California Appellate Tracker

Persons paid under the In-Home Supportive Services program (Welf. & Inst. Code 12300 et seq.) to care for disabled and elderly California residents are not employees of the State of California which, therefore, is not vicariously liable for their torts, such as negligent driving in this case. Read More

Prior owners had deeded land to various grantees, reserving to the grantor-owners a partial interest in “all oil, gas, and other hydrocarbons and minerals” beneath the surface.  This decision holds that "minerals" in the reservation includes sand and gravel that owners of the surface estate intended to obtain from the subsurface by open pit mining.  To reach that conclusion, the… Read More

Plaintiffs claimed that defendant improperly charged them use tax on its lease-end vehicle turn-in fee.  This decision holds that the suit was properly dismissed because plaintiffs did not first submit their claims to respondent California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and obtain its definitive ruling on the taxability question. Plaintiffs' claims were barred by their failure to exhaust administrative… Read More

When a trustee of an inter vivos trust does not initiate a proceeding under Prob. Code 19000 et seq. and there is no probate of the trustor's estate, a creditor of the estate may sue the trustee on the trustor's debt or file a petition against the trustee under Prob. Code 850 for any real or personal property that the… Read More

This decision holds that a holder of a consumer contract subject to the FTC Holder Rule cannot avoid liability on claims against the dealer by reassigning the contract to the dealer or a third party after liability for the claim has attached.  Any person holding the contract when the claim accrues remains liable on the claim despite later transfer of… Read More

This decision affirms a trial court's denial of defendant elder care facility's motion to compel arbitration.  The arbitration agreement was procedurally unconscionable because the arbitration clause was buried in a lengthy document about other matters, not presented as a separate agreement or marked in any manner to draw attention to it.  Also, the plaintiff was under extreme time pressure to… Read More

This decision holds that the trial court erred in denying defendants' Anti-SLAPP motion to strike this malicious prosecution action.  While the defendants made a bunch of mistakes in conducting the underlying quiet title action, they did not lack probable cause because two instruments describing the same easement signed by the same grantor gave conflicting information about the easement's temporal duration. … Read More

This decision affirms a summary judgment for defendant in a slip and fall case based on the trivial defect doctrine.  The discontinuity between the sidewalk and PG&E's manhole cover was less than an inch vertically.  There was nothing that concealed the discontinuity of the pavement from view.  The fact that the sidewalk was on a steep hill did not make… Read More

This decision upholds COVID Emergency Rule 10(a)'s extension of the 5 year statute by six months.  The rule did not permit tolling of the statutory period but instead simply added 6 months to the otherwise applicable 5 years to bring the case to trial.  So in this case, it was error to dismiss the case less than 5-1/2 years after… Read More

If a party opposing arbitration wishes a court to decide whether a clause delegating arbitrability questions to the arbitrator is itself unenforceable for some reason, the party must mention that it is challenging the delegation provision and make specific arguments attacking the provision in its opposition to a motion to compel arbitration.  It is permissible, however, for that party to… Read More

For the second time, the Ninth Circuit reverses approval of a class action settlement in this case which challenged Tinder's charging those over 30 more than younger subscribers for its dating services.  The Ninth Circuit finds that the named plaintiff was not an adquate representative of the class because her interest conflicted with that of a large number of class… Read More

A UCL suit by a public prosecutor does not operate as merger and bar of private suits for the same alleged UCL violations against the same defendant.  A law enforcement action by prosecutors is designed to protect the public, not one to benefit the individuals harmed by the defendant's illegal practices, even if restitution is sought and ordered in the… Read More

California recognizes a form of the filed rate doctrine for rates or prices approved by state or municipal regulatory agencies, but the state doctrine is more limited and not as restrictive as its federal counterpart.  The California filed rate doctrine did not bar plaintiff's class action insofar as it sought injunctive relief (against false advertising) and punitive damages under the… Read More

This decision vacates dismissal of the mandate petition and remands to the trial court to determine in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Boermeester v. Carry (2023) 15 Cal.5th 72 whether the common law doctrine of fair procedure applies to this private vocational school and if so whether the school gave plaintiff a fair procedure including the right… Read More

The San Francisco Fire Department and San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Agency are departments of the City and County of San Francisco, not independent public agencies.  Hence, a fireman was a city employee and when he was injured by an MTA bus driver who drove through an active fire scene, severing a fire hose which caused the fireman serious injuries, the… Read More

B&P Code 6128(a) makes it a misdemeanor for an attorney to engage in deceit or collusion with intent to deceive the court or a party.  In this case, the LA and San Francisco district attorneys sued the Potter law firm claiming it engaged in an unlawful business practice in violation of B&P Code 6128(a) and 17200 by filing shakedown ADA… Read More

Health Net's arbitration clause did not satisfy H&S Code 1363.1's requirements.  The enrollment form did not clearly that the plan required arbitration of disputes because it said that the arbitration clause didn't apply if the plan was governed by ERISA--and the enrolling employee would have no way to determine whether ERISA applied.  Also, because of intervening text about ERISA plans,… Read More

This decision holds that some but not all claims for retaliation for whistleblowing activities, in violation of Lab. Code 1102.5, are not intentional acts for which insurance defense and indemnity is barred by Ins. Code 533.  In particular, under Lab. Code 1102.5(c), an employee is protected if he refuses to perform work duties if doing so is actually (not just… Read More

In this sex harassment case, the Court of Appeal reverses a denial of plaintiff's new trial motion, finding that the trial court erred in failing to exclude the contents of complaints co-workers lodged against plaintiff.  The fact that co-workers had complained about plaintiff was relevant since the complaints provided a possible motive for plaintiff to fabricate her own sex harassment… Read More

Echoing Insalaco v. Hope Lutheran Church of West Contra Costa County (2020) 49 Cal.App.5th 506, this decision states that a separate statement should contain only the facts material to the challenged element(s) of a claim or defense.  Other background facts need not and should not be set out in the separate statement.  The decision also states that the nonmoving party… Read More