This decision reverses a summary judgment in favor of the owner and prime contractor and against the plaintiff, who worked for a demolition subcontractor. Plaintiff was injured by an unknown assailant in a walkway that the owner and prime had left unfenced to allow neighborhood residents access to a bus stop. The owner and prime exercised actual control over security… Read More
Vandenberg v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 815 nixes only nonmutual collateral estoppel from an arbitration award. Here, the same parties to the arbitration award, or individuals in privity with them, raised the same issues that the arbitrator had adjudicated, in court in connection with a post-confirmation (and post appeal from the confirmation) motion to amend the judgment to add… Read More
The trial court abused its discretion in denying plaintiff's motion to amend the judgment (which confirmed an arbitration award in plaintiff's favor against two LLCs) to add two individual defendants as the LLCs' alter egos. Two elements are needed to prove alter ego statues: unity of interest and ownership and inequity resulting from treating the acts of the corporate entities… Read More
Plaintiff had no viable claim against GoDaddy for selling a domain name to a third party purchaser after plaintiff failed to pay GoDaddy the renewal fee for that domain name. GoDaddy was not liable under the Lanham Act because the purchaser rather than GoDaddy used the domain name in commerce. Also, GoDaddy was immune from the claim under the Anticybersquatting… Read More
This split decision holds that under Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. (2022) 142 S.Ct. 1708, an employer waived the right to compel arbitration against class member employees who signed a 2002 arbitration agreement even though they became parties to the lawsuit only late in the case when a class was certified. Though the named plaintiff had not signed the arbitration agreement,… Read More
Under special legislation, Alameda County established a separate county-wide health district. This decision holds that the district is subject to suit under some provisions of the Labor Code and IWC wage orders (meal and rest breaks and accurate wage statements) because nothing in the enabling legislation expressly exempts the district; there are no other positive indicia of legislative intent to… Read More
Disagreeing with Gavriiloglou v. Prime Healthcare Management, Inc. (2022) 83 Cal.App.5th 595, this decision holds that an arbitrator's award finding that the employer did not violate the Labor Code as the employee alleged in his individual wage and hour claims operates as collateral estoppel, barring the employee's PAGA claims based on the same alleged violations, for lack of standing. )… Read More
The trial court properly enforced an employer's arbitration clause. The clause was only minimally procedurally unconscionable, being presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis by the employer which wielded greater economic power. However, the clause was on a separate page. It was short and clearly titled. The page also warned the employee to read the clause closely. The clause was not substantively… Read More
Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”), employers must provide employees who take military leave with the same non-seniority rights and benefits as their colleagues who take comparable non-military leaves. See 38 U.S.C. § 4316(b)(1); 20 C.F.R. § 1002.150(a). Whether short term military leave is comparable to nonmilitary leave is a jury question dependent upon three factors:… Read More
Agreeing with Figueroa v. FCA US LLC (2022) 84 Cal.App.5th 708 (though by different reasoning), not with Niedermeier v. FCA US LLC (2020) 56 Cal.App.5th 1052, this decision holds that the manufacturer is not entitled to set off against damages otherwise due the car buyer under the Song-Beverly Act, the amount the car buyer received on trading the defective car… Read More
The court, not the arbitrator, decides whether the parties entered into an agreement to arbitrate even if the supposed arbitration agreement contains a broad delegation clause. Here, the trial court correctly determined that plaintiff had not agreed to arbitrate. Defendant produced no agreement signed by plaintiff. The credit card application he signed did not reference any agreement, let alone an… Read More
Estate of Cornelious (1984) 35 Cal.3d 461 remains good law. Under Probate Code 7540(a), a child is conclusively presumed to be issue of the man married to the child's mother, so long as the two were cohabiting at the time of conception and of birth. Such a child is not allowed, at least for inheritance purposes, to prove that he… Read More
The 2022 amendment to the FAA exempting from its enforcement of arbitration agreements pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate sexual assault or harassment claims does not apply retroactively to suites filed before the amendment's effective date. Nevertheless, arbitration should not have been compelled here because the agreement is unconscionable. Procedurally, the employer did not disclose at the time of agreement which arbitration… Read More
Plaintiff was hired by Intelex but also worked simultaneously for five other firms that were jointly owned and operated with Intelex. Intelelex's employment agreement contained an arbitration clause, but didn't mention the other employing companies or make them third party beneficiaries of the arbitration clause. The other employers' motion to compel arbitration of plaintiff's wrongful termination claims was properly denied. … Read More
Under Gov. Code 91003(a), part of the Political Reform Act of 1974, the trial court may award attorney fees to a plaintiff or defendant who prevails. This decision holds that though the statute does not expressly so provide, to promote the Act's purpose of encouraging private litigation to enforce the act, the civil rights statutes' standard allowing the trial court… Read More
Gov. Code 844.6 grants state agencies immunity from liability for injury caused by a prisoner. This decision holds that the statute applies to bar plaintiffs' FEHA claims that the Department failed to properly shield them from sexual harassment by prison inmates whom they, as Department employees, were assigned to treat. The prisoners proximately caused plaintiffs' harm even if the Department's… Read More
Ordinarily, the beneficiary of a revocable trust lacks standing to sue concerning the trust so long as the trustor is alive and can still revoke the trust. However, the beneficiary may still have standing if the trustor is incompetent. To establish standing, the beneficiary need only allege that the trustor is incompetent. Read More
This decision affirms an order denying an Anti-SLAPP motion brought against a trust beneficiary's surcharge action against the trustee for wasting the trust's funds in pursuing meritless litigation. The decision determines that the gist of the action and the harm alleged is the waste of trust funds--unprotected conduct--not the filing and funding of the meritless litigation which would be protected… Read More
A party seeking to correct or vacate an arbitration award must petition to correct or vacate or raise the issue in answer to the opposing party's petition to confirm the award during the shorter of (a) 100 days from issuance of the arbitration award or (b) 10 days after the petition to confirm is served. The 10 day limit may… Read More
Statute of limitations on claim that defendant tortiously injured plaintiff's land by dumping uncertified fill on the property ran from the discovery of the claim by prior owners of the property. The limitations period does not re-start with a transfer of the property to a new owner after the first owner has discovered the injury. Read More
