California Appellate Tracker

The separation of powers forbids Congress from compelling findings or results under an old law, but not from enacting a new law that dictates the outcome of pending cases. Read More

A property owner hiring an independent contractor is not liable for injuries the contractor’s worker suffers as a result of the owner’s negligent failure to install safety features required by CalOSH regulations. Read More

International service of process by Federal Express and e-mail fails for lack of an acknowledgment of receipt; Doe defendants not served within three years must be dismissed. Read More

Party-selected appraisers are “arbitrators” within the meaning of Evidence Code section 703.5, which renders their testimony inadmissible for most purposes. Read More

A trial court retains jurisdiction to grant a motion to declare a plaintiff a vexatious litigant even after the plaintiff voluntarily dismisses the case. Read More

A defendant who is not a party to a contract or a party’s agent is liable for interfering with the contract even if the contract contemplated the defendant’s performance of a different agreement with one of the parties. Read More

Handing a plaintiff a credit card receipt bearing the credit card’s expiration date does not create a concrete injury sufficient to confer Article III standing to sue under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”) Read More

Agency records containing personal information are protected under the Information Privacy Act even if not maintained in the agency’s centralized personnel records. Read More

A judgment holder seeking to take advantage of the exception to the general immunity granted by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) must identify a basis under one of § 1610's express immunity-abrogating provisions to attach and execute against a relevant property. Read More

To be protected as a whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank Act, an employee must report the information to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read More

In deciding whether a defendant’s conduct is protected activity within the meaning of the anti-SLAPP statute, each defendant’s conduct must be analyzed separately. Read More

A government employee must pursue the employer’s administrative remedies before filing a civil action; Labor Code section 244 only allows the employee to forego remedies before the Labor Commissioner. Read More

San Francisco’s ordinance banning eviction of families with school-age children during the school year is not preempted by state law as it creates a substantive defense to eviction and does not interfere with state law unlawful detainer procedure. Read More

An unlawful detainer judgment does not bar the landlord’s civil action to collect past-due rent since the landlord can collect only limited amounts of rent in an unlawful detainer proceeding. Read More

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSH Act”) does not preempt California law to the extent it allows a district attorney to bring an Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) action based on the defendant's unlawful practice of failing to meet CalOSHA workplace safety standards even though the state plan did not provide for enforcement by that means. Read More

A California Justice Department interpretation of Penal Code section 27535―which limits the number of handguns that can be purchased in a 30 day period―is invalid because it was adopted in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act without the notice and comment period required for a formal regulation. Read More

By participating in arbitration for 10 months without objection, plaintiff waived right to have the court decide whether the dispute was arbitrable, and the plaintiff lost any right to have the award vacated by failing to raise that issue by petition or response within 100 days of service of the award. Read More

A class member who has already been given a chance to opt out of Rule 23(b)(3) class is not entitled to a second opt-out opportunity after the parties settle the case. Read More

A landowner who hired an independent contractor to work on the roof is not entitled to summary judgment in the contractor’s negligence suit; a question of fact remained as to whether the contractor could reasonably avoid the risk posed by the obvious hazard of an unprotected ledge from which he fell. Read More

California minimum wage and overtime pay laws are not inconsistent with the Fair Labor Standards Act and so apply to workers on oil rigs on the outer continental shelf off the California coast. Read More