California Appellate Tracker

Under Gov. Code 12965(b), (c)(6), the award of attorney fees and costs to a prevailing defendant in a FEHA case is discretionary but governed by the rule that the defendant may recover fees and costs only when the claim was frivolous.  This decision holds that since the trial court must exercise its discretion, the prevailing defendant cannot claim costs by… Read More

An implied easement may be recognized and enforced even though it precludes most uses by the owner of the servient tenement in the area covered by the easement.  Here, one owner held two adjoining lots, built a house on one lot with a driveway framed by a brick planter area on the house side and a fence on the far… Read More

Under Ins. Code 2071.1, an insured who is asked to submit to an examination under oath by a property insurer has, among others, the right to make a recording of the entire proceeding.  This decision holds that the statute allows the insured to videotape both the insured and the insurer's personnel during the examination. Read More

Under W&I Code 15657.03, a court may issue a restraining order to prevent abuse of an elder. An elder abuse protective order “may issue on the basis of evidence of past abuse, without any particularized showing that the wrongful acts will be continued or repeated.  (Gdowski v. Gdowski (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 128, 137.) There was substantial evidence to support issuance… Read More

Following Mejia v. DACM, Inc. (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 691 and Maldonado v. Fast Auto Loans (2021) 60 Cal.App.5th 710 and rejecting Hodges v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC (9th Cir. 2021) 21 F.4th 535, this decision holds that a suit alleging UCL and CLRA claims and seeking an injunction against allegedly false advertising which would benefit both existing and future customers… Read More

Under 9 U.S.C. 402(a), a pre-dispute arbitration agreement is not enforceable to require arbitration (or waive a class action) on a claim for sexual harassment or assault under state or federal law.  Section 402 became effective on March 3, 2022 and applies to all disputes which arise after that date.  This decision holds that a "dispute" does not arise when… Read More

Plaintiff leased greenhouses from defendant.  Defendant did not disclose that the greenhouses contained asbestos and other hazardous substances.  The jury awarded plaintiff damages on theories of negligence and premises liability.  This decision holds that there was substantial evidence to support the verdicts despite the lease's indemnification and limitation of liability clauses.  The indemnification clause did not apply if the landlord… Read More

Cal. Code Regs., tit. 22, section 101161(a) prohibits a licensee from operating a child care center beyond the conditions specified in the license, including the “capacity limitation.”  Here, the child care center had over 100 enrolled children but not more than 77 were in attendance at any one time.  This decision holds that "capacity" in this statute refers to attendance,… Read More

A regional center for the developmentally disabled does not owe a duty of care to employees of residential facilities to which the regional center assigns mentally or developmentally disabled individuals for residence to protect the employees from injury by the assigned disabled persons.  Generally, there is no duty to protect against harm by third parties absent a special relationship.  The… Read More

California Rule of Court 3.1322 requires that a motion to strike be brought with a demurrer or within 30 days after service of complaint and requires a notice of a motion to strike "quote in full the portions sought to be stricken except where the motion is to strike an entire paragraph, cause of action, count, or defense."  This decision… Read More

After successfully moving to compel arbitration of Suarez's wage-and-hour claim, the defendant employer failed to pay its share of the initial arbitration fee.  This decision grants the employee's petition to vacate the order denying his motion to withdraw the dispute from arbitration on the ground that non-payment of the fee within 30 days of its due date was a breach… Read More

Corona's 998 offer was not ambiguous.  Though the City had received two public records requests for the same information and had voluntarily given the information to the other requester, not Kinney, the City's 998 offer was unambiguous in offering to give the requested information to Kinney (plus $2,500 in attorney fees) in return for dismissal of the action.  Kinney obtained… Read More

28 USC 1367(d) provides that the statute of limitations on any claim within a federal court's supplemental jurisdiction (and any other claim that is voluntarily dismissed at the same time) is tolled for 30 days after the supplemental jurisdiction claim is dismissed.  This decision holds that the 30 day tolling provision applies only when the supplemental jurisdiction claim is involuntarily… Read More

FPI managed federally subsidized housing.  Federal regulations under that subsidy program required landlords to give 30 day notice before evicting tenants.  FPI gave only three day notice.  Plaintiffs sued under B&P Code 17200, claiming that FPI's practice of giving too little notice before eviction was unlawful.  This decision holds that the tenants had alleged a sufficient "loss of money or… Read More

Employment, , 1, 1 Trial courts lack inherent authority to strike PAGA claims on manageability grounds.  Trial courts do not generally possess a broad inherent authority to dismiss claims.  Nor is it appropriate for trial courts to strike PAGA claims by employing class action manageability requirements.  Trial courts may use a vast variety of tools to efficiently manage PAGA claims,… Read More

Plaintiff filed Action #1 against DiMartini and recorded a lis pendens.  DiMartini's motion to expunge the lis pendens was granted because the action sought to enforce an arbitration award and did not allege a real property claim.  After abandoning Action #1, plaintiff filed Action #2 and again recorded a lis pendens.  This decision holds that under CCP 405.36, a plaintiff… Read More

McKee owned a Palmdale house with her domestic partner, but she moved out of that house years before filing her bankruptcy petition because, she said, the domestic partner who lived there was abusive to her.  Because McKee did not live in the house and did not intend to return to live in it (at least so long as the domestic… Read More

A petition to determine heirship or beneficiary status and entitlement to distribution of a portion of a probate estate under Prob. Code 11700 is an entirely elective procedure.  A right to distribution is otherwise settled by the probate court's final order approving distribution of the estate.  Moreover, in a proceeding on a petition under section 11700, the court determines only… Read More

Disagreeing with Hardy v. America's Best Home Loans (2014) 232 Cal.App.4th 795 and Gray v. La Salle Bank (2023) 94 Cal.App.5th 1215, this split decision holds that Fed. R. Civ. P. 41's two dismissal rule bars later litigation in state court even if limited to state law claims so long as the second dismissal was in federal court on a… Read More

Ordinarily, an employer is not liable for injuries an employee suffers on the way to or from work.  However, under the premises line rule, the commute ends and the employee becomes entitled to Workers Compensation benefits for injury suffered once the employee has entered the employer's premises.  Here, the court held that plaintiff, a UC Irvine employee, had not yet… Read More