California Appellate Tracker

A school owes its students a duty of care to protect them from foreseeable harm; that is, risks that the school knows or reasonably should know to exist.  Here, the school had no prior indication that one of its teachers was having an affair with an underage student.  The risk of inappropriate sexual behavior by teachers is not so great… Read More

The common law rule of exclusive concurrent jurisdiction applies to PAGA suits.  Nothing in the PAGA statutes clearly or unequivocally evince an intent to abrogate that well-established rule in PAGA suits.  Absence of an express first-filed suit requirement in the statute is insufficient to show such an intent.  Invoking the exclusive concurrent jurisdiction rule, the trial court properly stayed this… Read More

Defendant moved for summary judgment, then made a Rule 68 offer of judgment in the amount of $50,000.  Less than 14 days later, the court granted the summary judgment motion but didn't immediately enter judgment for defendant.  Plaintiff accepted the Rule 68 offer.  Held, the acceptance was effective.  Under Rule 68, an offer of judgment remains open for 14 days. … Read More

A wrongful death claim under federal maritime law accrues on or after the date of death, not earlier when the victim (soon-to-be deceased) learns of his illness or injury.  The statute accrues on date of discovery of the illness, however, on claims under survival statutes that abrogate the common law rule that tort claims died with the plaintiff.  Where the… Read More

Plaintiff employee's initial complaint sought individual and class relief for Labor Code violations as well as PAGA claims for statutory penalties for the same violations.  After defendant employer moved to compel arbitration, plaintiff amended the complaint to delete the individual and class claims, leaving only the PAGA claims.  This decision holds that the amendment was effective to avoid arbitration.  Under… Read More

Four federal statutes bar discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability or other protected characteristics by recipients of federal financial assistance; namely Title VI and IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Affordable Care Act.  None of these acts expressly grant private rights of action to victims of discrimination that violates those Acts' provisions. … Read More

PAGA suits are not arbitrable. Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 was not overruled by Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (2018) 138 S.Ct. 1612 or Kindred Nursing Centers Ltd. Partnership v. Clark (2017) 137 S.Ct. 1421, neither of which involved the issue that Iskanian addressed. Read More

Defendant, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in California, had a federal forum provision in its articles of incorporation which provided that any claims against it under the federal Securities Act of 1933 had to be brought in federal, not state, court.  This decision affirms an order dismissing without prejudice a Securities Act suit that one of the corporation's shareholders brought… Read More

As a Juul employee, Grove obtained stock options which he exercised to buy shares of Juul stock.  Grove sued Juul in California asserting a claim for the right to inspect Juul's books and records and also class and derivative claims against Juul's officers and directors.  The California court first stayed the inspection claim based on the forum selection clause in… Read More

Doctors sued county for the unreimbursed portion of their invoices for emergency medical treatment given to participants in the county's health plan.  Under the Knox-Keene Act, a health plan must reimburse noncontracting health care providers for the reasonable value of the emergency care they render to health plan participants.  A provider that thinks it has been underpaid may sue a… Read More

The registrar of voters gave Brennan wrong information about the number of signatures needed to qualify a proposition for the ballot, causing Brennan to expend more to get more signatures than actually needed to place its proposition on the ballot.  Brennan sued the county for the registrar's negligent misrepresentation.  Held, county's demurrer should have been sustained.  Gov. Code 818.8 and… Read More

Reversing dismissal of this antitrust suit, the decision holds that plaintiff's complaint adequately alleged a violation of Sherman Act section 1 by reason of NAR's Clear Cooperation Policy which required realtors who listed properties on a rival multiple listing service, such as plaintiff's, to also list those properties on an NAR listing service.  The complaint alleged that the claimed violation… Read More

This decision affirms denial of defendant's motion to disqualify the private attorneys whom San Diego hired on contingency fee contracts to prosecute this suit for civil penalties under B&P Code 17200.  The contingency fee contracts specified that the City Attorney retained ultimate control over the litigation or its settlement, and the contracts contained other clauses required under County of Santa… Read More

Dameron required emergency room patients to sign a "conditions of admission" agreement, which assigned to the hospital the patients' rights under their auto insurance policies' uninsured or underinsurance motorist coverages and under the medical payments coverage.  This decision holds that assignment of un-or underinsured motorist coverage is contrary to public policy and unenforceable because it is merely a way to… Read More

Following State of California ex. rel. Dept. of Transportation v. Superior Court (Hall) (1985) 37 Cal.3d 847, this decision holds that,under Veh. Code 20012, a plaintiff is an "interested person," entitled to production of unredacted motor vehicle accident reports showing names and contact information for drivers and witnesses involved in other similar accidents at or around the same location as… Read More

World Services holds intellectual property rights in Narcotics Anonymous' publications as trustee under a trust created by a loose association of Narcotics Anonymous adherents, known as the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.  The Autonomous Region sued World Services claiming it breached its fiduciary duties under the trust.  This opinion affirms dismissal of the action on the ground that Autonomous Region lacks… Read More

In this asbestosis case, plaintiffs added Air Brake in place of a Doe defendant shortly after Boeing produced documents showing that Air Brake designed the brake shoes for its light rail cars, specifying brake pads containing asbestos.  The trial court erred in granting summary judgment on limitations grounds after concluding that plaintiffs "knew or should have known" of Air Brake's… Read More

This decision holds that an insurer's allegedly wrongful denial of an insurance claim or its claim handling leading to that denial cannot be the basis of a viable claim under the Insurance Fraud Pevention Act (Ins. Code 1871.7).  The Act was designed to prevent fraudulent insurance claims not impose added duties on or create new remedies against insurers in connection… Read More

The right of a trademark owner to control the distribution of its trademarked product does not extend beyond the first sale of the product, and trademark rights are “exhausted” as to a given item upon the first authorized sale of that item.  This first sale doctrine applies not only to the resale of the product in unmodified form by the… Read More

While an employer has an affirmative duty to provide employees with a safe place to work (Lab. Code, § 6400(a); Seabright Ins. Co. v. US Airways, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 590, 603), this decision holds that this duty does not  include ensuring that an off-site meeting place for coworkers and business associates--such as at an employee’s private residence is safe… Read More