California Appellate Tracker

American Express’s anti-steering policy, which forbids merchants from suggesting to customers, at the point of sale, that they use a non-Amex credit card that charges lower merchant fees, does not violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Read More

A collection attorney engages in debt collection for purposes of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when he pursues judicial foreclosure because that proceeding allows for the collection of a deficiency judgment—unlike a nonjudicial foreclosure, the sole goal of which is to retake property given as security. Read More

Securitized mortgages that Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae held in trust for investors are considered the property of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, so HOAs cannot obtain a super-priority lien for unpaid dues that will take precedence over the mortgage loan. Read More

Attorney fees in Americans with Disabilities Act litigation are to be calculated using the lodestar method. Read More

An employer may use a time clock that averages to the nearest quarter hour, so long as the employer can show that the rounding policy, over time, results in overcompensation of workers as a whole (even if the employer cannot show that the policy does not undercompensate any particular worker). Read More

When an appeals court affirms a trial court’s ruling on only one ground, that is only the ground that can be given claim preclusive or issue preclusive effect in subsequent litigation.  Read More

The defendant store was properly awarded summary judgment in a slip-and-fall lawsuit when the plaintiff presented no evidence to show that there was anything on the floor or that it was wet or slippery. Read More

A court may not sanction a party for filing an improper reconsideration motion without first giving the party 21-days notice and opportunity to withdraw the offending motion. Read More

Probate court lacks jurisdiction to determine who is entitled to the proceeds of decedent’s life insurance policy since the proceeds are not a property of the decedent’s estate. Read More

Plaintiff employee was not barred from testifying about her memory of the content of sexually suggestive emails defendant co-worker sent her since the emails themselves had been lost. Read More

Administrative law judge’s decision finding cause for community college employee’s termination collaterally estopped employee’s later suit for discrimination, insofar as that suit sought to challenge ALJ’s finding that employer had a non-discriminatory reason for the termination. Read More

A patentee may recover lost profits suffered in foreign countries as damages in a patent infringement action brought against a defendant that shipped parts from the United States for assembly into an infringing product in a foreign country. Read More

Under the Commerce Clause, the states’ power to impose sales taxes on sellers is limited only by the requirement of a substantial nexus to the taxing state; the seller’s physical presence in the state is no longer required for the imposition of sales tax. Read More

The Securities & Exchange Commission’s administrative law judges are “Officers of the United States” and so must be appointed by the commissioners, not their staff. Read More

By submitting arguments on the merits to the arbitrator without objecting to his jurisdiction until long after the fact, employer waived the argument that arbitrator lacked authority under the collective bargaining agreement to decide labor union’s claim for bonus pay to new hires. Read More

Individual plaintiff-voter lacks standing to challenge statewide voting inequalities involving districts other than his own. Read More

A suit challenging the non-waivable $150 jury fee in civil cases should have been filed against the Judicial Council, not the State of California. Read More

A hotel and restaurant owe a duty of care to its patrons to protect them against black widow spiders on the premises. Read More

When an administrative agency makes its decision immediately effective, the 30-day limit for petitioning for court review is not tolled by a motion for reconsideration. Read More

The required vehicle exception to the going and coming rule did not apply to a public defender’s drive home from work on a day he did not need the car for work, so his employer, the county, was not liable for the accident on the drive home. Read More