California Appellate Tracker

Plaintiff’s experts on the issue of whether defendant’s drug had caused a rare blood cancer should not have been excluded under Daubert, since the experts were highly qualified doctors who based their opinions on their experience with this and similar diseases, medical literature, and similar proper material.  Read More

A patentee loses patent rights in a product when it sells the patented product, even if the sale contract restricts the buyer’s use or resale of the product; contract law, not patent law, provides the remedy for any breach of those restrictions. Read More

Proof of an employer's own wrongdoing is needed to impose punitive damages on the employer for an employee’s torts, even if as a separate matter it is vicariously liable for those torts.  Read More

Under a homeowner's policy providing “open actual cash value coverage,” the insurer must pay, on a partial loss claim, the lesser of (a) the policy limits or (b) the actual cost of repair, even if the repair cost exceeds the property’s pre-loss market value.  Read More

An order denying a motion for reconsideration based on new evidence per California Code of Civil Procedure 1008(b) is not appealable.  Read More

Reporting to a credit agency on the deliquency or overdue status of a debt is not a per se violation of the automatic stay, which only forbids collection on the debt, not reports about it.  Read More

A district court may not, sua sponte, remand an action to state court for procedural defects in the removal, but may do so only on a timely remand motion.  Read More

If the statute of limitations expires before a case is removed to federal court, the plaintiff is not given additional time to serve the summons after removal.  Read More

Trial court properly found defendants liable under the unfair competition law in view of their fraudulent scheme to acquire semi-abandoned properties through a combination of adverse possession and the recordation of wild deeds.  Read More

A defendant cannot be deemed a vexatious litigant under CCP 391(b)(4) for having been sued on the same facts by someone else.  Read More

Because an injunction may not issue to enforce penal laws, a taxpayer action cannot be brought to enjoin public expenditures that allegedly are illegal solely because they violate a penal statute.  Read More

A superior court's order granting a writ of administrative mandate and remanding the proceeding to the administrative agency for a new hearing and determination may be an appealable order depending on the particular circumstances of the case; here a remand order contained conclusive findings construing the appellant’s by-laws, so appellate review is justified.  Read More

In determining the reasonable value of medical services a doctor provided to patients covered by a medical plan with which the doctor had no contract setting fees, the trial court properly considered evidence of what other doctors charged and the Medicare reimbursement rate for the services rendered.  Read More

An EEOC administrative subpoena for names, addresses and phone numbers of co-workers should have been enforced as the information was relevant to the charge the EEOC was investigating, allowing the EEOC to contact co-workers to weigh whether the employer’s test was discriminatory.  Read More

Overturning prior precedent, the Ninth Circuit holds that the filing of a class action tolls the statute of limitations for a later class action alleging similar claims.  Read More

Though not itself a licensed dealer, a plaintiff may recover under Vehicle Code 11726 for its franchisor’s violation of other Vehicle Code sections enacted to protect franchisees.  Read More

Neither the statute of limitations nor a release barred borrower’s recovery for usurious interest charged in a series of roll-over notes and forbearance agreements.  Read More

When a plaintiff seeks a default judgment, the trial court must act as gatekeeper, disallowing recovery if the complaint fails to allege a viable cause of action.  Read More

Complaint and summons may be served by mail on a defendant in a foreign country so long as authorized by the forum jurisdiction’s laws and not objected to by the foreign country.  Read More

For purposes of the venue statute governing patent cases, a corporation “resides” only in its state of incorporation.  Read More