California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One, “Padron v. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. (No. D070723)”
“$2,000 per day for every day Watchtower did not produce responsive documents and $2,000 per day for every day Watchtower did not search for responsive documents”
The San Diego Superior Court sanction ($4,000/day in total) imposed after Watchtower's counsel 'unequivocally informed' the court on 8 April 2016 that it would not comply with a 25 March 2016 order to produce all responses to the 14 March 1997 letter (redacted for victim and elder names). The Court of Appeal affirmed, describing Watchtower's conduct as 'abuse of the discovery process' and noting it had argued against production at least five times.
Official source (opens in new tab)
Provenance and verification note for California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One, Padron v. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. (No. D070723)
Confidence note. Full opinion opened on FindLaw. The opinion does not state the total accrued; press reports of 'more than $2 million' are not confirmed here.
Corroborated by. src-cal-2016-0414-lopez-v-watchtower
Notes. Osbaldo Padron is the named plaintiff.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-cal-2017-1109-padron-v-watchtower