California Appellate Tracker

A debtor’s bankruptcy estate is entitled to the full amount of debtor’s spendthrift trust distributions due to be paid as of the petition date, except for the portion the beneficiary needs for his support or education if the trust instrument specifies the funds are to be used for that purpose.   Read More

A plaintiff in a Public Records Act case may be the prevailing party and thus entitled to an award of attorney fees, even if a final judgment eventually dismisses the action—so long as the action was the catalyst for the defendant's provision of the requested records.   Read More

Arbitration agreement that provided for full judicial review of the arbitration award—the same as if it had been a decision by a court—sufficiently specified that parties wanted enhanced judicial review, so they were entitled to receive review by normal appellate standards, not the restricted review normally given arbitration awards.   Read More

Plaintiff could not save his complaint from summary judgment by raising a new theory of liability for the first time in his summary judgment opposition.   Read More

If a defendant in a Fair Employment and Housing Act lawsuit makes a section 998 offer that the plaintiff rejects and does not improve upon at trial, the defendant may recover its costs under section 998 notwithstanding the normal rule that a defendant cannot recover costs against the plaintiff in a FEHA action unless the action was objectively without foundation.… Read More

Coverage under a standard California lender’s policy of title insurance terminates once the property is sold, without warranty, at a foreclosure sale.   Read More

A suit to cancel a deed of trust defendant gave his wholly-owned corporation to avoid paying his debts was barred by the California Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act’s a 7-year statute of repose on fraudulent transfer claims.   Read More

An advertiser bears vicarious liability for a telemarketer’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations, if the telemarketer was an agent rather than an independent contractor Read More

A city’s promise not to impose taxes other than real property taxes on plaintiff if it built a clean energy plant in the city was unenforceable as contrary to the state constitution, but plaintiff might be able to state a restitution claim to recoup sums it paid for that promise.   Read More

The trial court improperly granted summary judgment to employer defendant on employee plaintiff's claim of FEHA-prohibited retaliation for supporting a co-worker's complaint of sex discrimination, after she provided sufficient evidence of (1) adverse employment actions and (2) retaliatory motive.   Read More

Facebook was entitled to an Anti-SLAPP dismissal of claim based on third-party postings on a Facebook page about plaintiff’s sleep-deprived drivers causing serious traffic accidents, a matter of public concern.   Read More

Disabled plaintiff has Article III standing for his lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act so long as he alleges he was deterred from using defendant’s facilities because of its failure to make suitable accommodations for disabled persons; he need not have actually visited the facility and been turned away.   Read More

Suits under the Private Attorney Act are unlike class actions in that plaintiffs cannot belatedly add new plaintiffs to carry on the suit in place of the original named plaintiffs, if it turns out the original plaintiffs’ claims fail.   Read More

On his motion to quash service of summons in an unlawful detainer action against him, plaintiff fully litigated his claim that he was fraudulently induced to sign a lease rather than a loan agreement, so the unlawful detainer judgment collaterally estopped him from pursuing his parallel civil action.  Read More

The courts lack the power to confirm or review an interim arbitration award that does not resolve all disputed issues submitted to the arbitrator for decision.   Read More

The fact that plaintiff-patient died within the 30-day period during which she could rescind an agreement to arbitrate medical malpractice claims against a medical service provider (here, a 24-hour skilled nursing facility) does not invalidate the arbitration agreement.  Read More

An affirmative defense based on a contract is not “an action or proceeding brought” to enforce that contract for purposes of the contract’s attorney fee clause.   Read More

Claims for statutory damages or penalties payable to individual employees are arbitrable; only Private Attorney General Act claims for civil penalties payable to the state are not arbitrable.   Read More

An arbitration agreement is not substantively unconscionable merely because it states that the arbitrator will decide arbitrability issues.   Read More

A loan servicer owes a borrower no duty of care in handling his home loan modification application; also, unless the borrower documents a change in financial circumstances, dual tracking prohibitions do not apply to second/subsequent loan modification requests, even if the lender accepts, processes, and reviews the later loan applications.   Read More