Torts

Indian tribes and their business entities are entitled to tribal immunity from suit in state court.  However, the tribe's officers and employees may not invoke tribal immunity if the suit seeks to recover damages or other relief from them individually.  Tribal judges, however, are entitled to common law judicial immunity from suit for actions taken in their official role as… Read More

The district court erred in dismissing the plaintiff police officers' defamation complaint against a city council member for her telling a crowd that that a fatal shooting by the police constituted “a blatant murder at the hands of the police,” and calling for the Seattle Police Department to be held accountable “for their . . . individual actions.”  It was… Read More

A governmental entity is liable for a dangerous condition of its property only if it has actual or constructive notice of the condition and doesn't fix it.  The entity has constructive notice of a dangerous condition only if (1) the dangerous condition existed for a sufficient period of time before the plaintiff’s injury, and (2) it was sufficiently obvious that… Read More

In this attorney malpractice case, the trial court properly ruled against plaintiff on the case-within-a-case, establishing that the underlying insurance claim had no merit, so the attorney's negligence in not filing suit in a timely manner did not cause plaintiff's loss.  The insurance claim arose under a contractor's CGL policy, and the policy's own work exclusion clearly barred insurance coverage… Read More

CCP 340.5's one-year statute of limitations, not the general two-year limitations period for personal injuries applied to this action by an emergency room patient who was injured when she collapsed on the way back from the bathroom.  The emergency room nursing staff made a medical decision that the patient did not need to be accompanied to and from the restroom. … Read More

Best Buy is not liable for an independent contractor's negligent installation of a Best Buy washer on the plaintiff's premises which resulted in extensive water damage.  Best Buy hired firm 1 to transport Best Buy products to purchasers' properties.  Firm 1 contracted with local transportation companies to provide the actual transportation and installation services.  The local company that transported and… Read More

Plaintiff sued the manufacturer of his hip replacement for product liability failure to warn and defective manufacture.  This decision affirms summary judgment for the defendant.  The failure to warn claim failed because plaintiff's doctor who chose and implanted the hip replacement testified that he kept closely abreast of developments in hip replacement surgery and was aware from reading scientific journals… Read More

The general rule under CCP 395 is that the county of the defendant's residence is the only proper venue in which to bring a suit against him or her.  However, CCP 395(a)'s second sentence also allows suit to be brought in the county in which injury to person or personal injury occurs.  This decision explains that to qualify as an… Read More

The Catholic church has a special relationship with minor parishioners who are in its custody and control when attending catechism classes or other church-sponsored programs, on church premises or elsewhere.  The Rowland factors provide no reason to immunize the church from owing a duty of care to protect such parishioners from sexual abuse by priests or other church employees.  That… Read More

Plaintiff introduced sufficient evidence to establish a probability of success on his defamation and false light invasion of privacy claims to overcome defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion.  Plaintiff is a world record holder in a number of computer arcade games.  Defendant facilitates video game competitions and runs a website with leaderboards showing top scorers on the games.  After receiving a complaint from… Read More

Generally, a person hiring an independent contractor to perform work is  not liable for injuries suffered by the contractor's employees in performing that work under the Privette doctrine.  There are two exceptions to this rule.  The Kinsman exception which holds a hirer liable if it is a landowner and fails to disclose some tatent dangerous condition of the property to… Read More

A fiduciary owes a duty to disclose material facts to the beneficiary.  The beneficiary is under no duty to investigate whether the fiduciary has told the truth or disclosed all the material facts.  Hence, when a conservatee moves to set aside an order approving the conservator's accounting on the ground of misrepresentations in the conservator's accounting and petition for approval,… Read More

Plaintiff runs two bakery stores in Los Angeles.  It baked a birthday cake for defendant's child.  Defendant, who is a celebrity, objected to some of the icing on the cake, saying it looked like pills.  He published scathing reviews of plaintiff's bakeries on the Internet, leading to plaintiff's losing customers and business profits.  Plaintiff sued for defamation.  This decision holds… Read More

The trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury on superseding cause in this case.  Plaintiff's theory was that the defendant drug detox center was negligent in failing to prevent the foreseeable and successful suicide attempt by plaintiff's son.  A superseding cause must be one which a reasonable person would not foresee.  So, in order to find… Read More

Ordinarily, a person who hires an independent contractor is not liable for injuries suffered by the contractor's employees on the job.  Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 689.  In Kinsman v. Unocal Corp. (2005) 37 Cal.4th 659, the court held that a landowner who hires an independent contractor can be held liable for injuries to workers caused by latent… Read More

This decision affirms a district court order dismissing a defamation suit under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 425.16.  Maddow was a TV personality and host of a program espousing liberal political views.  In one program she expressed glee over a report by another news organization that one of Herring's ultra-conservative commentators was being paid by the Kremlin for propaganda.  The speech… Read More

This decision affirms a judgment against Monsanto for failing to warn of the toxic nature of Roundup.  It holds that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (7 USC 136 et seq.) does not preempt state common law duty to warn and defective design products liability claims.  There was substantial evidence to support the jury's verdict of liability on those… Read More

A defendant may be held liable for negligent entrustment of a vehicle and negligent hiring of the employee who drives it if the employer fails to make a reasonable effort to determine whether the employee has a valid driver's license before allowing him to drive the vehicle.  See Veh. Code 14604, 14606(a).) Read More

Though noting a split of authority on the issue, this decision follows Lossing v. Superior Court (1989) 207 Cal.App.3d 635 in holding that a civil contempt proceeding brought to enforce discovery orders (in this case, post-judgment discovery orders) cannot form the basis of a later malicious prosecution action. Read More

Huy Fong bought peppers from Underwood to manufacture Srirache sauce.  As Huy Fong's sale grew, it repeatedly urged Underwood to increase its acreage devoted to peppers, promising that Huy Fong would buy all the peppers Underwood produced while concealing its plan to start a competing business from which it would buy all its peppers.  Substantial evidence supported the jury verdict… Read More