Torts

Under Civil Code 846, landowners are generally immune from liability for personal injuries suffered by persons entering their property for recreational use. There is an exception to that immunity if the plaintiff was "expressly invited rather than merely permitted to come upon the premises by the landowner."  This decision holds that despite the statutory wording, immunity is lost if the… 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

Silver, a Hollywood executive, took his chef and an executive assistant, Musgrove, with his family for their vacation on Bora Bora.  The chef met Musgrove after hours and gave her alcohol and cocaine, after which she went swimming and drowned.  This decision holds that Silver is not vicariously liable for the chef's after hours activities with Musgrove under any of… 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

The trial court properly awarded plaintiff elder enhanced damages and attorney fees under the Elder Abuse Act based on defendant's depriving plaintiff of her right under Los Angeles' rent control law to re-rent her apartment after the defendant landlord returned it to the rental market within five years after evicting plaintiff under the Ellis Act.  The statutory right to re-rent… 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

The Right to Repair Act contains three provisions regarding roofs.  Civ. Code 896(g)(3)(A) states that manufactured products, including roofs, shall be installed so as not to interfere with the products’ useful life, if any.  Section 896(g)(3)(C) defines "manufactured products" to mean one assembled, in full, off-site.  Section 896(a)(4) states that roofs shall not permit water to pass around or through… Read More

The favorable termination element of a malicious prosecution action may be satisfied if one or more of the claims alleged in the underlying action was dismissed on the merits--even if other claims were dismissed for procedural reasons (such as the bar of the statute of limitations).  Here, several of the claims in the underlying action were dismissed as time-barred, but… Read More

The Feres doctrine (Feres v. United States (1950) 340 U.S. 135, 146) which holds that the Government is not liable under the [FTCA] for injuries to servicemen where the injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to military service does not immunize a general or the Government from liability for the general's alleged sexual assault… 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

Defendant did not owe a duty of care to plaintiff to protect him from falling from a steeply slanted roof covered with broken, slippery clay roof tiles.  The roof's danger was open and obvious.  It was not foreseeable that plaintiff, who was neither required nor invited to climb on the roof, would confront that obvious danger.  He did so while… Read More

Fraud in factum, in execution or in the inception differs from promissory fraud, which is a false promise.  Fraud in execution occurs when the defendant causes the plaintiff to execute a contract that has materially different terms from those on which the parties orally agreed.  To allege a claim for fraud in execution, the plaintiff must allege facts showing the… Read More

Summary judgment was properly entered for the defendant in this slip and fall accident on a public sidewalk.  The trivial defect doctrine applied to shield the city from liability.  The discontinuity between slabs of sidewalk paving over which plaintiff tripped was at most 3/4ths of an inch.  There were no other factors adding to the dangerousness of that condition.  Plaintiff… Read More

Four individuals protested the Golden Gate racetrack's allegedly improper treatment of race horses by sneaking onto the track, linking their arms by PVC pipes and lying across the track in a manner that prevented the racetrack from holding races.  The racetrack owner sued the four individuals for trespass and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, naming Direct Action as an… Read More

To obtain a right to attach order, the plaintiff must prove it is more likely than not that the plaintiff will obtain a judgment against the defendant on the claim on which it seeks an attachment, and that claim must be either a claim for money based on contract or a claim for elder abuse. (CCP 481.190, 483.010; Welf. &… Read More

Plaintiff, a jewelry store, stated a viable breach of contract action against Sotheby's.  Plaintiff owned $4 million in diamonds which it had obtained from Rechnitz as security for his debt.  Plaintiff and Rechnitz met with a Sotheby's agent, giving him the diamonds to have appraised for possible auction at Sotheby's.  Sotheby's form contract referred to only a single consignor, but… Read More

A person who was not named as a defendant in the prior action, who did not formally intervene as a defendant in that action, and who was not treated as a defendant by the court or the plaintiff, has no standing to sue for malicious prosecution in filing or pursuing the prior action, even if he filed an answer in… Read More

Following Gray v. Dignity Health (2021) 70 Cal.App.5th 225, this decision holds that a hospital does not violate the CLRA if it discloses its emergency room evaluation and management services fee in its on-line chargemaster list of fees.  No additional signage or disclosure of the EMS fee is required.  Any requirement of the sort would impair the Legislature's and Congress'… Read More

This decision reverses a punitive damage award against a supplier of talc to the manufacturer of Old Spice talcum powder.  Defendant did not contest the jury's verdicts finding that plaintiff contracted mesothelioma from the asbestos in the talcum powder and that defendant was negligent in failing to detect and warn consumers about its presence in the product.  However, there was… Read More

A hospital may be held vicariously liable for a doctor's negligent treatment of a patient at the hospital if the doctor is a hospital employee or the hospital's ostensible agent.   Mejia v. Community Hospital of San Bernardino (2002) 99 Cal.App.4th 1448; Whitlow v. Rideout Memorial Hospital (2015) 237 Cal.App.4th 631.  Here, the trial court correctly granted the hospital summary judgment… Read More