California Appellate Tracker

Plaintiff's counsel's voluntary narrowing of the class definition in a pending class action did not clearly exclude from the class color-blind employees like plaintiff.  So American Pipe tolling did not end for plaintiff upon that narrowing but only later when the 8th Circuit reversed the class certification order. Read More

Before filing a PAGA suit, a plaintiff must send a pre-suit notice to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the employer describing the facts and theories to support the alleged violation. Lab. Code 2699.3.  This decision holds that while the pre-suit notice must include nonfrivolous allegations that other aggrieved employees exist, it is sufficient for the presuit notice to… Read More

Facebook does not violate privacy by creating temporary "face signatures" of faces of persons (including non-users of Facebook) in pictures posted on Facebook.  BIPA prohibits only use of "information" or "identifiers" that can be used to identify an individual.  Facebook's face signatures can't be used to identify the persons in the pictures and those signatures are not stored on Facebook. … Read More

Discriminatory enforcement of CC&Rs by an HOA can support a claim for discrimination in housing under 12 USC 3604.  But here, all that the HOA did was write plaintiffs a letter threatening enforcement action.  It never took the threatened action and took no other step to enforce the CC&Rs against plaintiffs, and plaintiffs did not alter their conduct to avoid… Read More

Deciding a question left open in Montrose Chemical Corp. v. Superior Court (2020) 9 Cal.5th 215, this decision holds that in a case involving coverage for injuries occurring over multiple coverage periods, the insured can reach an excess policy after "vertically" exhausting any primary insurance policies for the same period, but need not exhaust all primary insurance policies "horizontally" over… Read More

In seeking a preliminary injunction against an employer's actions pending proceedings before the NLRB, that agency must meet the same four traditional factors outlined in  Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (2008) 555 U. S. 7:  likelihood of success on the merits, irreparable harm, balance of equities in plaintiff's favor, and injunction in public interest.  In simply allowing courts… Read More

To establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must show it has suffered or is likely to suffer an injury in fact and causation--that the injury in fact is caused by the defendant's allegedly wrongful act and therefore is redressable by injunction or damages.  Causation is simply established when the plaintiff challenges a government regulation that governs the plaintiff, but more… Read More

Recognizing a split of Court of Appeal decisions on the issue, this decision holds that when the plaintiff does not deny that the arbitration agreement bears his handwritten signature, his declaration stating that he doesn't recall signing the document does not create a factual dispute about the signature's authenticity.  See  Iyere v. Wise Auto Group (2023) 87 Cal.App.5th 747, 757-758,… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in overruling objections to questions defense attorney asked plaintiff's future medical damages expert about whether plaintiff's future medical expenses would be covered by Medicare once plaintiff reached 65 and whether Medicare insurers paid full billed medical rates.  Under Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 541, plaintiff can only… Read More

In a Domestic Violence Restraining Order proceeding, the plaintiff wife was unrepresented by counsel; the defendant, her former husband had counsel. The trial court did not violate defendant's due process rights by assisting plaintiff during her testimony by asking her very broad, open-ended questions designed to allow her to tell the court about the incidents on which she based her… Read More

Overruling Riley v. Hilton Hotels Corp. (2002) 100 Cal.App.4th 599, this decision holds that Government Code section 36900, subdivision (a), does not grant citizens in general any private cause of action  to sue for violation of a city ordinance.  Hence, there is no statutory right to bring a civil action for a violation of a municipal ordinance. Read More

A liability insurer liable on claims against the debtor is a "party in interest" that is entitled to raise and have heard its objections to the debtor's Chapter 11 plan under 11 USC 1109(b).  The Bankruptcy Code uses party in interest to broadly cover anyone whose interests might be adversely affected by a Chapter 11 plan.  The legislative history shows… Read More

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act barred plaintiff's unjust enrichment, negligence, and UCL claims that Facebook for allowing third parties to post fraudulent ads on Facebook.  Those claims sought to impose liability on Facebook as a publisher or speaker of the false ads.  However, plaintiff's breach of contract and breach of implied covenant claims based on Facebook's alleged promises… Read More

The district court erred in modifying CACI 3405, which states that a plaintiff may prove the second element of an unreasonable course of conduct claim by proving either anticompetitive purpose or effect, and CACI 3411, which lists factors for a jury to consider in weighing the anticompetitive purposes or effects of a defendant's conduct.  The district court removed the word… Read More

The Court of Appeal issues a writ of mandate directing the trial court to enter summary judgment for the defendant in this personal injury action by a subcontractor's employee.  Under the Privette doctrine, the hirer of an independent contractor is generally not liable for injuries suffered by the contractor's or its subcontractors' employees on the job.  To invoke the doctrine… Read More

Collaborative law is a non-judicial alternative dispute resolution process commonly used for marriage dissolutions.  In this case, a couple undergoing a divorce tried to settle their differences by that means.  At the start they executed a "contract" which stated at the top "that this document does not give either of us enforceable legal rights that we did not already have." … Read More

After the Creek Fire, SoCal Edison's law department directed an investigation, conducted mostly by non-lawyer claims department personnel, of SoCal Edison's possible role in causing the fire.  In later litigation, insurers of burnt homes sought production of emails between the claims department personnel and in-house experts or other witnesses sent as part of the internal investigation.  This decision holds that… Read More

The university did not deny plaintiff students a fair hearing before expelling them for engaging in prohibited hazing activities in fraternity initiation of new pledges.  Unlike cases that turn largely on disputed facts and credibility of witnesses, in this one most of the alleged hazing activities were undisputed.  In that context, it was not a denial of a fair hearing… Read More

On a prior appeal in the same case, the Court of Appeal had held that Tyler’s judicial defense of the 2007 Amendment to her parents' Trust, an amendment that she had procured through undue influence constituted a direct contest of the Trust and that Tyler lacked probable cause to defendant that amendment.  Key v. Tyler (2019) 34 Cal.App.5th 505, 510. … Read More

A district court has inherent authority to stay before it, pending resolution of independent proceedings which bear upon the case.  The stay order is reviewed for abuse of discretion. When deciding whether to issue a docket management stay, the district court must weigh: (1) the possible damage which may result from the granting of a stay; (2) the hardship or… Read More