The city was not liable for plaintiff's son's death in a shooting in a city park. There was no dangerous physical condition of the park. The city had no duty to provide guard services or security cameras, particularly as there had been only two prior killings in the park during the previous 23 years. Read More
Water Code 13330(b) requires any appeal from a regional board's decision to be filed within 30 days and expressly prohibits judicial review except in accord with section 13330. This decision holds that an untimely filed appeal from the regional board's decision must be dismissed even if the appellant claims the regional board lacked subject matter jurisdiction when it rendered its… Read More
The trial court correctly denied defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion. This Brown Act suit targeted the City Council's taking action on an item that was not posted in an agenda at least 72 hours before the City Council meeting in violation of Gov. Code, § 54954.2(a)(1). While what was said at the City Council meeting may have been protected speech, the Council's… Read More
The district court erred in remanded this suit to state court after defendant removed it under 28 USC 1442, the federal officer removal statute. To invoke federal jurisdiction under that section, the defendant must show (a) it is a “person” within the meaning of the statute; (b) there is a causal nexus between its actions, taken pursuant to a federal… Read More
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant attorney fees under the EAJA. Though the district court disbelieved the government's expert witness, whose testimony was the principal evidence on which the government based its claim that defendant had overvalued the company he sold to an ESOP, the government did not anticipate that result when it went to… Read More
Ford removed this action to federal court under CAFA, then successfully moved to dismiss it under Rule 12(b)(6) because the plaintiff did not allege he had suffered an injury to his business, his person, or his reputation as required by the Washington privacy statute under which he sued. On appeal, plaintiff argued that the lack of injury showed he did… Read More
Plaintiff wandered drunk into a parking garage owned by defendant and engaged in "horseplay," ending up sitting on a 43 inch tall perimeter wall on an upper story of the garage, from which she fell to the ground, severely injuring herself. Plaintiff claimed that the defendant had hired a security service to, among other things, find and stop horseplay, as… Read More
Insofar as defendant's cross-complaint was based on plaintiff's press releases about a treatment it was developing for opioid overdose, the claims fell within the CCP 425.17(c) exemption from the Anti-SLAPP statute. Contrary to plaintiff's argument, the fact that over recent years it obtained and spent most of its money on research and development did not show that it was not… Read More
Seyfarth was hired to investigate a professor's claim that she was discriminated against by Cal. State University Fullerton. It performed the investigation and submitted a report to the university administration concluding there was no merit to the professor's claims. After unsuccessfully suing a host of other defendants, the professor sued Seyfarth, claiming the report and investigation were biased, etc. Seyfarth… Read More
Before a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, the borrower/owner filed a worngful foreclosure suit against the deed of trust beneficiary and recorded a lis pendens. This case holds that the purchaser at the nonjudicial foreclosure sale who thereafter brought an unlawful detainer action against the borrower/owner was wrongly awarded judgment because it did not prove it duly perfected title given the lis… Read More
This decision reverses a summary judgment in favor of the defendant employer against the plaintiff employee nurse who sued individually and under PAGA for violation of Labor Code sections on rest and meal breaks and payment of all wages due on termination. The employer failed to meet its burden of proving plaintiff's claims were time barred. While she may not… Read More
This opinion reverses an electrician's $12.6 million judgment for injuries he sustained due to a defective roof access hatch which was defective and slammed shut on his back herniating several discs. The Privette doctrine barred the plaintiff's recovery. He was a worker employed by a licensed contractor whom the property owner had hired. The defects in the roof hatch were… Read More
Under Gov. Code 800(a), a plaintiff that successfully challenges an administrative decision that was the result of arbitrary or capricious action or conduct by a public entity or officer may recover attorney fees of up to $7,500 in the trial court's discretion. Even if that statute requires the overturned administrative action to be "wholly" arbitrary and capricious, it does not… Read More
Plaintiff prevailed on a mandate petition challenging his one-year suspension from UC Davis for violating its policies against sexual harassment and assault. The trial court found that the university lacked evidence of sufficiently serious misconduct to support the one-year suspension. This decision holds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in holding that plaintiff was not entitled to… Read More
A bankruptcy trustee may avoid prospective liability for premises liability on property of the bankrupt estate by abandoning the property to the debtor. However, the abandonment will not operate retrospectively to absolve the trustee of liability for injuries a visitor to the property suffered before the trustee abandoned the property. Also, the Barton doctrine (Barton v. Barbour (1881) 104 U.S.… Read More
If the tenant surrenders possession, an unlawful detainer action is converted into a normal civil action. At that point, but not before, the tenant can file a cross-complaint. This decision holds that the tenant does not waive or forfeit cross-claims against the landlord by not pleading them initially in response to the unlawful detainer complaint or by surrendering possession before… Read More
This decision vacates an arbitration award for misconduct by the arbitrator in discrediting the defendant's primary witness' testimony because she askeds for an interpreter during the arbitration though she had been in the US and conducted sophisticated business dealings here for decades. The arbitrator’s credibility finding rested on unacceptable misconceptions about English proficiency and language acquisition and gave rise to… Read More
A civil harassment order is affirmed due to deficiencies of the pro per appellant's opening brief. It didn't separately state and title its arguments or support them with authority and citations to the record. Insofar as it attacked the sufficiency of the evidence, it failed to set forth a fair recital of all the relevant evidence. Read More
An unadopted stepchild may establish that the decedent was his parent for purposes of distribution of his intestate estate by proving the requirements set forth in either the Uniform Parentage Act (Fam. Code 7600 et seq.) which is incorporated by reference by Prob. Code 6453 or the separate requirements of Prob. Code 6454. So the lack of a legal barrier… Read More
Without deciding between CalOSHA's two tests for employer liability for harmfully exposing employees to atmospheric contaminant--i.e., the "harmful exposure" standard which requires proof of exposure to airborne contaminant that actually result in or have a probability of resulting in illness, or the "zone of danger" standard (i.e., that it is reasonably predictable by operational necessity or otherwise, including inadvertence, that… Read More
