California Appellate Tracker

This decision affirms a summary judgment against most of plaintiff's claims which arose from his ouster from an LLC after he circulated a letter to potential investors in the LLC falsely claiming that it was engaging in criminal activity.  Since the LLC needed to raise capital through private offerings, the letter harmed the LLC, providing a rational basis for ousting… Read More

This decision affirms a judgment after a court trial on plaintiff's claim for restitution to avoid what he claimed was an inequitable forfeiture of his interest in an LLC.  It finds that the loss of the plaintiff's interest was justified by the nature of his breach of the LLC agreement and that he had not suffered an inequitable loss since… Read More

After a good general discussion of the shifting burden on proving the opposing party agreed to the arbitration agreement, this decision affirms the trial court's order denying defendant's motion to compel arbitration.  Defendant tried to establish that the 90-year-old plaintiff had agreed to a home repair and accompanying loan agreement by showing his electronic signature on the repair contract and… Read More

In federal courts, even on claims governed by state law, costs are governed by 28 USC 1920.  Since it states expressly that costs may be awarded in the district court's discretion, section 1920 preempts state laws that award costs to the prevailing party as a matter of right.  Here, the district court erred in applying such a Nevada law to… Read More

To qualify for the public interest exemption to the Anti-SLAPP statute (CCP 425.17(b)), the “action, as opposed to a cause of action, must be brought solely in the public interest.”  If any portion of the lawsuit contravenes section 425.17, subdivision (b), then the public interest exemption does not apply at all. Here, a suit against a water board and its… Read More

Jurisdiction, Standing, Factual Challenge, Standing Intertwined with Merits, 2, 10 Plaintiff claimed that defendant's Banana Boat sunscreen products contained small amounts of benzene which were harmful.  Defendant moved to dismiss for lack of Article III standing, claiming plaintiff had suffered no injury in fact because the minute amounts of benzene in its products were harmless.  Defendant supported its argument with… Read More

WL 4352615  (A debtor who has filed a Chapter 13 proceeding has an absolute right to voluntarily dismiss the bankruptcy case so long as it has not been converted into a case under a different chapter.  (11 USC 1307(b).)  This is true even if the debtor filed the Chapter 13 in bad faith or was not qualified to file a… Read More

Applying the Rowland  v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108 factors, this decision holds that while it was foreseeable that motorists on the SR 99 four-lane highway might be injured by colliding with a tree on Union Pacific's adjoining property that was 20 ft. from the right-hand lane, the public policy related Rowland factors outweighed foreseeability of harm.  Requiring owners of… Read More

Joining Doe v. Second Street Corp. (2024) 2024 WL 4350420, this decision also holds that if a complaint alleges a claim for sexual assault or harassment, the entire case, including other non-assault or harassment claims, are not arbitrable under 9 USC 402(a). Read More

(A party that fails to serve timely responses to requests for admission waives objections to the requests.  (CCP 2033.280(a).  If the requesting party files a motion to deem the requested matters admitted, the non-answering party is also liable for the fees incurred in bringing the motion.  CCP 2033.280(c) also provides that the motion is to be granted unless before the… Read More

(This decision holds that the McDonald-Douglas shifting burden standard applies to motions for summary judgment on a claim under the False Claims Act's anti-retaliation provision (31 USC 3730(h)(1)) as amended in 2009, not the different analysis of First Amendment retaliation claims.  Under the 2009 amendment, it is no longer required for the employee to show that he was investigating matters… Read More

(This decision affirms a $10 million award to plaintiff who was sexually molested by his high school tennis coach.  The trial court properly instructed the jury on the school district's potential liability for negligent hiring, retention, and supervision of the tennis coach when its administrators knew or should have known of the coach's unfitness.  The trial court properly admitted evidence… Read More

(Overruling two prior 9th Circuit decisions, this en banc opinion holds that the federal False Claims Act's first-to-file rule (31 USC 3730(b)(5)) is not jurisdictional.  "Jurisdiction" is not a word used in that portion of the statute although it is used in connection with some of the statute's other limitations on false claims actions.) Read More

(Joining the chorus of decisions criticizing and departing from Felisilda v. FCA US LLC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486, review granted, this decision holds that the car manufacturer and authorized repair center are not third party beneficiaries of the arbitration clause in the auto dealer's conditional sale contract with the plaintiff car buyer.  Hence, the trial court erred in compelling arbitration… Read More

Uber was not liable for car accident by an Uber driver who had turned his Uber driver app to “offline”—meaning he was not available to receive requests for rides—about four minutes before the accident and more than a mile away from the location of the accident. Read More

(In this case, son held a durable power of attorney (DPOA) from mother, while daughter held a power of attorney for health care (health care POA).  Following Harrod v. Country Oaks Partners, LLC (2024) 15 Cal.5th 939, the decision reverses the trial court's ruling that only the daughter had authority to sign arbitration agreement for mother when she was put… Read More

Defendant did not incur the sanction under CCP 1287.97 and 1287.98 for failing to pay its share of arbitration fees within 30 days of the arbitrator's invoice.  Here, plaintiff's attorney mistakenly paid the entire initial invoice issued by the arbitrator within 30 days.  After refunding the defendant's half of the arbitration fees to plaintiff, the arbitrator issued another invoice for… Read More

(The common interest privilege protected a hospital's communications internally, with other hospitals, and potential employers about a physician it suspected of unsafe surgical procedures.  The absolute litigation privilege protected the hospital's communications with the state medical board about the suspension of the physician's surgery privileges at the hospital.) Read More

(An appeal from a domestic violence prevention order is not rendered moot by the expiration of the order because under Family Law 3044, for five years after entry of the order, it is presumed that the defendant found to have committed the domestic violence is not a proper person to be given custody of a child.  The trial court in… Read More

This opinion clarifies the distinction between Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (1993) 508 U.S. 49 and USS-POSCO Industries v. Contra Costa Cnty. Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council (9th Cir. 1994) 31 F.3d 800 in the application of the sham exception to the Noerr-Pennington doctrine.  Prof. Real Estate applies when the defendant has commenced only one… Read More