Insured company misrepresented in its worker’s compensation insurance application that its workers traveled only within a 200 mile radius of its headquarters in California, so appeals board needed to determine whether insurer’s resulting rescission was effective. Read More
Filing a facially time-barred creditor’s claim in a Chapter 13 is not a false, deceptive, misleading, unconscionable or unfair means of collecting a debt under the FCDPA, since Chapter 13 debtors are protected from paying dubious claims by the Chapter 13 trustee's supervision of the case. Read More
CAFA removal jurisdiction is based on the complaint as it stands on the date of removal; plaintiff may not defeat CAFA jurisdiction by amending the class definition post-removal to exclude citizens of other states. Read More
The Federal Arbitration Act preempts Kentucky's rule invalidating an arbitration clause entered into by an attorney-in-fact unless the power of attorney specifically authorizes the attorney-in-fact to enter into an arbitration agreement. Read More
Arbitration clause in employee’s contract with staffing agency could be enforced by the employer to whom the staffing agency assigned him, because plaintiff’s claims arose out of his employment contract and were intimately intertwined with it, thus estopping him from asserting the employer was not a party to the agreement. Read More
The Right to Repair Act applies to all construction defects in new housing and affords an exclusive remedy, preempting any common law claims, even when the homeowner sustains actual damage. Read More
A person who is arrested, but not ultimately prosecuted, may not maintain an action for malicious prosecution against the witness whose complaint prompted the arrest. Read More
A federal False Claims Act suit was properly dismissed because the suit was based on facts publicly disclosed in a prior suit and the plaintiff was not the original source of that information, but learned it only as a party to the prior suit. Read More
Defendant’s challenge to a settlement agreement clause providing for liquidated damages if defendant defaulted on its payment obligations required a fact-dependent determination from the trial judge, so it could not be raised for the first time on appeal. Read More
“Google” remains a valid trademark designating the source of a particular search engine despite the word’s common use as a verb to mean conducting any internet search. Read More
District court should review ERISA plan administrator’s eligibility determination de novo since a California statute, which is not preempted by ERISA, bans clauses granting an insurer discretion to determine eligibility for policy benefits. Read More
A court may expand a vexatious litigant pre-filing order to bar new suits or appeals even if filed by an attorney if the litigant has evaded the prior pre-filing order by using an attorney to file more frivolous litigation. Read More
An Anti-SLAPP motion was properly granted against suit alleging that creditor violated state and federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Acts by recording an abstract of judgment creditor had obtained against plaintiff’s former domestic partner. Read More
Estate of elderly plaintiff was entitled to a constructive trust when plaintiff’s son’s wife diverted to her own use funds that son and wife agreed to hold in a bank account for plaintiff’s benefit. Read More
The Labor Code requirement that an employer give an employee a day of rest after six days of work applies on a calendar week basis, not a rolling basis, and applies during any week in which the employee works more than six hours in any one day. Read More
On a motion to add more lawsuits to a coordinated proceeding, the coordination trial judge must accept the original coordination decision and grant the motion if the additional lawsuits are substantially similar to those already coordinated. Read More
Substantial evidence supported the trial court's finding that the principal for a corporation that bought a motorcycle dealership from the plaintiffs knew about the transactions in which the corporation engaged and tacitly approved two 6-month deferrals of monthly payments of the purchase price, so he was not exonerated from his guarantee of the corporation’s obligations under the purchase agreement. Read More
In this securities litigation, plaintiffs failed to adequately allege falsity of opinion under the Securities Exchange Act section 10 and Reg. 10-b5 because they did not allege particular facts showing that the defendant did not disclose facts known to him which cast significant doubt on the reliability of his opinion, nor did they meet any of the other standards for… Read More
A discrimination suit challenging a tenure decision is not subject to an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike even if the decision followed a public hearing and statements made at the hearing are used as evidence of bias. Read More
A loan servicer violates Civil Code section 2923.6 by sending the borrower a loan modification denial letter erroneously stating that the borrower has only 15 days to appeal the denial. Read More
