California Appellate Tracker

Real Property, Partition, Standing To Seek, Ownership of Interest in Property, 1, 3 Under CCP 872.210, a partition action may be brought only by an owner of an estate of inheritance in the property to e partitioned.  This decision holds that heirs of a deceased owner of a 50% interest in the property filed and won their partition action before… Read More

Trial, Limited Jurisdiction Case, Request for Witness List, CCP 96, 1, 3 In a limited jurisdiction case, a party may demand that the opponent provide a list of the names and addresses of the witnesses it will call at trial.  CCP 96.  The demand must be served no more than 45 days nor less than 30 days before the initial… Read More

Under Fam. Code 6320, a court may add children (or others) to a DVRO "for good cause" shown.  This decision holds that "good cause" may include emotional distress caused by the children seeing the defendant physically abuse their mother, the plaintiff.  There doesn't need to be any showing that the children themselves are physically harmed. Read More

Following Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Mendes (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th 136, this decision holds that parents and their children who attended Sonoma Academy did not have standing to sue the school under the UCL for not disclosing that the school had harbored child sex abusers for many years as employees and staff.  The children were not abused themselves, and neither… Read More

Torts, Premises Liability, Duty to Protect against Off-Premises Injury from Tenant's Wandering Livestock, 1, 3 A motorcyclist ran into a 300 pound hog which had wandered onto the road from adjoining, unfenced property.  A tenant on the property kept the hops.  The motorcyclist's heirs sued the landlord.  Held:  a landlord who owns but is not in possession of property owes… Read More

Torts, Medical Malpractice, Shift of Burden of Proof, Malpractice Prevents Evidence of Causation, 1, 3 Plaintiff had a stroke.  Defendant doctor didn't diagnose it properly or call for an immediate "code stroke" and CT scan which would have revealed the extent of the stroke and led to a swifter operation and less severe brain damage.  But since there was no… Read More

Jury Instructions, Particular Instructions, Negligence Per Se, 1, 3 In this auto collision case, it was reversible error for the trial court to refuse to give CACI 418, the form negligence per se instruction.  Vehicle Code 21801 requires drivers turning left to “yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching from the opposite direction which are close enough to constitute a… Read More

When a judgment creditor registers a judgment in a different federal district court under 28 USC 1963 for the purpose of enforcing the judgment, the registered judgment does not take on a life of its own, but remains linked to, and dependent on, the original judgment.  If, as in this case, the original judgment is vacated after being registered in… 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 sued under the Song-Beverly Act for breach of statutory warranties cannot invoke the arbitration clause in the car sale agreement between the dealer and the plaintiff car buyer.  The statutory warranty claims are… Read More

The Video Privacy Protection Act (18 USC 2710) generally prohibits a video tape service provider, that is,  a person, engaged in the business of rental, sale, or delivery of prerecorded video cassette tapes or similar audio visual materials, from disclosing personally identifiable information about the provider's customers.  Defendant, whose business was selling tickets to and providing an in-theater movie experience… Read More

This decision holds that an oral "traditional surrogacy" agreement is enforceable.  Under such an agreement,  a woman conceives (1) without sexual intercourse; (2) using her ova; (3) using the sperm of the intended legal father or sperm arranged by the intended legal parents; and (4) with the mutual intention that she will not be a legal parent of the child.… Read More

This decision holds that an owner, general contractor, and excavation contractor owed the public (and thus the plaintiff-parents of children killed by a construction truck) a duty of care in staging the trucks in the manner approved in the construction permit. The construction permit allowed the contractor to stage only up to 20 construction trucks and all of them on… Read More

Insurance, Exclusions, Rain, Faulty Workmanship, 1, 3 The all risk insurance policy for the plaintiff HOA excluded rain damage unless the building first suffered damage from a covered cause followed by damage from rain that entered through the damage to roof or walls caused by the covered cause.  The policy also excluded loss due to a contractor's faulty work.  This… Read More

Defendant offered plaintiff a film role during the COVID crisis, if he would get vaccinated.  He refused.  Defendant hire another actor.  Held, the trial court erred in denying defendant’s Anti-SLAPP motion.  Defendant's casting decision was conduct in furtherance of free speech in connection with two public issues: a prominent entertainment company (1) voted with its feet in the vaccination controversy… Read More

Under FRCivP 23.1, a derivative action may be maintained only by a plaintiff stockholder that can adequately and fairly represent similarly situated stockholders.  In Larson v. Dumke (9th Cir. 1990) 900 F.2d 1363, the court listed eight factors that a district court could consider in deciding whether the plaintiff was an adequate representative.  However, a district court need not consider… Read More

Defendant offered plaintiff a film role during the COVID crisis, if he would get vaccinated.  He refused.  Defendant hire another actor.  Held, the trial court erred in denying defendant’s Anti-SLAPP motion.  Defendant's casting decision was conduct in furtherance of free speech in connection with two public issues: a prominent entertainment company (1) voted with its feet in the vaccination controversy… Read More

Following Stone v. Alameda Health System (2024) 16 Cal.5th 1040, this decision holds that Labor Code 2802, which requires "employers" to reimburse employee's expenses incurred in performing their jobs, does not apply to state agencies or entities like the California State University. Read More

Although the insurer did not give plaintiff insureds notice of their right to designate a third party to receive notices regarding overdue premiums or impending terminations of their policy and 30 day notice of non-payment of the premium and impending termination of the insurance policy as required by Ins. Code 10113.71 and 10113.72, the insurer was entitled to judgment because… Read More

Gliner filed this proceeding under 28 USC 1782 to obtain discovery in California for use in his defamation action in Great Britain.  Specifically, he sought the name and contact information of the author of the article that allegedly defamed him as well as the name and contact information of the operator of the website on which the article was published. … Read More

RICO, Damages, Antecedent Personal Injury Bar to Damages Overruled, 5, 4 While RICO allows recovery only for harm to business or property, not personal injury, damages are recoverable under RICO for harm to business or property that is caused by a personal injury inflicted as part of a RICO conspiracy. Read More