Time for the Elk Grove city attorney, Kronick to throw in towel on Zeus case? Will two cases TKO Hobbs?
A review of Elk Grove City Council’s closed meeting agenda reveals a proliferation of litigation. The most prominent lawsuit confronting the city is the Oak Rose housing discrimination case they are defending against the State and Attorney General of California.
Aside from that, the city is facing lawsuits from Faral Kabir and family members over the euthanization of the German Shepherd Zeus. The canine was euthanized last October even as the Kabir family filed state and federal lawsuits seeking relief.
Last October, the Kabir family retained the services of the El Cerrito-based attorney Andrew Shalably. Since then, there have been a head-spinning number of motions filed, mainly by the defendants, regarding the lawsuits.
Filing numerous motions is a strategy routinely employed by defendants to slow down and wear out plaintiffs. To this end, Elk Grove city attorney Jonathan Hobbs and the city’s outside counsel, Sacramento-based Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann, and Girard, have done an exemplary job of slow-walking the proceedings.
An extreme example of this tactic was when Hobbs filed an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the defendants. That motion was dismissed on March 28.
Since then, the motions and filings have continued. Through it all, Shalably is undeterred, representing his clients.
The latest development came today in an email sent by Shalably to Mr. David Trya, Kronick’s point person for the city. Shalably wrote:
“Elk Grove spent thousands of dollars of taxpayer money, including Kabir’s tax money, on filing these frivolous now terminated motions, as well as on litigation and killing of Zeus, and now on this ongoing pending aftermath litigation.”
The email also included a de-facto public information request. The request said, “The Kabir Family hereby DEMANDS that a full accounting of all monies charged by the City Attorney and Kronic firm on the motions denied and terminated specified, and the entire legal matter involving Zeus, be given to them within 30 days.”
Shalably’s concluded the email by threatening further legal action against the city. The correspondence says, “They further demand [a] refund of these taxpayer dollars, including but not limited [to] the fees paid to the Kronic Firm for the frivolous discovery motions just dropped by the Court today, to Elk Grove, with a statement of the reason – frivolity. If this is not done within 30 days, they shall file taxpayer tort claims for same.”
Elk Grove does not comment on pending litigation as a matter of policy.
For Hobbs, Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen, and her city council, the slow walking of the lawsuit has not diminished the Kabir family and Shalably from seeking a remedy to what they say was the illegal euthanization of Zeus.
Between the tenacity of Shalaby representing the Kabir family and the costs to taxpayers combined with the overwhelming responsibility of placing Elk Grove in the tenuous position of defending itself from the full force of the Governor and California Attorney General for housing discrimination, has put Hobbs in a bind.
Hobbs’ legal guidance has repeatedly been flawed and is developing into a political liability. Will Mayor Singh-Allen and her four councilmen let Hobbs continue to slide, or could the outcome of these cases determine his future?
If Hobbs fails again, these cases could be his technical knockout!
