Torts

Generally, a defendant owes no duty of care to avoid negligent conduct that results in solely economic injury; so a gas utility owed no duty of care to avoid a gas leak that caused neighborhood businesses to lose profits. Read More

A landowner who constructs a parking lot across a public street may increase his or her invitees’ exposure to harm, but that alone does not warrant the imposition of a duty of care because landowners generally have little or no control over a public street’s safety precautions, which are typically maintained by state and local government. Read More

A company the city hired to maintain backup batteries in traffic signals owed a duty of care to motorists in performing its work, and it cannot invoke Government Claims Act immunities to avoid liability. Read More

The question of which risks are inherent in a recreational activity, here, dirt biking, is fact-intensive but, on a sufficient record, may be resolved on summary judgment. Read More

To be timely, a judgment debtor’s application to recover contribution from a joint judgment debtor must be filed before the judgment creditor files an acknowledgment of full satisfaction of the judgment. Read More

A plaintiff-employee in charge of his own department at his place of employment cannot order himself to return to work to invoke the special errand exception to the going-and-coming rule. Read More

A mesothelioma plaintiff raises a triable issue of fact by adducing expert testimony that the defendant’s product originated from a mine contaminated by asbestos. Read More

An acute care hospital commits elder abuse when it operates on the elder patient without his consent or the consent of the person to whom he had given a durable power of attorney. Read More

Criminal defendant’s constitutional due process rights are not violated by federal statute prohibiting him from subpoenaing third party internet service provider (here, Facebook) for disclosure of non-public postings by one of its subscribers (such as, here, the defendant’s victim). Read More

Plaintiff’s suit for physical injuries suffered when she tripped over a scale as she left a community health facility is governed by the two-year limitations period for ordinary negligence, not the shorter limitations period for claims against a health care provider’s negligent delivery of professional services.   Read More

Because hot air balloon operators are not common carriers, they can take advantage of the primary assumption of the risk doctrine and thus owe no duty of care as to risks inherent in the sport or activity of hot air ballooning—even if an injury is caused by pilot error in failing to adjust altitude properly to account for cross-winds.   Read More

Federal law recognizing the legality of tobacco and cigarettes does not preempt state tort law that holds most cigarettes to be a “defective product,” thus exposing the manufacturers to substantial tort liability in California.   Read More

Any Telephone Consumer Protection Act claim necessarily involves an invasion of privacy, so such a claim fell within the invasion of privacy exclusion to the insured's directors & officers insurance policy.   Read More

Defendant city government is immune from liability for accidents caused by police vehicular pursuits if it has promulgated a suitable written pursuit policy and requires annual training and certification by all officers that they have received, read, and understood the policy, even if not all the officers actually sign the required certifications.   Read More

An elderly couple stated an elder abuse claim against an insurance agency that schemed to gut their whole life insurance policies and replace them with a less desirable policy, all for the purpose of earning a larger commission.   Read More

A primary actor or a party bearing derivative or vicarious liability for the primary actor's torts are in privity for res judicata purposes, and so, no matter which one the plaintiff sues first, a judgment against the plaintiff is binding in favor of both.   Read More

A retailer did not falsely advertise clothes it sold at its outlet stores by placing its brand-name labels on the clothes, even if they were of lesser quality and never sold in its main line retail stores.   Read More

Plaintiff could not save his complaint from summary judgment by raising a new theory of liability for the first time in his summary judgment opposition.   Read More

A defendant meets its initial burden on summary judgment by showing that plaintiff suffered a workplace injury while employed by an independent contractor that defendant hired; plaintiff then bears the burden of producing evidence that defendant retained control over the way the contractor performed its work or over workplace safety.   Read More

Defendant manufacturer of forklift was not entitled to summary judgment in design defect case, since its design included a large open area around the powered wheels, without any guards, which would crush any part of a human they ran over; and this permits an inference that the design fell below minimum safety assumptions of the product's users and bystanders during… Read More