California Appellate Tracker

Reversing an order denying arbitration, this decision holds that the arbitration clause had only a minimal degree of procedural unconscionability due to the employer's greater economic power and only one clause that was substantively unconscionable but severable.  The employer was not required to give plaintiff a Spanish translation since plaintiff did not show she lacked English language skills, just that… Read More

Employer sent plaintiff a letter offering employment.  The letter contained an integration clause, but also stated that plaintiff would need to sign the employer's separate arbitration agreement.  This decision holds that the integration clause did not bar introduction of evidence of the arbitration agreement since it was not inconsistent with the offer letter's terms.  Also, the the offer letter sufficiently… Read More

While a trial court has broad discretion to appoint a receiver for property or a business owned by a judgment debtor, as a means of enforcing a judgment (CCP 708.620), a receiver is a harsh, expensive remedy that should be employed only based on evidence that the judgment debtors have obfuscated or frustrated the creditor’s collection efforts and that less… Read More

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (28 USC 1604) generally shields foreign sovereigns from suit in United States courts, but permits suit here if rights in property have been taken in violation of international law.  This decision holds that property that a foreign sovereign takes from its own citizens, however wrongfully, does not fall within the exception to foreign sovereign immunity… Read More

After the California Supreme Court's decision on certified questions in Ward v. United Airlines, Inc. (2020) 9 Cal.5th 732, this decision holds that California's application of Labor Code 226 to transport workers who work a majority of their time in California does not violate the dormant Contract Clause and is not preempted by the Airline Deregulation Act or the Railway… Read More

After the California Supreme Court decided that Dynamex and its ABC test of employment for purposes of IWC wage orders applies retroactively, this 9th Circuit decision remands the case to the district court for further proceedings, giving extensive guidance to the district court in the process.  First, the ABC test applies to a three tier franchising operation such as Jan-Pro's. … Read More

The district court correctly granted summary judgment to plaintiff on its copyright infringement claims arising from defendants' copying its copyrighted fabric designs.  To be copyrightable, a work must be original, that is not copied.  But unlike a patent, a copyright does not require that the original work be unlike prior art.  Here, plaintiff's floral fabric coloring design was independently created,… Read More

Summary judgment was properly entered against plaintiff on his FEHA retaliation claims.  The employer introduced evidence showing it promptly investigated plaintiff's complaint about his supervisor's discriminatory conduct and moved plaintiff to a different part of the company under a different supervisor.  When plaintiff was later fired, it was for poor performance, as determined by three supervisory employees who were unaware… Read More

Summary judgment was properly granted the employer on plaintiff's California Family Rights Act claims.  Plaintiff introduced no evidence that he had requested medical leave.  Instead, when he complained about suffering migraine headaches, and the employer asked who could replace plaintiff in supervising his staff, plaintiff said medication would cure the headache in a few hours.  The employer also produced unrebutted… Read More

This decision reverses an order denying an Anti-SLAPP motion by the author of a Facebook post that was later republished by BBC's Vietnamese Service about plaintiff, a self-made and proclaimed billionaire who co-founded a large Vietnamese company and dated a prominent Vietnamese model, thereby making himself a public figure in the Vietnamese community.  The defendant showed that his article was… Read More

A bicyclist was killed when he collided with a truck making a right turn in a section of a city street that lacked a marked bicycle lane, unlike most of the rest of the street which had a bike lane marking.  The city established the three elements of its design immunity defense under Gov. Code 830.6.  The city had approved… Read More

Even though home protection contracts are regulated under a separate part of the Insurance Code (Ins. Code 12740 et seq.) and are subject to the Unfair Insurance Practices Act (Ins. Code 790.03), this decision holds that home protection contracts are sufficiently different from insurance so that the homeowner cannot state a claim against the contract issuer for tortious breach of… Read More

Disagreeing with Lafferty II and Spikener, this decision holds that "recovery" as used in the FTC Holder Rule includes only damages, not attorney fees, and so the consumer may recover unlimited attorney fees against the holder of his or her contract on claims against the dealer.  The decision also concludes that the FTC 2019 interpretation of the Holder Rule's second… Read More

The trial court properly denied defendant's motion to compel arbitration.  By not raising the point in the trial court, defendant waived its argument that arbitrability questions were delegated to the arbitrator.  The trial court properly found that the arbitration provision was unconscionable.  It was an adhesion contract, presented to the plaintiffs on a electronic tablet device which the salesman scrolled… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in awarding attorney fees against plaintiff under CCP 2033.420(a) for denying requests for admission denying factual allegations at the heart of the plaintiff's claims.  Plaintiff did not bear his burden of proving that he had reasonable grounds for his denial of those requests for admission.  The trial court's denial of defendant's non-suit… Read More

The trial court did not err in awarding attorney fees to defendant noteholder when it prevailed against plaintiff borrower's negligence and fraud claims that were aimed at preventing enforcement of the note and deed of trust through nonjudicial foreclosure.  Even though the plaintiff pursued tort theories, the gist of the action was to prevent enforcement of the note and deed… Read More

A patient may sue a physician for negligently recommending a course of treatment if (1) that course stems from a misdiagnosis of the patient’s underlying medical condition, or (2) all reasonable physicians in the relevant medical community would agree that the probable risks of that treatment outweigh its probable benefits.  The patient's informed consent to the treatment does not absolve… Read More

Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, forward looking statements are not actionable if accompanied by meaningful cautionary statements, or if not made with actual knowledge of their falsity.  Here, plaintiffs claimed that Tesla's stated goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of 2017 was misleading, and led to a drop in stock price once… Read More

An order dismissing a co-defendant's cross-complaint for indemnity against another defendant is appealable even if the cross-complainant remains in the case on the plaintiff's complaint.  The dismissal finally resolved all claims between the two defendants and thus was a final, appealable order. Read More

Recognizing split of authority on question of whether a defendant may challenge a good faith settlement determination on appeal from a final judgment or whether the only remedy lies in a writ petition from the good faith finding, and choosing to side with those decisions allowing a challenge on appeal from a final judgment even when the appellant did not… Read More