The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.
The district court correctly dismissed this suit, invoking Younger abstention. Plaintiff sought to enjoin the defendant district attorney from prosecuting it in state court for employing a vendor to make harassing collection calls in violation of state law. The four Younger factors all weighed in favor of abstention. The state action was ongoing as no proceedings of substance had yet… Read More
The district court correctly abstained on Younger v. Harris grounds and dismissed this suit which sought to enjoin the Hawaii Attorney General from proceeding with a state court suit under Hawaii's UDAP statute for deceptively marketing Plavix by concealing the fact that Asians and Pacific Islanders have a genetic modification that impairs the drug's function. The state court suit was… Read More
Later filed state court proceedings warrant Younger v. Harris abstention only when the district court proceedings are at an "embryonic stage." State statute requiring in-state incorporation to obtain license to conduct interstate business violates the dormant Commerce Clause, but First Amendment is not infringed by statutes requiring a disclosure that the existing lender did not sponsor or authorize third-party ads… Read More
Under Colorado River, district court should have abstained from ruling in a suit to condemn easements and other rights as against the defendants' mining claims, since a state court had already declined to enter a decree that the mining claims were invalid. Read More
A district court may abstain under the Colorado River doctrine only in extraordinary circumstances, not in an ordinary diversity action seeking damages and rescission under settled principles of state law. Read More
