Jurisdiction

Defendant operates a web-based payment processing platform offered to merchants nationwide.  Plaintiff alleged that defendant violated California's privacy laws by retaining customers' personal data obtained from the merchants and tracking the customers.  This decision holds that defendant is not subject to personal jurisdiction in California because it did not target its activity to California or its consumers but operated its… Read More

Ford removed this action to federal court under CAFA, then successfully moved to dismiss it under Rule 12(b)(6) because the plaintiff did not allege he had suffered an injury to his business, his person, or his reputation as required by the Washington privacy statute under which he sued.  On appeal, plaintiff argued that the lack of injury showed he did… Read More

In this action, plaintiff sought a declaration that its use of the trademark "Impossible" in connection with its food products didn't infringe upon defendant's federal trademark of the same word.  By a split decision, the 9th Circuit held that California could exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendant, a one-man LLC that for two years operated primarily from San Diego before… Read More

Except when a statute granting the right to an attorney fee award itself provides a basis for federal question jurisdiction, a district court lacks jurisdiction to award the defendant attorney fees after dismissing the complaint for lack of Article III standing. Read More

Plaintiff filed a 1983 action against a police officer claiming that he had violated his federal civil rights by killing a man who was a father figure to him.  On the defendant's motion, the district court dismissed the action finding that the plaintiff lacked Article III standing because plaintiff did not allege any not allege amy custodial, biological, or legal… Read More

Federal legislation is presumed to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States unless Congress affirmatively and unmistakably instructs otherwise.  Absent such an instruction, the court must determine the focus of congressional concern underlying the legislation and then determine whether the conduct relevant to that focus occurred in the US or elsewhere.  Here, the focus of the Lanham… Read More

A corporation that is incorporated elsewhere but has registered to do business in a state that requires as a condition of that registration that the corporation appoint an in-state agent for service of process is subject to general personal jurisdiction in that state's courts on all causes of action.  Such forced consent to general personal jurisdiction does not offend the… Read More

Continuing its campaign to rein in the use of "jurisdiction" to describe limitations on court powers, the Supreme Court holds in this case that 11 U.S.C. 363(m) does not deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction but merely sets out a rule merely cloaking certain good-faith purchasers or lessees with a targeted protection of their newly acquired property interest, applicable even… Read More

Most time deadline statutes and rules are now construed as non-jurisdictional unless Congress has clearly stated otherwise.  The 12-year statute of limitations on quiet title actions against the United States (28 U.S.C. §2409a(g)) is a claims processing rule, not a jurisdictional statute.  The time limit appears in a section separate from the Quiet Title Act's jurisdictional provision and does not… Read More

Under Gov. Code 53069.4, a municipality may adopt an administrative hearing procedure for enforcement of its ordinances.  The administrative decision is reviewable by a mandate petition in superior court.  So long as the sum involved is $25,000 or less, the petition commences a limited jurisdiction case and any appellate review is conducted by the appellate department of the superior court,… Read More

The district court correctly dismissed this 1983 action brought by entities that had interests in California Insurance Company, an entity that the California Insurance Commissioner had sued to place in conservation in a California state court due to various unapproved corporate transactions.  Under the prior exclusive jurisdiction doctrine, when a court of competent jurisdiction has obtained possession, custody, or control… Read More

Following City of Oakland v. BP, PLC (9th Cir. 2020) 969 F.3d 895, this decision holds that there is no federal subject matter jurisdiction over San Mateo's public nuisance suit against energy companies for promoting use of their fossil fuels thereby causing global warming and rising sea levels that threatened harm to county property.  The county's state law claims do… Read More

The trial court erred in vacating entry of judgment in California on a sister state judgment rendered in Missouri where plaintiffs lived.  Missouri had personal jurisdiction over the California defendants since they had sent allegedly fraudulent communications to plaintiffs in Missouri, inducing the Missouri plaintiffs to enter into a contract for defendants' adoption services and pay defendants from Missouri.  An… Read More

The common law rule of exclusive concurrent jurisdiction applies to PAGA suits.  Nothing in the PAGA statutes clearly or unequivocally evince an intent to abrogate that well-established rule in PAGA suits.  Absence of an express first-filed suit requirement in the statute is insufficient to show such an intent.  Invoking the exclusive concurrent jurisdiction rule, the trial court properly stayed this… Read More

If a statute prescribes a time limit within which a petition, appeal or other pleading must be filed, it will be treated as jurisdictional only if Congress clearly states that the time limit is jurisdictional.  Jurisdictional time limits cannot be waived or forfeited, must be raised by courts sua sponte, and do not allow for equitable exceptions.  Here, the Court… Read More

In Vaden v. Discover Bank (2009) 129 S.Ct. 1262, the Court held that under 9 USC 4, to determine whether a federal court has jurisdiction over a petition to compel arbitration, the court should "look through" the arbitration issue and determine whether the court would have jurisdiction of the underlying dispute in the absence of an arbitration agreement.  This decision… Read More

As the party invoking federal judicial power, the removing defendant bears the burden of establishing the facts necessary to support Article III standing (with the manner and degree of evidence appropriate to the stage of litigation--which on a motion for remand means taking alleged facts to be true).  Here, Experian established plaintiffs' standing.  They alleged that Experian had violated 15… Read More

Following Judge v. Nijjar Realty, Inc. (2014) 232 Cal.App.4th 619 and disagreeing with Maplebear, Inc. v. Busick (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th 394, this decision holds that an arbitrator's preliminary injunction order is not an "award" and is not reviewable by a California trial court under CCP 1294, and the trial court's order dismissing a petition to vacate the arbitrator's preliminary injunction… Read More

Under 28 USC 1367(c)(4), the district court may decline jurisdiction of state law claims  if in extraordinary circumstances there are compelling circumstances for declining jurisdiction.  This decision affirms the district court's ruling that there were extraordinary circumstances in this ADA, physical barriers case, because California's Legislature had amended Civ. Code 52(a) and 55.56 to discourage repeat litigation by a small… Read More

A district court may decline jurisdiction over an action that seeks only declaratory relief, so long as the district court properly considers the factors listed in Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co. (1942) 316 U.S. 491 and Government Employees Ins. Co. v. Dizol (9th Cir. 1998) 133 F.3d 1220.  However, the district court cannot decline jurisdiction if the declaratory relief claim… Read More