Lunger v. Zvik CA2/5

Filed 8/26/20 Lunger v. Zvik CA2/5

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b) . This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FIVE

YAAKOV LUNGER, B289552

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC524165) v.

NICKI ZVIK et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Marc Marmaro, Judge. Affirmed. Green Solar Technologies, Inc., Ken I. Ito; Benedon & Serlin, Gerald M. Serlin and Melinda W. Ebelhar, for Defendants and Appellants. Myers, Widders, Gibson, Jones & Feingold, Dennis Neil Jones and Eric R. Reed; Law Offices of Natan Davoodi and Natan Davoodi, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Nicki Zvik (Zvik) and Green Solar Technologies, Inc. (Green Solar) appeal from a judgment entered against them following a bench trial held to decide whether Zvik acted as an unlicensed contractor. Zvik did not testify at the trial because he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in light of a pending prosecution against him in Riverside County. We are asked to decide whether the trial court abused its discretion in deciding to proceed with the civil trial after repeated postponements of the trial date (totaling nine months), largely to accommodate Zvik’s request to try and conclude the criminal proceedings first.

I. BACKGROUND Yaakov Lunger (Lunger) contracted with Zvik, who signed on behalf of two predecessor entities to Green Solar, to renovate Lunger’s home. In executing the contracts, Zvik told Lunger he was a fully licensed, bonded, and insured contractor. As later found by the trial court in this case, that was not true: Zvik’s contracting licenses had been revoked and he was “renting” a contracting license from another party. When a dispute subsequently arose between Lunger and Zvik before the house renovation work was completed, Lunger sued Zvik and predecessor entities to Green Solar on breach of contract, negligence, and statutory theories of liability. In October 2016, more than three years after Lunger filed his complaint and with discovery in the case complete, Zvik applied ex parte for an order continuing the trial, which was set to begin the following day (after having first been set in March 2015 and continued several times). Zvik argued a continuance was necessary because he would not be able to appear at the trial due to an unidentified “emergency that could not have been