California Appellate Tracker

An interlocutory judgment in a partition action was reversed because it directed the sale of the property but did not determine the each party’s percentage ownership in the property. Read More

Mail service on a Chinese defendant was ineffective, even though it had agreed to such service because China has opted out of the Hague Convention’s article allowing service by mail. Read More

This California case is at the intersection of interpleader and foreclosure litigation. A foreclosure trustee interpleaded surplus funds following a foreclosure sale that was challenged by the borrower in a wrongful foreclosure action.  It shouldn’t have.  An interpleader lies only where the holder of third-party funds may face multiple liabilities, but Civil Code section 2924k sets forth exactly how surplus… Read More

A good faith purchaser of the contents of a self-storage unit takes the contents free and clear of the unit lessee’s claims, even if the lessor had violated the Storage Facility Act by failing to enter into a written lease with the lessee. Read More

A district attorney cannot pursue restitution or civil penalties based on the unfair competition law for residents of counties other than his own, absent the consent of the Attorney General and the district attorney in each other county for which remedies were sought. Read More

Interpleader cross-complaint filed by the trustee of a deed of trust was correctly dismissed because there was no question that surplus proceeds from a foreclosure sale belonged to the trustor, notwithstanding the trustor’s ongoing wrongful foreclosure lawsuit. Read More

Defendant’s payroll practices were in compliance with Labor Code 226(a) with respect to both disclosures of overtime bonus-related pay and mailing of wage statements to terminated employees. Read More

A settlement agreement and judgment dismissing a prior class action wage & hour suit bars plaintiff's follow-on complaint for nonpayment of reporting time pay during the period covered by the prior litigation, since the agreement’s release was broad enough to cover this component of wages even though it didn’t actually come up in the previous suit. Read More

A trust may not allow a former trustee to withhold from a successor trustee all communications between that former trustee and the trust’s legal counsel, since the attorney-client privilege vests in the office of the trustee, not in any particular person. Read More

A person adversely affected by a bankruptcy court order has the standing to appeal from the order, even if he did not appear at the hearing or raise an objection before entry of the appealed order. Read More

Plaintiff’s shareholder derivative action against a corporation's executives and auditor in California was properly dismissed on forum non-conveniens grounds since corporation’s by-laws included a forum selection clause in favor of Delaware and auditor had consented to jurisdiction in Delaware. Read More

A court may not enter judgment by default in an amount that exceeds the amount demanded in the complaint, and the fact that defendant is given actual notice of the damages plaintiff seeks by some means other than the complaint (such as, here, during a settlement conference) is irrelevant.  Read More

City of San Diego’s ordinance setting a 30-day limitations period on challenges to tax assessments does not deny plaintiffs due process and is not subject to equitable tolling based on a prior suit by a different taxpayer. Read More

A landlord is not liable for damage to property belonging to a tenant at sufferance, who was holding over without paying rent and was being sued for unlawful detainer at the time of the damage. Read More

Employer suspected it was underpaying employees due to the enactment of a living wage ordinance enacted by Los Angeles, but it made no reasonable effort to acquire a copy of the ordinance or determine its requirements, and this half-hearted effort amounted to an act of willfulness for purposes of determining liability for waiting time penalties. Read More

Internet service providers must produce, in response to a subpoena, any material that a social media user has configured to be public, but not material configured for view by specific individuals, even though those persons might further disclose the materials. Read More

Growers’ First Amendment rights were not violated by having to pay assessments that funded advertising by the California Table Grapes Commission since the advertising was government speech and there was sufficient government responsibility for and control over the advertising. Read More

Borrower stated viable Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claim against loan servicer, which acquired the loan while it was in default, included improper fees in the reinstatement amount it quoted, and kept treating the loan as delinquent and pursued non-judicial foreclosure after the borrower had paid the reinstatement sum in full. Read More

An employee who has been affected by one Labor Code violation by the employer may bring a Private Attorney General Act suit against the employer for civil penalties based on all Labor Code violations committed by the employer.  Read More

Summary judgment was improperly granted on plaintiff’s FEHA pregnancy discrimination claim; she did not need to show she had submitted a job application; it was enough to show that the employer’s discriminatory conduct deterred her from applying. Read More