California Appellate Tracker

Courts have the discretion to transfer venue of a case filed in the wrong venue at any time and are not bound by the time limits in the separate statute that governs mandatory venue transfers. Read More

Since a private nuisance claim involves only a question of harm to the plaintiff, not others, the trial court erred by admitting evidence of incidents of a nuisance on the property before plaintiff acquired it. Read More

A judgment resolving all issues in one consolidated case is final and appealable even though issues in other consolidated cases remain unresolved. Read More

The measure of the amount-in-controversy in a declaratory relief action over a life insurance policy is the face value of the policy. Read More

In order to claim design immunity, a public entity does not need to show that the employee who approved the challenged design actually considered the safety feature that plaintiff claims should have been included in the design and then omitted it; rather it only needs to show substantial evidence supporting the design’s reasonableness. Read More

Defendant’s 998 offer was not rendered ambiguous by its attempt to “exclude reasonable costs and attorney fees if any”; so when plaintiff refused the offer and then recovered less than the offer at trial, the trial court could award cost and fee sanctions. Read More

Although talent service companies are statutorily required to post a bond and include certain provisions in their contracts with artists, a company’s failure to comply with these requirements merely makes a contract voidable and does not grant the artist any legal remedy absent damages caused by the non-compliance. Read More

The Coastal Act bans changes in the intensity of use without a permit and so prevented an HOA from adopting a ban on short-term rentals of property within the Coastal Zone. Read More

The federal Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. 2701 et seq., permitted San Francisco to issue an administrative subpoena to the owner of a website that sought records of transactions involving short-term rentals for tax purposes. Read More

The trial court properly granted defendant landlord's Anti-SLAPP motion to strike plaintiff's claim that the landlord violated Santa Monica's anti-harassment ordinance by filing an unlawful detainer complaint against the plaintiff which supposedly lacked sufficient factual and legal support. Read More

Two final judgments confirming separate final arbitration awards do not run afoul of the “one final judgment rule,” which is intended to determine the merits of all claims between two parties in a single judgment even when, as here, one award disposes of the merits and the other disposes of fees and costs. Read More

Plaintiff could not state a TCPA claim against defendant HMO after it auto-dialed her seeking feedback on one of its in-network doctors, because she gave her consent to be contacted for a variety of purposes including quality improvement. Read More

A county counsel is employed pursuant to statute, not contract, so he could not sue the county for a supposed breach of his employment contract. Read More

Under the Government Code’s “trail immunity” provision, the City of Pasadena was immune from plaintiff’s negligence claims after he slid over an unguarded ten-foot retaining wall while trying to reach a pedestrian trail in the middle of the night. Read More

Plaintiff, a temp hired by defendant staff agency to work for another company, was considered to have joint employers, both of whom owed a duty to allow her meal breaks; however, each employer was liable only for its own actions that violate that legal requirement. Read More

When two or more people join efforts to conduct a business without incorporating, they are deemed to have formed a partnership, but if the business is later incorporated, the corporation is presumed to have superseded the partnership unless there is proof of a pre-incorporation agreement to continue the partnership in operation post-incorporation. Read More

Unless the trial court in its discretion permits a later filing, an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike a cause of action must be filed within 60 days of service of the first complaint alleging that claim. Read More

A college owes its students a duty of care to protect them from foreseeable harm (here, an attack by a mentally troubled student) in the classroom during a college course, since students are dependent on their colleges for a safe environment and colleges have a superior ability to provide that safety for activities and facilities under their control. Read More

When an owner is in possession of a piece of personal property (such as, here, a car), the statute of limitations on the owner's quiet title claim does not begin to run, even if the owner knows that someone else has a conflicting claim to ownership or an interest in the property. Read More

Under Code of Civil Procedure section 352.1, the statute of limitations is tolled if the claim accrues when the plaintiff is imprisoned in a state prison under a criminal sentence, but not if the plaintiff is held in a county jail or in pre-trial detention. Read More