California Appellate Tracker

Although the FAA (9 USC 3) appears to require a district court to stay pending court proceedings when it compels arbitration, binding 9th Circuit precedent holds that, instead, a district court may dismiss the litigation if it compels arbitration of all claims raised in the case.  See Johnmohammadi v. Bloomingdale’s,Inc., 755 F.3d 1072, 1074 (9th Cir. 2014).  The two-judge concurrence… Read More

A plaintiff bringing a pregnancy discrimination claim under Gov. Code section 12945(a)(3)(A) must prove that  (1) the plaintiff had a condition related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition; (2) the plaintiff requested accommodation of this condition, with the advice of her health care provider; (3) the plaintiff’s employer refused to provide a reasonable accommodation; and (4) with the… Read More

Following Canister v. Emergency Ambulance Service, Inc. (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th  388, this decision holds that MICRA's one-year from discovery limitations period applies to a claim that plaintiff was injured by an automobile accident caused by the EMT's negligent driving of the ambulance taking plaintiff to a hospital.  The negligence occurred in the rendering of services for which a provider is… Read More

The FEHA makes an employer strictly liable for sexual harassment by a supervisor, but only if the supervisor is acting in the capacity of supervisor when the harassment occurs.  Here, the trial court properly granted summary judgment to Rite Aid.  Its supervisor had become friends with the plaintiff before she went to work for Rite Aid.  The texted one another… Read More

Proposition 22 (governing the independent contractor status of gig workers)  is unconstitutional insofar as it sought to define what would be an amendment to its provisions.  That provision violated the judiciary's and the legislature's separate powers.  However, those provisions were severable, leaving the rest of the proposition intact. Read More

Judge B1 presided over a trial.  Judge B2 let her know that B2 used to practice with the plaintiff's law firm, he sat in the jury box during jury selection until B1 asked him to leave, and after the plaintiff obtained a large verdict, he sent B1 a celebratory, emoji-filled email which B1 promptly revealed to the parties and asked… Read More

This decision affirms dismissal of plaintiff's 42 USC 1983 claims against Twitter and California's Secretary of State for lack of state action.  After the Secretary of State's office flagged plaintiff's tweets as false or misleading, Twitter removed them for violating its content-moderation policy.  Despite its interaction with state officials, Twitter's enforcement of its own content moderation policy did not constitute… Read More

Following Whittlesey v. Aiello (2002) 104 Cal.App.4th 1221 and Terry v. Conlan (2005) 131 Cal.App.4th 1445, this decision affirms an order denying a trustee payment from the trust of attorney fees that the trustee incurred in defending against one putative beneficiary's suit to invalidate an amendment to the trust.  The challenge to the amendment would not, even if successful, have… Read More

Following Roldan v. Callahan & Blaine (2013) 219 Cal.App.4th 87, this decision affirms an order denying arbitration after the defendant refused to pay all arbitration costs.  Substantial evidence supported the trial court's finding that Daniel Hang was indigent when he died while in defendant's care.  His son brought suit for elder abuse and negligent hiring and supervision as Hang's successor-in-interest. … Read More

Reaching the same result as Galarsa v. Dolgen California, LLC (2023) 2023 Cal. App. LEXIS 129, this decision holds that plaintiff's individual PAGA claims (i.e., those which are based on Lab. Code violations affecting the plaintiff) must be arbitrated.  However, representative PAGA claims based on Lab. Code violations affecting only employees other than the plaintiff are not subject to arbitration,… Read More

A third party’s occupancy and payment of rent may lead to a permissive inference, but not a mandatory presumption, of assignment of the lease to the third party in breach of an anti-assignment clause in the lease.  Here, a woman rented the apartment but did not occupy it for extended periods while she was outside the country attending to her… Read More

Defendant's posts on social media about plaintiff who was a lobbyist assisting a church in seeking city council approval of a development project were not absolutely privileged under CC 47(b).  The social media posts were not made in preparation for the official proceedings before the city council.  The unprivileged social media posts were defamatory, accusing the plaintiff of engaging in… Read More

The trial court properly granted defendants' Anti-SLAPP motion.  Despite plaintiff's allegation that defendant had engaged in extortion, this case was distinguishable from Flatley v. Mauro (2006) 39 Cal.4th 299 because defendant denied that he had threatened to report plaintiff to the State Bar unless he settled defendant's client's suit for refund of an unearned retainer fee.  His emails, though contentious,… Read More

Substantial evidence supported the trial court's decision finding that the defendant care facility's arbitration agreement was unenforceable against a patient's heirs because the patient, who had suffered a stroke days before signing the agreement, lacked the mental capacity to contract when he signed the form. Read More

Following Ajamian v. CantorCO2e, LP (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 771, this decision holds that an arbitration clause that merely calls for arbitration of all disputes arising under the agreement but does not specifically mention disputes about arbitrability issues fails to meet the "clear and unmistakable" standard for delegation of arbitrability questions to the arbitrator.  It also follows Ajamian in folding that… Read More

Plaintiff, a surfer, alleged viable claims against the city for violating the California Coastal Act by (a) allowing the Bay Boys (a group of local residents who threatened or engaged in violence to keep others from using the prime surfing site, Lunada Bay) to erect and keep in place a "Rock Fort" on the beach, from which they sallied forth… Read More

On remand from the Supreme Court, this Court of Appeal decision affirms the trial court's decision not to award statutory penalties under either Lab. Code 203 (failure to pay wages on termination of employment) or 226 (wage statements) for the employer's failure to pay and include in the wage statement, premium pay for missed meal breaks.  Under the statutes, the… Read More

Under 11 U. S. C. §523(a)(2)(A), a bankrupt may not discharge a debt for money, etc., to the extent obtained by false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud.  This decision holds that a fraud debt is nondischargeable even if the bankrupt did not commit the fraud but is held vicariously liable under state law for the fraud as a… Read More

Under the FLSA, an employer need not pay overtime pay to employees who work in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity.  Dept. of Labor regulations impose three tests for the exemption's applicability, one of which is that the employee must be paid on a "salary basis."  This decision holds that the regulation defining "salary basis" requires that the… Read More

Summary judgment for defendant employer was reversed in this disability discrimination in employment case.  Defendant tentatively decided to lay plaintiff off before she became disabled, but didn't follow through with that decision until after plaintiff suffered a disabling injury.  Plaintiff produced sufficient evidence to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant's concern with plaintiff's disability led to… Read More