A Santa Monica-based consumer group has spent thousands fending off subpoenas issued by oil companies in connection with lawsuits in which the group is neither plaintiff or defendant. Columnist hiltzikm explains how this situation came to be:
UCS never turned over any documents to Exxon, Frumhoff told me. The Texas lawsuit was ultimately thrown out of court and the subpoenas rendered moot. Smith never enforced his subpoenas, and his anti-science campaign ended in 2018 with his retirement and the advent of a Democratic majority in the House.a lawsuit she filed against Exxon Mobil
At that stage, however, “the person moving to quash a subpoena bears the burden of proof,” says Simona Grossi, an expert in federal and state civil procedure at Loyola Marymount University Law School. “Mere assertions of undue burden or disclosure of confidential information will be insufficient to support a motion to quash.”
That’s the approach Consumer Watchdog has taken thus far. The organization was founded in 1985 as the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights by consumer activist Harvey Rosenfield, who drafted Proposition 103, an insurance reform measure passed by California voters in 1988. “What Chevron and Exxon have failed to explain is why they need Consumer Watchdog’s confidential sources and compelled testimony to prove their case that they did nothing wrong,” Flanagan says. “They can do that without harassing Consumer Watchdog by bringing in their own experts to prove their case.”
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