In ruling on a motion for attorney fees under the Lanham Act, the district court is free to exercise its discretion in examining the totality of the circumstances to decide if the case is exceptional, including whether the suit or prelitigation conduct was frivolous, ill-motivated or objectively unreasonable. Read More
Evidence of the amount a medical finance company paid the provider for its lien on plaintiff’s personal injury claim is properly excluded as it is only marginally relevant to the reasonable value of the medical provider’s services, and rebuttal evidence would consume too much time, distracting the jury from the central issues in the case. Read More
An order compelling arbitration of individual wage and hour claims, dismissing class claims, and staying PAGA claims—all arising from the same factual allegations—is not a death knell order and so is not immediately appealable, since other employees may use a judgment on those claims as collateral estoppel to bring their own suits, and the continued existence of the PAGA claims… Read More
Trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a permanent injunction against U-Haul's enforcement in California of an unlawful non-competition clause in its dealer agreements, which affected 1,000 U-Haul dealers in California as well as U-Haul's competitors, customers and the general public, since U-Haul’s proposed voluntary non-enforcement of the clause would have allowed it to re-start its former policy… Read More
Nothing in the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights requires a foreclosing party to prove, prior to foreclosure, that it has the right to foreclose; rather, the statute allows pre-foreclosure injunction actions only for violation of certain specified HBOR sections, which are enumerated in sections 2924.12 and 2924.19 of the Civil Code. Read More
A corporation and its lawyer behaved unethically in answering a city’s validation action when both knew the corporation was suspended for non-payment of state taxes; hence, they were properly denied a private attorney general fee award despite prevailing in the action. Read More
Legal malpractice claim filed more than a year after client’s acceptance of attorney’s withdrawal was properly dismissed as time-barred, and retainer agreement attorney fee clause was broad enough to cover a malpractice claim whether sounding in tort or contract. Read More
Trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant a pre-trial continuance based on the fact that its attorney is a member of the state legislature, since the statute upon which the continuance request was based is directory rather than mandatory, and the trial court properly found that granting the continuance would harm the plaintiff while denying it would… Read More
A claim of childhood sexual abuse brought against a government agency is exempt from the requirement of filing a government claim before suing even if the abuse is not alleged to have been committed by the agency’s employee, volunteer, representative or agent. Read More
Uninsured, self-payor patient who paid part of hospital bill and remained liable for the rest had standing to bring, and adequately alleged Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the Unfair Competition Law claims against a hospital for charging him allegedly unconscionable prices for his emergency room treatment. Read More
Since guarantor structured a real-estate secured loan to an affiliate for its own business reasons and guaranteed only 5% of the loan amount, there was no substantial evidence that guarantor was the principal debtor or that the transaction was a sham to avoid the anti-deficiency laws. Read More
A class was ascertainable and should have been certified since the class was properly defined by objective criteria and its members could be identified from defendant’s records, even if those records also included an unknown number of non-class members. Read More
Tenant's suit for breach of the warranty of habitability and constructive eviction was considered an “action on the lease contract” for purposes of attorney fee recovery under Civil Code 1717. Read More
A hospital could not be held liable for a doctor’s malpractice on a respondeat superior theory when the hospital’s conditions of admission, which the patient signed many times in non-emergency situations, clearly disclosed that all doctors who treated patients at the hospital acted as independent contractors. Read More
State statutes prohibiting licensed mental health providers from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with minors do not abridge the religious freedom of either therapists or the minors in their care. Read More
After trial court clerk improperly posted copy of confidential pleading that revealed plaintiff’s true name in his revenge porn lawsuit (in which plaintiffs are ordinarily permitted to proceed anonymously), the trial court compounded the error by ruling that all future filings would have to be in plaintiff’s real name. Read More
To support an award of damages for lost earning capacity, plaintiff must introduce evidence showing the career it is reasonably probable plaintiff would have pursued but for the tortious injury and the amount plaintiff would have earned in that career. Read More
Trial court did not abuse its discretion in requiring appellant to bear third parties’ entire attorney fees in interpleader actions triggered by respondent’s enforcement of judgment while appeal was pending as appellant could have avoided these costs by posting an appeal bond. Read More
When a motion to dismiss raises a question of foreign law, the court may consider declarations or other "evidentiary" material regarding the content of relevant foreign law without converting the motion into a summary judgment motion; here, the Court of Appeal held that a French “astreinte” award was an enforceable foreign damage judgment, not an unenforceable penalty. Read More
Compliance with the Government Tort Claims statute's claim presentation requirement may be alleged generally—as by checking a box on the Judicial Council form complaint stating that "Plaintiff … has complied with applicable claims statutes.” Read More
