California Appellate Tracker

Filing suit and opposing a motion to compel arbitration are not, in themselves, breaches of the parties’ arbitration agreement sufficient to allow an award of fees under the agreement’s attorney fee clause. Read More

Criminal defendant’s constitutional due process rights are not violated by federal statute prohibiting him from subpoenaing third party internet service provider (here, Facebook) for disclosure of non-public postings by one of its subscribers (such as, here, the defendant’s victim). Read More

Plaintiff could not state a viable employment discrimination claim based on her supervisor’s actions favoring his co-employee wife, but plaintiff could state a viable whistleblower claim based on the supervisor’s retaliation for her complaining about his favoritism. Read More

Defendant’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied as the claim was based on defendant’s unprotected decision to terminate the plaintiff distributor rather than on the defendant’s later protected acts in a statutory arbitration proceeding concerning the termination. Read More

Defendant signed a settlement agreement providing that it would not contest plaintiff’s entitlement to attorney fees (but only the reasonableness of the fee award), so defendant could not later argue that various statutes limited or prohibited a fee award. Read More

The defendant’s attorney did not form a confidential non-client relationship with the plaintiff broker and so was not disqualified from representing the defendant; the information the attorney obtained from the broker either was necessary to the broker’s handling a property sale for defendant or was not confidential. Read More

Prior state court judgment based on collateral estoppel effect of a federal court judgment is not entitled to res judicata effect after the federal court judgment was reversed on appeal. Read More

California’s law banning foie gras and other products made from force-fed birds is not preempted by the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act, since that act only prohibits states from imposing ingredient requirements, as opposed to restrictions on animal husbandry practices.    Read More

Uncertainty regarding class members’ damages does not prevent certification of a class as long as a valid method has been proposed for calculating those damages such as, here, a full refund of the purchase price based on defendant’s suggested retail price and the price the individual plaintiff paid.  Read More

While a police department could not legally discriminate against its employee police officers based on their ethnicity, it could legally take adverse employment action against them based on the race of the man they shot.   Read More

The Home Owners Loan Act does not preempt a state law breach of contract claim that the bank miscalculated adjusted interest rates on loans, since common law breach of contract claims impose no requirements other than those the bank voluntarily assumed in its own agreements.   Read More

The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”) preempts a Nevada law that limited deficiency judgments on foreclosure to the amount by which the price the owner paid to acquire the loan exceeded the foreclosure sale price.   Read More

Plaintiff’s suit for physical injuries suffered when she tripped over a scale as she left a community health facility is governed by the two-year limitations period for ordinary negligence, not the shorter limitations period for claims against a health care provider’s negligent delivery of professional services.   Read More

False Claims Act lawsuit was not subject to defendant employer’s arbitration clause in its contract with employee claimant, since it had no substantial connection to the employment relationship, and it was a claim by the United States, not the employee, against the employer.   Read More

A fully trained service dog must be accommodated under federal law and Civil Code § 51; a service dog in training must also be accommodated under Civil Code §§ 54, 54.1, but only if accompanied by the disabled person, or a person licensed or otherwise qualified to train the dog.   Read More

Trial court abused its discretion in declining to consider time records that had been filed with a previous attorney fee motion in the case and were incorporated by reference in a later attorney fee motion in the same case, since parties are permitted to incorporate by reference any paper previously filed in the action.   Read More

A subcontractor’s commercial general liability insurance policy did not exclude coverage of water damage to the interiors of modular units it supplied since the damage was not the specific part of the units on which the subcontractor was then working nor the part on which the subcontractor incorrectly performed its work.   Read More

Plaintiff's claims against defendant for common law privacy violations through use of zombie "cookies" through which defendant gathered data on plaintiff's internet usage on his Verizon phone without Verizon’s knowledge or approval, let alone plaintiff's, were not subject to the arbitration clause in plaintiff’s phone contract with Verizon.   Read More

Plaintiff, who was fired when his wife complained to his boss (who was also her mother) that plaintiff was armed, angry and on drugs, failed to state an actionable claim for discrimination based on marital status.   Read More

The Ninth Circuit rejects the Department of Labor’s informal interpretation of the dual job limitation on tip credit against the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage; "two jobs" is determined by occupation, not individual tasks.   Read More