Civil Procedure

The settlement agreement in this case provided that defendant "shall pay" plaintiff $3 million as full and final settlement of plaintiff's cliam.  The next sentence stated that payment of the $3 million "will be paid out of escrow" from a specific sale of a piece of real property.  This decision holds that the settlement was not conditional and was not… Read More

While the primary purpose of appointing a receiver (here, to sell radio stations) is to enforce and obtain payment of a judgment, the judgment debtor cannot automatically obtain the receiver's discharge and return of its property by posting adequate security for or paying the judgment.  The court retains discretion to continue the receivership thereafter to assure that the judgment debtor's… Read More

(Under FRCivP 4(k)(2), a federal court may exercise jurisdiction over a foreign defendant on a federal claim if the defendant is not subject to personal jurisdiction in any state's courts and exercising jurisdiction over the defendant comports with due process considering his contacts with the US as a whole.  Here, the district court could properly exercise jurisdiction over the foreign… Read More

CCP 995.240 grants a trial court authority to waive any provision requiring a litigant to post a bond if the trial court finds the party that is otherwise required to post a bond is indigent and unable to obtain sufficient sureties.  This decision holds that the statute applies, and grants the trial court discretion, to waive CCP 917.1's otherwise applicable… Read More

The FCC's regulation governing the standards for the permissible amount of radio frequency emission from a cellphone (47 C.F.R. § 1.1310(c)) preempt plaintiff's state law claims that Apple's iPhones are unsafe even though they conform to the FCC's standards.  The FCC issued its regulation under the broad authority that Congress conferred on it in the Federal Communications Act of 1934. … Read More

Since 2010, the public disclosure bar to a False Claims Act qui tam action (31 USC 3730) has applied to public disclosure of the same claim in an "other" Federal "hearing."  This decision holds that ex parte patent prosecutions before the Patent Office are other hearings for this purpose.  The statute was intended to encompass public disclosures made in federal… Read More

LA's COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Ordinance which banned evictions for reasons other than the tenant's fault was not preempted by state law.  A demurrer was properly sustained to the owner's unlawful detainer action which alleged no tenant default but instead claimed the owner wanted to move into the unit himself. Read More

Following ZF Micro Devices, Inc. v. TAT Capital Partners, Ltd. (2016) 5 Cal.App.5th 69, this decision holds that the filing of the complaint tolls the statute of limitations for all claims the defendant pleads in a cross-complaint, whether compulsory or permissive, so long as the cross-claim was not time-barred at the time the complaint was filed.  This limitations tolling doctrine… Read More

An heir is not categorically precluded from intervening in a wrongful death suit brought by the personal representative of the decedent's estate.  So long as the heir meets the criteria for intervention, including inadequate representation of his interest by the existing parties, she should be permitted to intervene to protect those interests.  By intervening, the heir does not file a… Read More

Summary judgment for defendant hospital is affirmed.  The doctor who malpracticed in conducting an operation on plaintiff at defendant hospital was not the hospital's actual agent.  The contract between the two expressly denied any agency or employment relationship, and there was no evidence that the hospital exercised any control over the manner in which the doctor treated his patients.  The… Read More

A district court must give a plaintiff notice and an opportunity to be heard before declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction and dismissing a state law claim unless the parties have already had an opportunity to brief that issue. Read More

The trial court properly awarded attorney fees to the plaintiff in this case which alleged that defendant's website violated the ADA and Civ. Code sections 51 and 52 by not being readable by web programs for the blind and visually impaired.  Unlike Doran v. North State Grocery, Inc. (2006) 137 Cal.App.4th 484 and Linton v. County of Contra Costa (2019)… Read More

The trial court correctly denied defendants' Anti-SLAPP motion to strike plaintiff's claims under the UCL and CLRA based on defendants' allegedly false statements in releases or other statements and advertisements that Michael Jackson was the lead artist on all tracks in a posthumous CD.  Even if the defendants' statements were protected speech under CCP 425.16(e), plaintiff showed a probability of… Read More

The district court erred in granting defendant summary judgment in this False Claims Act case.  A genuine issue of triable fact existed as to whether defendant's use of the "KX" modifier in its Medicare reimbursement claims was material.  The modifier indicated compliance with local coverage determinations.  That certification was false, and it would be material if the trier of fact… Read More

Following Jade Fashion & Co., Inc. v. Harkham Industries, Inc. (2014) 229 Cal.App.4th 635, this decision enforces the parties' settlement agreement which permitted plaintiff to enter judgment against defendant for $251,000 if defendant failed to pay any of 24 monthly instalments of $1,250 (for a total of $30,000).  The $251,000 judgment was not an unenforceable penalty because defendant admitted plaintiff… Read More

Reversing a summary judgment in defendant's favor, this decision holds that defendant cannot claim a fair use defense to plaintiff's suit for infringement of its copyright on photos of an ephemeral lake in the Death Valley desert.  All four fair use factors weighed against defendant.  Defendant used the pictures for a commercial purpose--to profit from its article that included the… Read More

Same deferential standard of review applies whether evidence presented to trial court is live testimony or written affidavits and exhibits. Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying private attorney general fees to Malibu homeowners who successfully challenged a proposed special assessment to protect a beach and nearby homes from erosion.  The trial court correctly estimated the homeowners' potential benefit from the suit as the amount of assessments they sought to avoid over the 20-year period of the… Read More

Under 9 USC 201 et seq. governing foreign arbitrations, federal courts have subject matter jurisdiction to enforce arbitrator-issued subpoenas served on US residents.  The subpoena enforcement action may be filed in any district court where venue is proper under 28 USC 1391, the general venue statute, or 9 USC 204, which allows--but does not require--suit in the district in which… Read More

The district court abused its discretion in excluding testimony from defendant's sole trial witness and in imposing monetary sanctions for defendants' purported failure to properly identify the areas of testimony of the witness--who had been identified in the defendant's initial disclosures.  Even if the initial disclosures showed only that the witness would testify about the underlying lawsuit for which the… Read More