California Appellate Tracker

The trial court erred in denying defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion against plaintiff's malicious prosecution claim based on criminal charges that the public prosecutor brought against plaintiff.  Though defendant initiated the criminal proceeding with a complaint to the police, the undisputed evidence showed that the police carried out an independent investigation which, though it began with interviews with defendant's employees, went a… Read More

Rule 10b-5 proscribes untrue statements of a material fact or omissions to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading.  This decision holds that "pure omissions" do not violate the regulation.  A pure omission occurs when a speaker says nothing, in circumstances that… Read More

FAA section 1 (9 USC 1) exempts contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees and other workers in interstate or foreign commerce from the FAA's other provisions.  This decision holds that the exemption's focus is on the work performed by the employee, not the industry in which the employer is engaged.  Even if the employer is not in any transportation… Read More

Summary judgment on plaintiff's discrimination in employment claims was properly granted because he failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with the FEHA and EEOC.  His administrative complaint mentioned entirely different grounds (sex and whistleblower retaliation by his supervisor) than his court complaint (sexual harassment, race, immigration status and retaliation  by coworkers).  Employees satisfy the administrative exhaustion requirement if their court… Read More

Defendant fired plaintiff wrongfully in 2018 thereby disentitling plaintiff to stock options he would otherwise have held in 2020 when defendant went public with an IPO, guaranteeing a profit on exercise of the stock options.  This decision holds that plaintiff's breach of contract damages need not be measured as of the date of breach (2018) but may properly be measured… Read More

The forum defendant rule under 28 USC 1441(b)(2) is a procedural, not a substantive bar to removal jurisdiction and so must be raised by a remand motion brought within 30 days of the filing of the removal notice or it is waived.  Here, the remand motion was filed on the 31st day after the removal petition.  Nevertheless, it was timely… Read More

Following Brock v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1992) 10 Cal.App.4th 1790 and not Preston v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1981) 126 Cal.App.3d 402, this decision holds that once a trial court grants a motion to compel arbitration, it retains only vestigial jurisdiction which does not extend to making any substantive rulings on the parties' claims or defenses.  Hence, the trial court lacks… Read More

Following California DUI Lawyers Assn. v. California Department of Motor Vehicles (2022) 77 Cal.App.5th 517, this decision holds that an individual is entitled to a new hearing before a non-conflicted DMV hearing officer only when the record of the administrative proceedings before the original hearing officer shows that that officer in fact acted as an advocate/prosecutor rather than merely as… Read More

In this case, an ambulance EMT challenged the constitutionality of Prop. 11 (Lab. Code 880 et seq.) which made ambulance employees remain reachable by a communication device during meal breaks and made that rule retroactive.  Plaintiff sought a ruling from a second Court of Appeal after the Fourth District upheld the measure in Calleros v. Rural Metro of San Diego,… Read More

Plaintiff, a guest in defendant's hotel, fell and hurt herself when the handheld shower head came apart in her hand.  This decision affirms a summary judgment for defendant because (a) plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant had actually knew or had reason to suspect that the shower head was defective or dangerous and… Read More

Under 15 U.S.C. 1119, a court in a trademark infringement action has jurisdiction to invalidate a trademark application of a party to the action.  Lack of a bona fide intent to use a mark in commerce is a valid basis to challenge a trademark application. Read More

To pass 5th Amendment restraints on public taking of private property, a condition that a government entity imposes on a permit for development of private property must have an “essential nexus” to the government’s land-use interest and  have “rough proportionality” to the development’s impact on the land-use interest.  This decision holds that those tests apply to any condition imposed on… Read More

FAA section 2's exception for contracts of employment for workers in interstate commerce does not apply to or exempt business entities or commercial contracts from the FAA even if they are engaged in interstate commerce.  Plaintiff was a sophisticated business.  So delegation of arbitrability questions to the arbitrator in accordance with the chosen AAA Rules was not unconscionable.  Accordingly, it… Read More

Plaintiff signed an arbitration agreement when she was initially employed by defendant on an at-will basis.  That period of employment ended.  Plaintiff was rehired four months after terminating her original employment.  On rehiring plaintiff, defendant did not require her to sign a new arbitration agreement or say anything about reviving the old one.  Held, the trial court's conclusion that there… Read More

Inspired by a homily delivered in church by the defendant, a deacon in plaintiff's church, plaintiff agreed to and did donate over $1 million to buy a car and home for an allegedly homeless family.  Later, plaintiff sued for fraud, claiming that defendant spent the donation on unauthorized items and had deed the car and home not to the homeless… Read More

Distinguishing Wilson & Wilson v. City Council of Redwood City (2011) 191 Cal.App.4th 1559, this decision holds that completion of a project to revamp a shooting range did not moot plaintiff's appeal from denial of its CEQA claim.  Though the project was done, the city could still impose mitigation measures on the project to avoid its negative environmental impacts. Read More

There was a triable issue of fact as to how to compute the amount of income lost due to a covered event--the theft of the insured's inventory--over what period the average pre-loss income should be measured and the amount of income that would have been earned but for the covered loss.  However, the insured was not entitled to recover for… Read More

On appeal, we will not presume from a silent record that a trial court meant to sustain evidentiary objections when it did not expressly so rule.  Nor will we undertake the duty to rule on evidentiary objections in the first instance on appeal.  Objections not expressly ruled upon are deemed overruled where they go to material issues of fact.  While… Read More

Following Eott Energy Corp. v. Storebrand Internat. Ins. Co. (1996) 45 Cal.App.4th 565, this decision holds that for purposes of determining the deductible and the limits of coverage, an "occurrence" is an event that causes loss, not the loss or the insurance claim.  So, if the same cause results in two losses, there is only one occurrence, one deductible, one… Read More

A two-page settlement term sheet signed by the clients at the end of a mediation session was a binding agreement even though it contemplated that the parties would thereafter enter into a formal settlement agreement and a separate stipulation for entry of judgment.  The term sheet's invoking CCP 664.6 was a sign it was intended to be a binding contract. … Read More