California Appellate Tracker

The trial court abused its discretion by failing to consider all required factors under the Rule of Court governing minors’ compromise, which permits the reduction of plaintiffs’ attorneys’ contingency fees under certain circumstances. Read More

Plaintiff employees’ law firm was not entitled to attorney fees it sought separately and independently of court approval of class action settlement. Read More

Law firm’s investigative due diligence report, completed prior to an acquisition to determine whether target company was in possession of another’s protected trade secrets, is not protected from discovery by any attorney-client privilege because it was jointly directed by and shared with opposing parties in the acquisition negotiations; and it was not protected by the work product privilege because it… Read More

Neither statutory nor common law imposed a duty of care on the YMCA to administer a heart defibrillator to a participant in a soccer league that rented one of the YMCA's fields when the participant suffered a heart attack while playing soccer.  Read More

A uniform policy alone does not establish the predominance of common issues if it is not a means of establishing class-wide liability; so, here, the employer could defeat class certification with evidence that many of its crews did not follow its uniform break policy. Read More

An owner and president of a restaurant corporation could be held liable for civil penalties for violating wage and hour laws since he supervised the corporation's payment practices that violated the laws. Read More

Although California recognizes the legitimacy of Japanese yoshi-engumi (a traditional adoption process), California law governs intestate succession for a person who died in California; so the adoption is treated as severing the adoptee's ties to his natural family and his natural parents' descendants are not entitled to inherit through him. Read More

Real property general partnership interests that the defendant sold to the public were investment contracts, so defendant violated the Securities Act by selling those interests without complying with the Act's disclosure requirements. Read More

The airline did not waive its right to compel arbitration of former employee’s retaliation claim by having earlier defended itself against a Department of Labor investigation triggered by the employee’s administrative complaint. Read More

Skier assumed the inherent risks of that sport and could not sue for ski patrol’s allegedly negligent rescue efforts from which she suffered further injuries. Read More

For res judicata purposes, a person seeking mandate review of a city’s approval of a Walmart store expansion is in privity with an earlier petitioner for similar relief as both sought to represent the public interest. Read More

Insurance regulation defining “‘[k]knowingly committed” as “performed with actual, implied or constructive knowledge, including, but not limited to, that which is implied by operation of law" is a reasonable interpretation of the Unfair Insurance Practices Act and therefore is enforceable. Read More

A fee-shifting provision in the standard-form residential deed of trust is enforceable against the borrower, but only insofar as the fees are added to the loan principal secured by the deed of trust. Read More

Severson's Andrew Noble provides additional commentary on this important opinion. Read More

The Anti-SLAPP statute protects the defendant, an employee of plaintiff, from plaintiff’s breach of contract action arising from the employee’s decision to file an employment lawsuit, notwithstanding the arbitration clause in his employment agreement. Read More

California statute extending state wage laws governing public works to cover delivery drivers of ready-mix concrete is not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act and does not violate concrete companies’ equal protection rights. Read More

Defendant-employer was not vicariously liable for an after-work car accident which the defendant’s employee caused while on the phone with another employee, as the call related to personal matters, not work. Read More

Plaintiff homeowner stated a viable wrongful foreclosure claim against mortgage loan servicer who told plaintiff that it would not accept plaintiff's offer to reinstate the loan, even though the offer was made more than 5 business days before the trustee's sale. Read More

Uber's arbitration agreements with its drivers are enforceable and delegate arbitrability questions to the arbitrator and the named plaintiffs could not opt out of the arbitration agreement on behalf of all class members. Read More

Defendant wrongly removed the case under federal officer removal provision, since defendant was not acting as a government contractor in selling weapons with the plaintiff, even if the defendant acted as a government contractor in selling the same weapons to the US military. Read More