California Appellate Tracker

Holidays and weekends count against the running of the three-day notice to quit period in unlawful detainer unless the landlord states that the required rent payment may only be remitted by mail. Read More

Gov. Code 1090’s prohibition on having a personal interest in a public contract one lets applies to a government agency’s independent contractors as well as its employees. Read More

The Legislature directed the Inspector General to investigate the treatment of prisoners at the High Desert prison, so the IG’s office should have won its Anti-SLAPP motion when it got sued for interrogating police officers, allegedly in violation of the Police Officers’ Bill of Rights Act.  Read More

Head of Contractors’ State License Board (a state agency) should not have been compelled to appear for a deposition, since deposing party could not show that he had direct personal factual information pertaining to material issues that could not be obtained from any other source. Read More

Warning labels required for most alcoholic beverages under Proposition 65 do not need to provide a detailed list of all the harmful chemicals found in the product. Read More

An elder physical abuse claim was properly dismissed for failure to allege egregious withholding of needed medical care: the doctors only refused to give the care they reasonably thought would be medically ineffective. Read More

The Sherman Antitrust Act pre-empts a Seattle ordinance that would have allowed unions to organize independent contractors serving as drivers for ride-sharing services since the ordinance contemplates horizontal price-fixing by non-employee drivers. Read More

Testimony during a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition does not absolutely bind the corporation in the sense of a judicial admission, but rather is evidence that—like other deposition testimony—can be corrected, explained, supplemented or contradicted. Read More

A second class action is entitled to American Pipe tolling of the statute of limitations during the pendency of a first class action on the same claim if the first action is dismissed for lack of an adequate class representative and a new named plaintiff is promptly added. Read More

A construction industry prompt payment statute allows a general contractor to withhold payment of retention sums due to a subcontractor only if there is a good faith dispute regarding the retention, not other sums allegedly due. Read More

The federal statute prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting violates the Tenth Amendment. Read More

A government employee must exhaust administrative remedies before suing in court for whistleblower retaliation, but the employee need not seek judicial review of the administrative decision which is not binding in the court suit. Read More

Under a homeowner’s insurance policy’s “personal injury” coverage, the insurer must defend a nuisance claim charging that a fence the insured built on his own property blocked an easement providing access to the plaintiff’s adjoining property. Read More

In federal court, an Anti-SLAPP motion based on purely legal arguments is analyzed under the motion to dismiss standards, while an Anti-SLAPP motion challenging the factual support for plaintiff’s claims is governed by summary judgment standards and the plaintiff must be allowed discovery. Read More

Legal malpractice actions generally are not SLAPPs even though much evidence to prove the malpractice claim involves actions taken in the prosecution or defense of the underlying action. Read More

A court always decides whether a non-signatory is bound by an arbitration agreement—even when the agreement delegates arbitrability issues to the arbitrator. Read More

An email exchange between opposing counsel clarified the ambiguity in plaintiff’s 998 offer, making it enforceable when the defendant did not accept the offer and fared worse at trial. Read More

Although inadmissibility alone is not a proper basis to reject evidence submitted in support of class certification, the district court should still test expert evidence by the Daubert standard and consider whether it is likely plaintiff will be able to prove the same facts with admissible evidence by the time of trial. Read More

A government employer must make reasonable accommodations for a disabled worker and engage in an interactive process with the worker to reach that accommodation, and in this instance the employer failed to comply when it gave a probationary employee medical leave but did not tell her the leave would result in her automatic termination because she would not be available… Read More

Plaintiff which had prevailed in reversing six of eight zoning code variances the city council granted Target was a successful party entitled to a Private Attorney General fee award even if the city council later amended the zoning code to permit Target to build its store. Read More