Under Labor Code 3744, the California Self-Insurers’ Security Fund may sue in court (not before the Workers Compensation Appeals Board) and recover workers compensation benefits paid on behalf of an insolvent self-insured temporary staffing agency from the agency’s customers who were the injured workers’ special employers. Read More
For purposes of the Labor Code's wage and hour protections for employees, taxi drivers are considered employees, since their employer can fire them for misconduct. Read More
One heir’s suit against another, which sought to disinherit a co-heir defendant under the no contest clause in the decedent's trust, is a suit based on protected activity and thus is subject to an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike, since the defendant’s prior contest was a protected judicial proceeding. Read More
A defendant in an unlawful detainer action has the right to a jury trial if there is a factual dispute over habitability of the premises. Read More
Under bankruptcy law, persons who unknowingly received funds a dishonest employee had embezzled were “initial transferees” of the funds, and strictly liable to repay them, since the funds were paid by check drawn on an account that the dishonest employee had established in the employer’s name, but without its knowledge. Read More
The automatic stay in bankruptcy does not extend the three-year deadline for serving process on a co-defendant of the bankrupt debtor, that is not itself in bankruptcy. Read More
A seller of real property (here, a vineyard and tasting room) owes the buyer a duty to disclose facts materially affecting the value or desirability of the property that are not otherwise within a buyer's knowledge through diligent attention and observation—but only when the seller had actual or constructive knowledge of the undisclosed facts, which this seller lacked. Read More
With a long-tail loss, an excess insurer is not entitled to horizontal exhaustion of all underlying retention amounts for all years in which the loss is incurred; instead, vertical exhaustion applies: that is, once the retention amount for a single year is exhausted, the excess insurer for that year is liable for all sums incurred on the loss (up to… Read More
Since Oregon’s government claims statute reflected the same general policy as California’s Tort Claims Act by requiring plaintiffs to give pre-suit notice of injury within six months, California courts are required by the Full Faith and Credit Clause to apply the Oregon statute. Read More
An order granting or denying a motion to disqualify counsel is immediately appealable; the appeal automatically stays the appealed order but not other proceedings in the trial court, so a disqualified attorney may continue to the representation while the appeal is pending. Read More
Civil penalties may be recovered under the Private Attorney General Act without proving that the defendant employer’s failure to provide workers accurate, itemized pay statements was knowing and intentional. Read More
Filing suit and opposing a motion to compel arbitration are not, in themselves, breaches of the parties’ arbitration agreement sufficient to allow an award of fees under the agreement’s attorney fee clause. Read More
Criminal defendant’s constitutional due process rights are not violated by federal statute prohibiting him from subpoenaing third party internet service provider (here, Facebook) for disclosure of non-public postings by one of its subscribers (such as, here, the defendant’s victim). Read More
Plaintiff could not state a viable employment discrimination claim based on her supervisor’s actions favoring his co-employee wife, but plaintiff could state a viable whistleblower claim based on the supervisor’s retaliation for her complaining about his favoritism. Read More
Defendant’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied as the claim was based on defendant’s unprotected decision to terminate the plaintiff distributor rather than on the defendant’s later protected acts in a statutory arbitration proceeding concerning the termination. Read More
Defendant signed a settlement agreement providing that it would not contest plaintiff’s entitlement to attorney fees (but only the reasonableness of the fee award), so defendant could not later argue that various statutes limited or prohibited a fee award. Read More
The defendant’s attorney did not form a confidential non-client relationship with the plaintiff broker and so was not disqualified from representing the defendant; the information the attorney obtained from the broker either was necessary to the broker’s handling a property sale for defendant or was not confidential. Read More
Prior state court judgment based on collateral estoppel effect of a federal court judgment is not entitled to res judicata effect after the federal court judgment was reversed on appeal. Read More
California’s law banning foie gras and other products made from force-fed birds is not preempted by the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act, since that act only prohibits states from imposing ingredient requirements, as opposed to restrictions on animal husbandry practices. Read More
Uncertainty regarding class members’ damages does not prevent certification of a class as long as a valid method has been proposed for calculating those damages such as, here, a full refund of the purchase price based on defendant’s suggested retail price and the price the individual plaintiff paid. Read More
