Civil Procedure

The court that wrote Inns-by-the-Sea v. California Mutual Ins. Co. (2021) 71 Cal.App.5th 688 affirms summary judgment for the defendant insurer in the COVID-19 case.  While the plaintiff introduced sufficient evidence to show that COVID-19 airborne particles might have caused physical damage to the motel, the plaintiff couldn't show that its business losses were due to that contamination rather than… Read More

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

Under the state's False Claims Act and Insurance Frauds Prevention Act, a qui tam plaintiff must file the complaint under seal and send it to the Attorney General or Insuance Commissioner and district attorney.  Only after those entities decide not to intervene and take over prosecution of the action may the plaintiff serve the defendant(s) and proceed to litigate the… Read More

Summary judgment was properly granted to defendant in this case.  Plaintiff's decedent was employed by an independent contractor defendant hired for highway repairs.  The contract with the contractor expressly delegated maintaining worker safety to the contractor.  That the defendant retained authority to approve work quality and acceptability and the manner of performance of the work did not change the applicability… Read More

This decision reverses a summary judgment in favor of the owner and prime contractor and against the plaintiff, who worked for a demolition subcontractor.  Plaintiff was injured by an unknown assailant in a walkway that the owner and prime had left unfenced to allow neighborhood residents access to a bus stop.  The owner and prime exercised actual control over security… Read More

Vandenberg v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 815 nixes only nonmutual collateral estoppel from an arbitration award.  Here, the same parties to the arbitration award, or individuals in privity with them, raised the same issues that the arbitrator had adjudicated, in court in connection with a post-confirmation (and post appeal from the confirmation) motion to amend the judgment to add… Read More

The trial court abused its discretion in denying plaintiff's motion to amend the judgment (which confirmed an arbitration award in plaintiff's favor against two LLCs) to add two individual defendants as the LLCs' alter egos.  Two elements are needed to prove alter ego statues:  unity of interest and ownership and inequity resulting from treating the acts of the corporate entities… Read More

Estate of Cornelious (1984) 35 Cal.3d 461 remains good law.  Under Probate Code 7540(a), a child is conclusively presumed to be issue of the man married to the child's mother, so long as the two were cohabiting at the time of conception and of birth.  Such a child is not allowed, at least for inheritance purposes, to prove that he… Read More

Statute of limitations on claim that defendant tortiously injured plaintiff's land by dumping uncertified fill on the property ran from the discovery of the claim by prior owners of the property.  The limitations period does not re-start with a transfer of the property to a new owner after the first owner has discovered the injury. Read More

This decision affirms an order quashing service of summons on defendant FCCC for lack of personal jurisdiction.  FCCC is not subject to general jurisdiction in California as it is incorporated in Delaware and principally located in South Carolina.  It built the chassis for a bus that Champion Bus manufactured in Michigan.  The bus was involved in an accident in California. … Read More

The district court erred in entering judgment in favor of the defendant property owner in this ADA suit over  the parking lot's lack of a space for parking a van with an access path for a person confined to a wheelchair.  The fact that plaintiff was a serial litigant in ADA cases was not a reason to deny him Article… Read More

Though designated a person most qualified in response to a deposition subpoena on a corporation, the corporate representative is an ordinary lay witness whose testimony is admissible at trial only if based on her personal knowledge.  Here, a PMQ offered a declaration in support of defendant's summary judgment motion full of statements about defendant's practices decades before the witness was… Read More

A plaintiff claiming loss or damage to its cannabis business cannot bring a federal RICO suit against the defendant causing that damage.  Though legal under California law, a cannabis business is illegal under federal law and so cannot be recognized as "business or property" injury to which might confer statutory standing t sue for a RICO violation. Read More

To appeal from a Labor Commissioner award of wages to an employee, the employer must post a bond in the amount the Labor Commissioner awarded.  This decision holds that a car wash company cannot substitute its $150,000 car wash bond for the bond required by section 98.2.  Though for a similar purpose of guaranteeing payment of wages to car wash… Read More

Heirs who filed a medical malpractice wrongful death suit lack standing to challenge the constitutionality of MICRA's limits on noneconomic damages (Civ. Code 3333.2) and attorney fees (B&P Code 6147).  Plaintiffs' attorney had not withdrawn or moved to withraw due to the statutory limits on attorney fees.  Moreover, there is no constitutional right to an attorney in civil litigation.  Plaintiffs… Read More

While in the hospital, plaintiff was assaulted by a psychiatric patient at the same hospital.  Plaintiff sued the hospital claiming it failed to take reasonable measures to protect plaintiff from the assault which it should have anticipated from information available to the hospital's psychiatrist.  This decision holds that the trial court erroneously concluded that plaintiff was not entitled to discovery… Read More

Patient's lawyer's first letter to hospital was not a notice of intent to sue for medical malpractice under CCP 364; only a later letter provided that notice and extended the limitations period by 90 days.  The first letter was devoted mostly to a request that the hospital preserve its records regarding the incident in which plaintiff was injured by an… Read More

A summary judgment motion must be filed at least 75 days (plus added days for other than personal service) before the hearing date which must be at least 30 days before the scheduled trial date.  However, if a summary judgment motion is properly filed and served 105 days (plus added days for non-personal service) before trial, the trial court must… Read More

This decision holds that an attorney's jury selection notes are not subject to absolute attorney work product protection in connection with a challenge to the jury panel or the judgment based on racial or other discriminatory use of peremptory challenges or claimed the Batson/Wheeler error.  An attorney’s jury selection notes are unlikely to reveal impressions, conclusions, or opinions about the… Read More

This decision affirms orders denying motions to vacate default and vacate the default judgment.  The default was based on substitute service of the complaint on a co-resident of a gated community.  There was sufficient evidence in the process server's proofs of service to support the trial court's conclusions that diligent efforts were made to serve the defendants personally before resort… Read More