The Rooker-Feldman doctrine did not apply to bar this FDCPA claim against the debt collection attorneys who had filed a memorandum of costs after winning judgment in a debt collection suit. The state court judgment was entered before the cost memo and did not rule on its propriety. Hence, the federal court was not being asked to review any state… Read More
Agreeing with Connelly v. Bornstein (2019) 33 Cal.App.5th 783 and Garcia v. Rosenberg (2019) 42 Cal.App.5th 1050, this decision holds that CCP 340.6's one-year limitations periods governs a malicious prosecution action against the attorney for the opposing party in the underlying litigation. CCP 340.6(a)(2) tolls that one-year period during the time “[t]he attorney continues to represent the plaintiff regarding the… Read More
Plaintiff alleged a viable claim under 17200's fraudulent and unfair business practice prongs against defendant concrete company which added to its regular rates for its concrete an "energy fee" and an "environmental fee" which plaintiff alleged were unconnected with anything having to do with energy or the environment and instead were just ways to increase defendant's profits. Mislabeling the fees… Read More
Plaintiff entered into a license agreement allowing defendant to use part of plaintiff's property to make films. The license agreement stated expressly that it was not a lease and landlord-tenant laws did not apply. This decision holds that the advantage of a fast unlawful detainer proceeding is a private right that a landlord can waive and that plaintiff did by… Read More
This decision affirms dismissal of a case under the 5 year statute. It holds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in not tolling the 5 year statute during the 16 month period in which the court was not holding jury trials due to COVID-19 because during that period plaintiff was not ready to go to trial anyway,… Read More
Substantial evidence supported the jury's verdict for the defendant golf course in this disability discrimination suit by a golfer who suffered from pulmonary arterial hypertension which supposedly left him unable to walk any distance from the golf cart to his golf ball. There was evidence that the golf course made a reasonable accommodation for plaintiff's disability by allowing him to… Read More
In a heavy rainstorm, plaintiff slipped and fell in a swiftly moving water current running down a sloped driveway that she tried to cross to access one entrance to her apartment building. The danger of slipping in the water was open and obvious, so the landlord owed plaintiff no duty of care to warn her of the danger. Also, there… Read More
Under section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, a securities issuer may recover from a director or officer short swing profits made from purchase and sale of the issuer's securities within a six month period. However, under 17 CFR 240.16b-3(d)(1), transactions between an issuer and its directors or officers are exempted if approved by the issuer's board of directors. This… Read More
A motion for relief from default and default judgment under CCP 473(b)'s mandatory attorney fault provision must be brought within six months (and a motion under the section's discretionary provision must be brought diligently and in no case more than six months). This decision holds that "six months" means either six calendar months or 182 days, whichever is longer. Though… Read More
There is no private right of action to enforce Financial Code sections 22100 and 22751 which require licensure of consumer finance lenders. The statute provides only for administrative enforcement, and unlike the statute interpreted in Goehring v. Chapman Univ. (2004) 121 Cal.App.4th 353 does not require any refund be made to a borrower, instead providing for forfeiture of fees and… Read More
Plaintiffs obtained a loan from defendant while it was an illegally unlicensed lender in California. This decision holds that plaintiffs lack standing to sue defendant for violating the UCL in making the loan while unlicensed since plaintiffs suffered no loss of money or property due to the defendant's unlicensed status. They received the exact loan terms for which they had… Read More
Pub. Util. Code 1759 barred this suit to hold PG&E liable for its public safety power shutoffs in 2019 based on the theory that the shutoffs were caused by PG&E's negligence in prior decades in maintaining its power grid, leaving it susceptible to causing wildfires that the power shutoffs were designed to prevent. The PUC had been regulating both power… Read More
The Government Claims Statute (Gov. Code 905) requires plaintiffs to file a government claim with the prospective government entity defendant before filing a suit for damages. However, the statute does not apply to actions for injunctive, specific, or declaratory relief--even if the declaration might be used in a later suit for damages. Here, a contractor sued for a declaration regarding… Read More
The district court correctly dismissed plaintiff app developer's antitrust complaint against Apple for monopolizing the market for iPhone apps and rejecting plaintiff's apps. The complaint failed to adequately identify the product market that Apple allegedly monopolized or restrained. Read More
The trial court correctly denied Mattson's motion to compel arbitration of Applied's suit against it for violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Mattson had hired Lai away from Applied. Lai's employment agreement with Applied contained an arbitration clause. Mattson was not a party to that contract and could not enforce it on a equitable estoppel basis since Applied's claim… Read More
A choreographer stated actionable claims for direct and contributory infringement of his copyrighted choreographic work by defendant's virtual animation as part of a video game. The complaint alleged a plausible similarity between his work's selection and arrangement of choreographic elements--body position, body shape, body actions, transitions, use of space, timing, pauses, energy, canon, motif, contrast, and repetition--and defendant's virtual animation.… Read More
A defendant may raise unpleaded affirmative defenses in opposition to the plaintiff's summary judgment motion so long as the plaintiff is given adequate notice and an opportunity to respond. See Cruey v. Gannett Co. (1998) 64 Cal.App.4th 356, 367; Wang v. Nibbelink (2016) 4 Cal.App.5th 1, 11. The court may consider unpleaded affirmative defenses, if the complaint alleges facts supporting… Read More
Following Law Finance Group, LLC v. Key (2023) 14 Cal.5th 932, this decision holds that the 100-day limit on petitioning to vacate a Mandatory Attorney Fee Arbitration award is subject to equitable estoppel and equitable tolling. It also holds that unless there is already an action pending between the parties, the petition must be served in same manner as a… Read More
Since its infancy, California has adopted English common law including the common law's rule refusing to allow courts to enforce gambling debts. This decision holds that the same rule still bars suits on gambling debts from proceeding in California courts even though the state has legalized certain types of gambling. The policy prohibiting judicial enforcement of gambling debts is independent… Read More
A trial judge may apply a negative (or less that 1) multiplier to a prevailing party's attorney fee lodestar for pervasive incivility of the party's attorney throughout the proceedings. Incivility shows lack of skill, which is a permissible multiplier factor. Here, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in reducing the prevailing plaintiff's lodestar by 40% for that reason. Read More
