A written waiver or release of future negligence claims or assumption of the risk in order to participate in recreational activities is enforceable. Here, a high school required its football team players to sign such a release. It barred plaintiff's claim for negligence in failing to diagnose the concussion he suffered playing football which led to serious brain damage. Plaintiff… Read More
The trial court made four errors in granting Amazon judgment in this Prop. 65 action against it based on its listing (and sale) of 11 skin whiting products that contained mercury. First, it improperly found that tests of individual samples of the products didn't prove that all of the product contained mercury. The test results showed mercury levels so high… Read More
The operator of a residential care facility owed its severely retarded resident a duty of care s to take cost-effective measures to protect the resident from foreseeable harm from people like the handyman who sexually assaulted her and who the facility knew posed a foreseeable risk of harm to its female residents.) Read More
Under W&I Code 15657.03, a court may issue a restraining order to prevent a defendant from committing threatened or repeated physical or financial elder abuse. Here, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in entering such an order against a step child who, along with her mother, tried to unduly influence the mother's elderly husband to change his estate… Read More
The trial court instructed the jury to award plaintiff defendant's profits from the false advertising the jury found only if it found that the defendant acted wilfully. This instruction was contrary to the Supreme Court's later holding in Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil Group, Inc. (2020) 140 S.Ct. 1492. So the jury verdict was reversed and remanded. However, disgorgement of… Read More
The Supreme Court holds that lenders and loan servicers do not owe borrowers a duty of care in handling their loan modification applications. Lender and borrower are in privity of contract, and the economic loss rule prevents recovery for purely economic loss based on negligence between contracting parties. The Biakanja factors apply only to parties not in privity of contract. … Read More
The trial court properly determined, as a matter of law, that defendant attorneys lacked probable cause to file and to continue prosecuting an action by a mobilehome park resident against the park owner for interference with the resident's contract to sell her mobilehome to a third party. The Mobilehome Residency Law at the time allowed park owners to require would-be… Read More
Distinguishing and disagreeing with Henriksen v. City of Rialto (1993) 20 Cal.App.4th 1612, this decision holds that the City is vicariously liable under respondeat superior for the negligence of one of its police officers in fail to secure a Police Department-approved, secondary firearm upon returning home from work. The policeman left the gun, unlocked, in his car when he returned… Read More
A school does not owe a student a duty to indemnify the student for attorney fees the student incurred in defending a suit by a football referee who claimed he was injured during a school-sponsored football game by plaintiff's post-play tackle of an opposing player who fell on the referee. Neither the free school provision of the California Constitution nor… Read More
Under Civ. Code 3333.2(c)(2), noneconomic damages in a medical malpractice case are limited to $250,000 unless the defendant provided services that exceeded "the scope of services for which the provider is licensed and which are not within any restriction imposed by the licensing agency or licensed hospital." This decision holds that section 3333.2 applies to a physician's assistant who has… Read More
Lab. Code 970 prohibits an employer from inducing an employee to relocate and accept employment by means of knowingly false representations about the kind, character, or existence of work or how long it will last. Here, the trial court erred in granting the defendant employer summary judgment on plaintiff's claim under section 970. The at-will employment contract that the plaintiff… Read More
When an Anti-SLAPP motion attacks a mixed cause of action, the motion must identify the portions of the cause of action that allege protected activity, but when the motion attacks an entire cause of action, it does not need to identify the activity at issue, since by default it claims that all activity mentioned in the cause of action is… Read More
Plaintiff was injured while jogging across defendant's property while in training to run a marathon. This case holds that jogging for that purpose is a use of the property for a recreational purpose, and so Civ. Code 846 immunized the owner of the property from liability for plaintiff's injuries. Read More
Torts, Medical Malpractice, Abandonment of Patient, Reliance on Other's Good Conduct, 1, 1 The trial court did not err in this medical malpractice case in not giving CACI 509, dealing with a doctor's abandonment of the patient. For the instruction to be applicable, the doctor must accept the patient into his care and then refuse to treat the patient without… Read More
Under Welf. & Inst. Code 15610.57 and 15657, authorize enhanced remedies for the negligent failure of any person having the care or custody of an elder or a dependent adult to exercise that degree of care that a reasonable person in a like position would exercise." Building on Winn v. Pioneer Medical Group, Inc. (2016) 63 Cal.4th 148, this decision… Read More
Gov. Code 831.7 (dealing with hazardous recreational activities) immunizes Santa Barbara from liability for the death by drowning of a paddle boarder. Stand-up paddle boarding is a hazardous recreational activity. Santa Barbara had no duty to warn as the risk of falling from the paddle board and drowning was inherent in the sport. Santa Barbara was not grossly negligent, having… Read More
Owners of adjoining apartments mediated Doe's civil harassment prevention action, reaching an agreement that provided, among other things, that the parties agree not to disparage one another. This decision holds that read in light of the limited nature of the action and surrounding circumstances, the provision could not reasonably be read to ban Doe from saying negative things about Olson… Read More
The trial court erred in granting defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion to strike this defamation action. Defendant was a competitor of plaintiff in selling life insurance and wealth management services to Chinese and Chinese-American clients. Plaintiff alleged that defendant had falsely told insurance agents and one client that plaintiff was dishonest and unethical in her business practices and falsified insurance documents. Before… Read More
The trial court erred in granting defendant summary judgment in this suit by a spectator injured by a foul ball during a college baseball game. Despite primary assumption of the risk, the venue has a duty to take reasonable steps to increase safety and minimize the risk of injury to spectators at its baseball games, if it could do so… Read More
Defendant bought the property adjacent to plaintiff's property and improved the purchased property with a drip-irrigated walnut orchard. A strip of land on defendant's side of the fence between the two properties was actually plaintiff's property. After defendant completed the orchard improvements, plaintiff sued for trespass on that strip of land and sought an injunction requiring defendant to restore the… Read More
