Lyft driver suffered an unprovoked knife attack by a passenger, who, he later discovered that the passenger had a criminal history. Held, Lyft does not owe its drivers a duty of care to run criminal background checks on passengers it offers to its drivers. It would be too burdensome to run such checks on all passengers. And the rare random… Read More
Unless it has actual knowledge of a vendor's employee's propensity to engage in such conduct, a regional center administering services for developmentally disabled persons does not owe a duty of care to the "consumer" of those services to protect the consumer from the vendor's employee's sexual assault and hence cannot be held liable for such an assault. Even though the… Read More
In Kesner v. Superior Court (2016) 1 Cal.5th 1132, the Supreme Court held that an employer owes a duty of care to only the members of the employee's household to avoid secondary exposure to asbestos. This decision holds that the same household limitation does not restrict a manufacturer's strict liability for design defects or failures to warn regarding its asbestos-containing… Read More
This decision affirms a judgment for the plaintiff in an age discrimination and harassment case, rejecting all of the employer's many arguments. First, the suit was timely even though the harassment had been on-going for many years. There was no showing that the harassment had achieved "permanence" so as to prevent continued accrual from renewed harassment. Permanence comes from employer… Read More
Disagreeing with Avila v. Southern California Specialty Care, Inc. (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 835 and following Ruiz v. Podolsky (2010) 50 Cal.4th 838, this decision holds that a medical provider's arbitration provision that complies with CCP 1295 requires the patient's survivors (who didn't sign the arbitration clause) to arbitrate their wrongful death claim based on negligent acts of a health care… Read More
The wife of a candidate for a state assembly seat was not a limited public figure merely by being married to a candidate for public office. Here, the only evidence of the wife's involvement in her husband's campaign was were marching with her husband, carrying a campaign sign, during the Vietnamese-American community's annual Lunar New Year parade. That minimal involvement… Read More
Rule 10b-5 proscribes untrue statements of a material fact or omissions to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading. This decision holds that "pure omissions" do not violate the regulation. A pure omission occurs when a speaker says nothing, in circumstances that… Read More
Plaintiff, a guest in defendant's hotel, fell and hurt herself when the handheld shower head came apart in her hand. This decision affirms a summary judgment for defendant because (a) plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant had actually knew or had reason to suspect that the shower head was defective or dangerous and… Read More
This decision holds that a judge's denial of a motion for acquittal under Pen. Code 1118.1 in a criminal prosecution of the later plaintiff suing for malicious prosecution is sufficient to invoke the interim adverse decision rule, barring the required finding of lack of probable cause, without which the malicious prosecution action cannot succeed. The opinion also Cel-Tech's tethering test… Read More
An action to rescind a contract for fraud is an action on the contract for purposes of Civil Code 1717. Section 1717 is not limited to actions for breach of contract or seeking to enforce the contract. A party is entitled to attorney fees under section 1717 even when the party prevails on grounds the contract is inapplicable, invalid, unenforceable… Read More
Proposition 244, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, clearly mandated that the new privacy agency had to promulgate regulations in 15 areas by July 1, 2022. It also provided that the agency could begin enforcing the Act on July 1, 2023. The agency didn't promulgate final regulations until 9 months after the deadline. This decision holds that the trial… Read More
Under W&I Code 15657.03, a court may issue a restraining order to prevent abuse of an elder. An elder abuse protective order “may issue on the basis of evidence of past abuse, without any particularized showing that the wrongful acts will be continued or repeated. (Gdowski v. Gdowski (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 128, 137.) There was substantial evidence to support issuance… Read More
Plaintiff leased greenhouses from defendant. Defendant did not disclose that the greenhouses contained asbestos and other hazardous substances. The jury awarded plaintiff damages on theories of negligence and premises liability. This decision holds that there was substantial evidence to support the verdicts despite the lease's indemnification and limitation of liability clauses. The indemnification clause did not apply if the landlord… Read More
A regional center for the developmentally disabled does not owe a duty of care to employees of residential facilities to which the regional center assigns mentally or developmentally disabled individuals for residence to protect the employees from injury by the assigned disabled persons. Generally, there is no duty to protect against harm by third parties absent a special relationship. The… Read More
Ordinarily, an employer is not liable for injuries an employee suffers on the way to or from work. However, under the premises line rule, the commute ends and the employee becomes entitled to Workers Compensation benefits for injury suffered once the employee has entered the employer's premises. Here, the court held that plaintiff, a UC Irvine employee, had not yet… Read More
The doctrine of primary assumption of the risk bars liability for injuries caused by a negligent surfer to a fellow surfer because those injuries were caused by risks inherent in the sport of surfing. Wipe-outs are common as are injuries from collisions with other surfers or their surf boards. Surfers often violate unwritten rules of etiquette governing surfing and surf… Read More
Website owners brought a class action against Google for displaying related items of interest including competitors' ads and uncomplimentary customer reviews along with copies of the owner's website page in response to a browser user's request to open that website page. This decision holds that the website owners have an insufficient property interest in the copy of the webpage Google… Read More
Plaintiffs alleged that Gilead was researching two alternative drugs to treat HIV and both passed Phase III trials with approximately equal effectiveness in HIV treatment but that Gilead chose to pursue the alternative that carried a risk of bone and kidney side effects instead of the alternative because doing so allowed it greater financial returns on its patent for the… Read More
Under Gov. Code 831.8(b), the state, an irrigation district, and their employees are not liable for injuries suffered in irrigation ditches, canals, or drains used for water distribution "if at the time of the injury the person injured was using the property for any purpose other than that for which the district or state intended it to be used." This… Read More
Under CCP 527.6(j), an anti-harrassment injunction may be extended only once for a period of 5 years or less without evidence of further harassment since the original anti-harassment injunction was issued. To obtain an additional extension of the injunction, post-order harassment must be shown. Read More
