 7; 51-1 96.) Such evidence is sufficient to show that these 6 payments are currently due to Defendant, or may become due to Defendant in the future. 7 || See UMG Recordings, Inc. v. BCD Music Group, Inc., No CV 07-5808 SJO (FFMx), 2009 8 || WL 2213678, at *3 (C.D. Cal. July 9, 2009), Plaintiff?s evidence also shows the Defendant 9 not made any payments toward the outstanding Judgment since it defaulted on its 10 second settlement payment. (See 15-19.) 11 Finally, although these product retailers and credit-card processors do not appear to 12 || be located within the Southern District of California, California Code of Civil Procedure § 13 || 708.510(a) does not impose any restrictions on what property may be assigned based on 14 property’s location; in other words, the Court may grant the assignment of property 15 located outside of this judicial district to satisfy Defendant’s obligations pursuant to the 16 Judgment registered here for enforcement purposes pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1963. See Cal. 17 || Civ. Proc. Code § 708.510; Greenbaum v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 782 F. Supp. 2d 893, 18 || 896-97 (C.D. Cal. 2008). 19 The Court concludes this evidence is sufficient to meet the relatively low evidentiary 20 threshold required to obtain an assignment order, especially in light of the Defendant’s 21 || failure to oppose the Motion. See Legal Additions LLC v. Kowalski, No. C-08-2754 EMC, 22 ||2011 WL 3156724, at *2 (N.D. Cal. July 26, 2011). Plaintiff is entitled to the requested assignment order for the following reasons: (1) 24 || Plaintiff has satisfied its burden of identifyirig specific sources of money to be assigned; 25 ||(2) Defendant failed to: satisfy his obligation pursuant to the Judgment; (3) there is no 26 ||indication Defendant will do so voluntarily; and (4) these proceeds appear to be readily 27 ||available to satisfy the judgment, at least in part. See Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §§ 28 || 708,.510(c)(3)-(4); see also, e.g. Lopez v. Musinorte Entm't Corp., No. CV 11-01442 AHM 1 || (AJWx),. 2011 WL 2471927, at *2-3 (C.D. Cal. July 21, 2011); Greenbaum, 782 F. Supp. 2 ||2d at 896-97. 3 || B. Motion for Order Restraining Judgment Debtor 4 When an application is made pursuant to Section 708.510 of the California Code of 5 Procedure, or thereafter, a judgment creditor may apply to the court for an order 6 restraining a judgment debtor “from assigning or otherwise disposing of the right to 7 ||payment that is sought to be assigned.” Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 708.520(a). Such & || application shall be made on a noticed motion if the court so directs or a court rule so 9 ||requires but otherwise may be made ex parte. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 708.520(a). The 10 || court. may issue such an order upon a showing of need therefor. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 11 708.520(b). The threshold for showing need is “low.” Innovation Ventures, LLC v. N2G 12 Distributing, Ine., 2014 WL 103 84606, at *6-*7 (C.D. Cal. May 1, 2014). Any such order 13 be personally served upon the judgment debtor and must contain a notice to the 14 || judgment debtor that “the failure to comply with the order may subject the judgment debtor I5 being held in contempt of court.” Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 708.520(d). □ 16 | Here, the Motion should be granted to the extent it seeks an order restraining 17 Defendant from assigning or otherwise disposing of the right or interest to payment from 18 aforementioned retail portal clients and credit card processors. As noted above, the 19 || Judgment was entered in this district on December 26, 2018, and, at least as of defaulting 20 its second settlement payment, no subsequent payments have been made to Plaintiff. 21 |}(Doc. No, 51 at 7-8.) It is reasonable to infer that Defendant will dispose of any □□□□□□□□□ 22 |/it receives from the retail portal clients and credit card processors without paying Plaintiff 23 unless it is restrained from doing so. Id. 24 : 25 li 26 □ 27 28 | . CONCLUSION. 2 For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS the Plaintiff's Motion. 3 Defendant is ORDERED to assign to Plaintiff its interest and rights in all monetary 4 || payments due or to become due from retail portals CVS, Meijer pharmacies, Walmart, and 5 || Amazon.com, as well as credit card. processors American Express Corporation, Visa 6 | U.S.A. Inc., and Mastercard International Incorporated. This Assignment is effective ten 7 days from the date hereof. until such time as the judgment herein is fully satisfied or 8 ||unless the parties stipulate otherwise. 9 With respect to the restraining order, the Court FURTHER ORDERS that 10 Defendant Pathway Genomics Corporation is immediately restrained from assigning or 11 || otherwise disposing of its rights and interests to payment as described above, so that the 12 ||rights to payment may be available for satisfaction pf the judgment herein. □ 13 IT IS SO ORDERED. — Dated: December Le 2019 __. 15 ON T. BENITEZ 16 United States. District Judge 17 18 19 20 . 21 22 . . 23 24 25 26 || 27 | 28 □ , 6 . .