Neither the psychotherapist-patient privilege nor the state constitutional right of privacy is absolute, and consequently neither of these defeats the statutory requirement that mental health professionals report their patients to the police or child welfare agencies when the patients disclose that they have accessed child pornography through electronic or digital media. Read More
Statements an attorney made to news media about a suit he filed on behalf of a client were protected speech under the Anti-SLAPP statute because the lawsuit and the attorney's statements about it involved matters of public interest such as the allegation that the defendants in that suit had implanted phony spinal implants in thousands of patients. Read More
Plaintiff company and defendant city entered into an agreement that plaintiff’s effluent would meet certain fluoride concentration levels; subsequently, when the city passed stricter environmental regulations in order to comply with new state laws, the company’s remedy was a breach of contract lawsuit, not a claim under the US Constitution’s contracts clause. Read More
A car dealer’s service advisors who do not sell or service cars do not fall within the exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime pay requirements for a "salesman, partsman or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles." Read More
Lawsuit over whether plaintiffs were wrongly excluded from board member positions in nonprofit religious corporations that controlled a religious organization, was not barred under the ministerial exception since plaintiffs’ claims would not interfere with a religion’s freedom to choose its own ministers. Read More
Employer did not violate California’s minimum wage laws by its policies of rounding employees’ work clock times to the nearest tenth of an hour or by allowing employees up to ten minutes uncompensated time before and after shifts in which to clock in or out. Read More
If a plaintiff seeks only injunctive relief and prevails, he can recover attorney fees under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act despite not having given the notice and opportunity for cure which the Act requires before the plaintiff may recover damages. Read More
Even if the trial court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it may grant the defendant's special Anti-SLAPP motion to strike und award the defendant attorney fees, since lack of jurisdiction is one of many possible non-merits-related reasons for holding, at the second stage of the Anti-SLAPP analysis, that the plaintiff has not shown a probability of success on the merits. Read More
A landlord whom a local ordinance bars from collecting rent due to building and housing code violations in the rented premises also cannot evict the tenant for non-payment of rent. Read More
The trial court correctly denied an employer's motion to compel arbitration of an employee's complaint under the Private Attorney General Act, since an individual employee's PAGA claim is not severable from the claim on behalf of the general public. Read More
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 does not require that a plaintiff demonstrate that it is administratively feasible to identify class members as a prerequisite to class certification. Read More
A Court of Appeals lacks appellate jurisdiction over a order remanding a case that was removed based on federal question jurisdictional grounds, rather than on diversity grounds under CAFA. Read More
Since an employer may not legally require an employee to be on-duty or on-call during a rest break, defendant could not require its security guards to keep their radios on during their rest breaks and respond to an emergency call if one occurred during the rest break. Read More
When a contract’ attorney fee clause is broad enough to cover tort as well as contract claims, the defendant is the prevailing party entitled to a fee award on the tort, but not the contract, claims when the plaintiff voluntarily dismisses the action before trial. Read More
Attorney fee bills may or may not be privileged, depending on whether they convey information for the purpose of legal representation, such as informing the client of the nature and amount of work being performed in a currently active, pending case Read More
Insurer owed no duty to indemnify an insured construction contractor under a CGL policy for damages it paid the owner of a building for injury to the building's flooring, since the injury occurred because the insured performed a deliberate, non-accidental act—ordering the subcontractor to lay the flooring over wet concrete—and there was no additional, unexpected, unforeseen or independent event that… Read More
A party may file a second § 170.6 challenge against the trial judge if the same judge is assigned to hear a retrial of the case after a reversal on appeal, but only if the appeal was from a final judgment rather than an interlocutory order. Read More
The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act does not confer federal jurisdiction over a complaint alleging state law securities claims within the exception to SLUSA's general prohibition of state law securities class actions, except for the limited purpose of determining whether a putative class action is banned by SLUSA's general preclusion of such suits. Read More
An anti-SLAPP motion is untimely if not filed within 60 days of service of the first complaint that pleads a cause of action coming within anti-SLAPP protection, unless the trial court—in its discretion and upon terms it deems proper—permits the motion to be filed at a later time. Read More
An Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied because the allegedly false accusation that plaintiff operated a single treatment facility without a required state license was not a matter of public concern and so was not protected speech. Read More
