California Appellate Tracker

The trial court erred in granting defendant school district summary judgment.  Plaintiff, a student at the district's high school was stabbed by third person when following after school sports practice, she briefly visited a Starbucks and then returned to the high school to recover her books from her school locker.  The brief diversion to Starbucks did not interrupt the school's… Read More

Plaintiffs' decedent suffered a massive heart embolism while in the bathroom of a Southwest Airlines plane flying from Oakland to Orange County.  When the airplane's flight attendants became aware something was wrong, they wrongly diagnosed the problem as a terrorist threat.  The pilot contacted the Orange County Sheriff's office, which sent officers to the plane on arrival and removed all… Read More

An employee who complains to the DLSE and seeks relief from the Labor Commissioner in a Berman hearing is entitled to back wages for the limitations period calculated backwards from the date the employee files an initial report or claim with the DLSE, not from the later date of filing a formal complaint.  Though it doesn't say so expressly, Lab.… Read More

On appeal from denial of a Gov. Code 946.6 petition for relief from denial of his government claim as untimely, the plaintiff can argue, and the court can find that the plaintiff's claim was actually timely, so no relief under section 946.6 was required.  Here, plaintiff filed a government claim within 6 months of his injury.  The defendant agency waived… Read More

Disagreeing with Grand Prospect Partners, L.P. v. Ross Dress for Less, Inc. (2015) 232 Cal.App.4th 1332, this decision holds that a co-tenancy clause in a shopping center lease, which allowed the tenant to drastically reduce its rent if less than 60% of the shopping center's space was leased to other tenants, was enforceable.  Failure of the shopping center to meet… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendants' motion to disqualify plaintiff's outside counsel firm, Pillsbury, on the ground that Pillsbury had hired two attorneys who eight years before had been associates at Sedgwick and while there had represented some of the defendant insurers in other coverage disputes involving different insureds.  Defendants' evidence failed to show that… Read More

Writ of mandate issued to quash service of summons on foreign battery manufacturer, LG.  LG had availed itself of a California forum through its regular sales to three electric car manufacturers of the same type of battery that plaintiff claimed injured him.  However, plaintiff failed to show that defendant's sales to the car manufacturers were related in any way to… Read More

The female complainant in a university's disciplinary proceeding against a male student for alleged sexual assault on the complainant was not an indispensable party to the male student's mandate proceeding against the university for violating his due process rights in its proceedings which resulted in disciplining him.  While the complainant had an interest in the mandate proceeding, complete relief could… Read More

An order denying a nonstatutory motion to vacate judgment is appealable if the appellant claimed that the judgment was void. Read More

Summary judgment for defendant affirmed.  Defendant met its initial burden of disproving causation, a necessary element of plaintiffs' claims, by evidence showing that (a) stray voltage must exceed certain levels to be felt by a human being and that the voltages in plaintiffs' home were far lower, (b) a person would receive a shock only by touching surfaces with differing… Read More

A presiding judge's order denying a request by a vexatious litigant, who is subject to a pre-filing order, leave to file a new lawsuit is not an appealable order. Read More

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's 12/28/2018 order stating that California's meal and rest break statutes were "no longer" enforceable as to interstate truckers of goods preempted state law only prospectively and did not eliminate claims for missed meal and rest breaks that occurred before the order was issued. Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in staying this case under CCP 410.30 on the ground of forum non conveniens.  The complaint sought a declaration regarding the plaintiffs' duty to defend and indemnify defendants under various insurance policies for opioid litigation brought against defendants throughout the country.  There was already an on-going coverage action involving plaintiff and defendant… Read More

Counties that impose a documentary transfer tax may require that any deed or other conveyance state on its face the assessor's parcel number of the property being transferred  However, this decision holds, that the parcel number cannot create an ambiguity as to the bounds of the property being conveyed if the deed otherwise fully describes the conveyed property.  The parcel… Read More

Agreeing with Magadia v. Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. (9th Cir. 2021) 999 F.3d 668, this decision holds that the employer did not violate Lab. Code 226(a)(9) by not stating a wage rate or hours worked for a true-up of overtime pay for the preceding month's work based on the flat rate bonus paid that month.  The statute requires wage statements to… Read More

Despite the fact that CCP 222.5(a) was amended in 2018 to provide that a trial court "shall" allow a party to make a brief statement of the case before commencement of voir dire, this decision holds that the trial judge may exercise discretion to control the content of the pre-voir dire statement, and that this judge acted within the bounds… Read More

The FAA does not preempt California law insofar as it invalidates a waiver of an employee's right to bring PAGA claims arising out of Labor Code violations that affected the plaintiff employee.  However, the FAA does preempt California law (Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 and progeny) insofar as it precludes waiver of the employee's… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that neither party prevailed in this action against a subcontractor and its bonding company.  The plaintiff city won on liability but was awarded only nominal damages though it had sought $3.4 million.  The trial court could properly conclude that the win on damages was not a total victory for the… Read More

Plaintiffs sued claiming they had been sexually molested while minors by a Roman Catholic priest.  They sought to hold the Archdiocese vicariously liable for ratifying the molestation and directly liable for its own negligence in failing to supervise the priest.  The trial court correctly denied the Archdiocese's Anti-SLAPP motion.  The allegations about the Bishop's supporting the priest's defense of another… Read More

The Housing Accountability Act (Gov. Code, § 65589.5), adopted to ease California's shortage of affordable housing, restricts local agencies' ability to block "housing development projects" or require them to reduce their proposed housing density.  This decision holds that the act does not apply to a project that proposes to build only single-family residences, not any multiple family housing units. Read More