California Appellate Tracker

Trial court erred in allowing suspended (and eventually dissolved) corporation relief from default judgment, since its agent for service of process was served, thus giving it actual knowledge of the suit.  Read More

A homeowners association’s post-foreclosure quiet title action stated a viable claim against the former owner who might challenge the foreclosure; hence, the former owner was not fraudulently joined and the federal courts lacked diversity jurisdiction.  Read More

Former husband of bankrupt spouse could raise his homestead exemption to oppose the bankruptcy trustee's motion to sell the property free and clear, since the former husband resided in the home at the time the former wife filed her bankruptcy petition.  Read More

Section 1983 claims are, in some instances, precluded by federal statutes containing comprehensive remedial schemes of their own; but if the statutory rights and protections diverge significantly from the constitutional ones, there is no preclusion—as here, where an ADEA action for retaliation diverges significantly enough from a 1983 action based on deprivation of First Amendment rights (due to retaliation for… Read More

Even without entry of a judgment in excess of primary policy limits, an excess insurer that has paid part of a settlement in excess of the primary insurance policy's limits may sue the primary insurer on a claim for equitable subrogation to the insured's bad faith claim against the primary insurer, for unreasonably failing to settle within policy limits.  Read More

A 998 offer is invalid and will not shift costs if it requires a release of claims beyond those pertaining to the action in which the 998 offer is made, such as, here, where the 998 offer required plaintiff to release all claims he might have against the defendant, whether or not they were connected with the incident giving rise… Read More

Plaintiff injured in an auto accident by defendant driving an ambulance was subject to the two-year limitations period for personal injury claims arising from general negligence—as opposed to the one-year period that applies to medical malpractice claims—since the act of driving the ambulance does not involve the practice of medicine.  Read More

An Anti-SLAPP motion may target allegations of protected activity that form the basis of a claim for relief even if the complaint also alleges unprotected activity as part of the same “cause of action.”  Read More

An attorney’s post-litigation handling of settlement funds is not protected litigation activity, so the attorney’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied.  Read More

To discover the identity of a person who posted an anonymous Internet comment, plaintiff must present prima facie evidence of all elements of a defamation claim; here, plaintiff fell short as the comment was non-actionable opinion, not defamatory fact.  Read More

All orders entered by a temporary judge found biased based on a party’s unanswered statement of disqualification are void, and a marital settlement agreement tainted by those orders is unenforceable.  Read More

A borrower lacks standing to sue alleging his loan was transferred to a securitized trust after its closing date because a late transfer is voidable, not void.  Read More

The prevailing party in an administrative mandamus proceeding may recover the cost of attorney and paralegal work necessary to prepare the administrative record.  Read More

A plaintiff’s discrimination and retaliation suit against the University where she was a medical resident in anesthesiology did not arise from the University's protected activity in conducting proceedings leading to her discipline and ultimate termination, but rather from the University's allegedly wrongful (and unprotected) antecedent conduct in discriminating and retaliating against plaintiff, which in turn led to the protected disciplinary… Read More

Plaintiff’s one-year limitations period for bringing suit after the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing issued a right-to-sue letter should be equitably tolled for a year beyond the EEOC’s issuance of its own right-to-sue  letter, because plaintiff reasonably relied on the DFEH letter’s incorrect statement that the limitations period would be tolled while EEOC investigated the claim.  Read More

Trial court properly denied Anti-SLAPP motion brought by defendants—JAMS and one of its mediators—since plaintiff’s lawsuit alleging misrepresentations in the mediator’s website biography arose from defendants’ advertising of services for the purpose of enticing purchasers, thus falling within the CCP 415.17(c) exception to the Anti-SLAPP statute.  Read More

A district court scheduling order was not an appealable order since it did not finally decide the dispositive issue of whether to compel arbitration.  Read More

In this wage and hour dispute, defendant was not entitled to a writ of mandate to overturn a district court scheduling order setting trial on the issue of whether plaintiff’s contracts were employment agreements in interstate commerce and thus exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, since defendant has an adequate remedy on appeal from any order denying its motion to… Read More

Plaintiffs did not allege facts sufficient to show that defendant landowners impliedly dedicated a fire road over their land to public use, since fire roads are only temporary easements and do not alert the landowner to any risk that they could be surrendering property rights, and there was insufficient evidence that the road was constantly used by hikers.  Read More

The arbitrator, rather than the court, determines whether an arbitration agreement permits classwide arbitration unless the agreement clearly assigns that decision to the court.  Read More