California Appellate Tracker

Defendant is a student loan debt collector which sued plaintiff on a student loan debt.  Plaintiff filed this putative class action alleging that defendant manufactured false substitute rosters to show which entities owned the student loans it sued to collect.  The complaints alleged protected activity in the course of petitioning courts.  The case did not fit within the Flatley v.… Read More

While the abuse of discretion standard applies on review of most evidentiary rulings, when the ruling excludes evidence essential to a claim and thus has claim-dispositive effect, the rulling is review de novo. Read More

The trial court erred in granting defendant's in limine motions to exclude plaintiff's expert's testimony that his employment-related exposure to diesel fuel fumes and particulate matter was a substantial factor in causing his non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  To testify regarding causation, the experts did not have to rely on published epidemiological studies liking diesel fuel exposure to lymphoma.  There are many reasons… Read More

Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(2), the federal courts could properly exercise personal jurisdiction over Czech companies that hosted child porn videos in violaiton of federal criminal statutes that gave the porn victims private rights of action against those profiting from the child porn.  Under the Calder test, there was sufficient evidence that the companies targeted the US and profited… Read More

A staffing company is not itself a "laborer" under Civ. Code 9100 and so is not entitled to claim a mechanic's lien or payment under a payment bond on a public project.  The statutory definition of those entitled to claim changed after Contractors Labor Pool, Inc. v. Westway Contractors, Inc. (1997) 53 Cal.App.4th 152 was decided and the statute no… Read More

Pep Boys extended their multiple-layer products liability insurance policies from one year to 17 months to align their insurance policies with their fiscal year.  Several of the extended policies stated that the policy was subject to a limit of” $x million in the aggregate for each annual period during the policy period.  This decision holds that the policy language cannot… Read More

When a trust becomes irrevocable, the trustee must send a notice to all beneficiaries warning them that they have 120 days to bring any action to contest the trust.  (Prob. Code 16061.7.)  The 120-day limitation period for bringing an action to contest the trust is codified in Prob. Code 16061.8, which applies to any action challenging the validity of the… Read More

The contamination exclusion in the Sharks business interruption insurance policy prevented the Sharks from showing any covered  physical loss or damage to property due to COVID-19.  If COVID stuck to surfaces making the premises unsafe, the alteration was an excluded contamination of the premises. Read More

In this case, independent wholesalers of 5-Hour Energy sued the caffeinated drinks manufacturer for selling the product to Costco at lower price than it charged the independents.  The manufacturer also reimbursed Costco for its promoting the product every other month or so by offering it to Costco members at a reduced rate.  The district court did not abuse its discretion… Read More

Under Probate Code 21380, a dependent adult's donative transfer to his or her  "care custodian" is presumed to have been the product of fraud or undue influence if the transfer is made in an instrument during the period the care custodian is serving in that capacity or 90 days before or after that period.  The statutory presumption of fraud or… Read More

Under CCP 527.6(j), an anti-harrassment injunction may be extended only once for a period of 5 years or less without evidence of further harassment since the original anti-harassment injunction was issued.  To obtain an additional extension of the injunction, post-order harassment must be shown. Read More

ERISA did not preempt an ERISA plan's suit against Bayer, the manufacturer of an allegedly defective pregnancy prevention device.  The Plan's claims for negligence, products liability, failure to warn (of defects in the device), etc. did not act immediately and exclusively on ERISA plans.  The ERISA plan was relevant to the claims only insofar as it granted the plan a… Read More

The trial court correctly denied defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion.  The absolute litigation privilege did not protect her from liability for her web blog and Yelp! postings that allegedly defamed the plaintiff construction contractor that she said had botched repairs on her house.  Though defendant had filed a complaint with the Contractor's Licensing Board which had awarded her compensation from the plaintiff,… Read More

A civil suit for child pornography under 18 USC 2255 is governed by a 10 year statute of limitations.  However, the limitations period runs from each republication of the pornography since republication can cause a new personal injury.  Here, the complaint alleged a republication of the record album containing a nude picture of plaintiff's naked body in a swimming pool. … Read More

In a case of first impression in California, this decision holds that a party to one of several cases that the Judicial Council has ordered to be coordinated is not entitled to mandatory intervention in other of the coordinated cases than the one in which it already is a party because the would-be intervenor cannot show that it is so… Read More

Civil Code 1566, 1567, and 1570 establish a right to rescission in cases in which a person’s consent to a transaction was obtained by “menace”:  threats of confinement, of unlawful violence to the person or his or her property, or of injury to a person’s character.  This is effectively the civil version of extortion.  So, Tran could state a claim… Read More

The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff leave to amend to bring in a new defendant and allege a new theory of liability when the motion was filed 8 months after the scheduling order's deadline for amending the pleadings.  The plaintiff was not diligent having waited several months after learning of the new defendant's identity and… Read More

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