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California Appellate Tracker

The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.

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If the statute of limitations expires before a case is removed to federal court, the plaintiff is not given additional time to serve the summons after removal.  Read More

Trial court properly found defendants liable under the unfair competition law in view of their fraudulent scheme to acquire semi-abandoned properties through a combination of adverse possession and the recordation of wild deeds.  Read More

A defendant cannot be deemed a vexatious litigant under CCP 391(b)(4) for having been sued on the same facts by someone else.  Read More

Because an injunction may not issue to enforce penal laws, a taxpayer action cannot be brought to enjoin public expenditures that allegedly are illegal solely because they violate a penal statute.  Read More

A superior court's order granting a writ of administrative mandate and remanding the proceeding to the administrative agency for a new hearing and determination may be an appealable order depending on the particular circumstances of the case; here a remand order contained conclusive findings construing the appellant’s by-laws, so appellate review is justified.  Read More

In determining the reasonable value of medical services a doctor provided to patients covered by a medical plan with which the doctor had no contract setting fees, the trial court properly considered evidence of what other doctors charged and the Medicare reimbursement rate for the services rendered.  Read More

An EEOC administrative subpoena for names, addresses and phone numbers of co-workers should have been enforced as the information was relevant to the charge the EEOC was investigating, allowing the EEOC to contact co-workers to weigh whether the employer’s test was discriminatory.  Read More

Overturning prior precedent, the Ninth Circuit holds that the filing of a class action tolls the statute of limitations for a later class action alleging similar claims.  Read More

Neither the statute of limitations nor a release barred borrower’s recovery for usurious interest charged in a series of roll-over notes and forbearance agreements.  Read More

When a plaintiff seeks a default judgment, the trial court must act as gatekeeper, disallowing recovery if the complaint fails to allege a viable cause of action.  Read More

Complaint and summons may be served by mail on a defendant in a foreign country so long as authorized by the forum jurisdiction’s laws and not objected to by the foreign country.  Read More

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

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