The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.
Snowboarder who was injured when she ran into a snow cat pulling a "tiller" on an open ski run (when the snow cat failed to use its turn signal before slowly turning) had signed a release of claims including negligence, and there was no gross negligence present that would have allowed her to get around the release. Read More
In a junk fax case brought under the TCPA, the recipient's "prior express invitation or permission," like consent in an unsolicited telephone call case, is an affirmative defense with respect to which the court, when weighing class certification, considers only the defenses the defendant has actually advanced and for which it has presented evidence. Read More
A transaction between US citizens and Toshiba, a foreign corporation, was sufficiently “domestic” to be subject to the Securities Exchange Act because the US citizens purchased, in the US, American Depository Shares or Receipts entitling them to the shares of the foreign issuer. Read More
The notice of motion, memorandum, and all supporting papers in support of a discovery motion to compel and for sanctions must be filed and served by the Discovery Act’s 60-day deadline, not just the notice of motion alone. Read More
The federal Nutrition Education Act pre-empts Proposition 65’s requirement of a label on cereal warning of naturally occurring acrylamide in cooked whole grains. Read More
Merchants are not required to design their parking lots in such a way that disabled patrons may access their stores without traveling behind parked cars. Read More
A job applicant who would not have been hired even if inaccuracies in his credit report were corrected lacked Article III standing to bring a claim against the employer for failure to give him pre-adverse action notice as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Read More
The trial court did not err in excluding a non-retained expert’s opinion on causation as it duplicated a retained expert’s more soundly based opinion. Read More
Under Civil Code 47(b)’s divorce exception, ex-wife’s allegedly defamatory statements about a nanny in a declaration filed in her marital dissolution proceeding are not protected by the litigation privilege. Read More
A citizen is allowed to intervene as of right in the government’s Clean Air Act suit only when that suit would bar the citizen from filing a private action. Read More
A botched Spanish translation felled an employer’s arbitration clause, creating a fatal ambiguity as to the severability of an impermissible waiver of the right to bring a Private Attorney General Act claim. Read More
PG&E was entitled to summary judgment on claim for punitive damages filed by victims of the 2015 Butte Fire since there was no evidence of malice. Read More
The federal Communications Decency Act barred the trial court from directing Yelp! to remove libelous content from a review posted by a third party. Read More
At trial, the court must give a party it has granted in forma pauperis status a free court reporter or other means of obtaining a verbatim transcript. Read More
Claims for prenatal injuries to a baby caused by the mother’s exposure to toxic chemicals are governed by the two-year statute of limitations for personal injuries from exposure to toxic chemicals, which includes tolling provisions for minors and for delayed discovery. Read More
A statute cannot be proactively invalidated on the ground that compliance with it is impossible, although noncompliance can be excused on impossibility grounds. Read More
The integration clause in a residential care facility’s contract did not supersede an arbitration agreement that the resident later signed; on remand, the trial court must consider plaintiffs’ other defenses to arbitration. Read More
A state law requiring public employees who are non-union members to pay agency fees to the union that is the certified bargaining agent for employees in their work unit violates the First Amendment by compelling the employees to fund speech with which they may not agree. Read More
