Over the plaintiff’s objections, a judge has ordered East West Bank to turn over portions of a businessman’s financial records to Travelers Casualty Insurance Co. of America in its defense of the real estate owner’s allegations the insurer unjustly denied his claims after two 2024 thefts of copper wire and other items from his South Los Angeles building.
On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph M. Hammock denied plaintiff Julius Jay Lite’s motion to quash the insurance company’s subpoena for signature cards and bank statements related to one account and all communications regarding cash deposits of $10,000 or more into the same account from Jan. 1, 2023, through May 1, 2025.
“The subpoena issued by defendant seeks over two years of my banking records and communications, covering a far broader scope than could be relevant to the insurance dispute at issue in this case,” the 79-year-old Venice resident stated in a sworn declaration in favor of quashing the Travelers subpoena.
But the judge said Lite has reduced his privacy interests by filing his lawsuit.
“When balancing plaintiffs’ privacy interests against defendant’s interest in discovering documents that are particularly relevant to defendant’s defense of the action, this court finds the balance shifts in favor of disclosure,” Hammock wrote, adding that he agreed with the insurer that the categories of documents sought are “relevant and not overbroad.”
According to his breach of contract/elder abuse suit filed in April 2025, Lite and his company, 120 W. 131st St. LLC, owned the warehouse he leased to a tenant at the same address as the name of his company. In June 2024, burglars broke in, stole copper wiring and destroyed two electrical panels and the air conditioners and stripped out all of the copper plumbing.
After learning of the burglary from his tenant, Lite notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and his insurer, Travelers, and he began making repairs the next month, the suit states.
But the next month the property was burglarized a second time and intruders stripped the property of its copper wiring and caused additional damage, so Lite again called the LASD and also told Traveler’s what happened, according to the suit, which further alleges that the insurer never made any attempt to assess the value of either claim and assumed, without any evidence, that the two claims were fraudulent.
“Travelers repeatedly requested that Mr. Lite provide documentation that had little or no relevance to the claims,” the suit states.
Travelers also requested that Lite submit to a recorded statement and examination under oath and despite his cooperation in doing so in December 2024, the insurer denied his claims two months later, according to the suit.
In their previous court papers, Travelers attorneys denied Lite’s allegations and said his complaint should be dismissed.