California Appellate Tracker

The trial court properly determined, as a matter of law, that defendant attorneys lacked probable cause to file and to continue prosecuting an action by a mobilehome park resident against the park owner for interference with the resident's contract to sell her mobilehome to a third party.  The Mobilehome Residency Law at the time allowed park owners to require would-be… Read More

The trial court properly denied a residential care facility's motion to compel arbitration.  The facility's arbitration agreement was signed by the admitted resident's son, not the resident.  The resident was not mentally incompetent at the time of admission, and he had not designated his son his attorney in fact, or agent.  The resident didn't ratify the arbitration agreement by not… Read More

Under Prob. Code 1003, a court may, but is not required to, appoint a guardian ad litem for minors named as parties in the action. If the court doesn't appoint a guardian, it must itself protect the minor's interests.  Here, a guardian ad litem was appointed for the minors in related litigation, but not in this proceeding.  The guardian ad… Read More

This decision rejects Christine Chui's argument that she should not be bound by a settlement of a suit brought against her by other children of the same deceased parents, claiming that she had committed elder abuse against the parents and had, as trustee of their inter vivos trust, misappropriated the trust's funds.  The settlement agreement was not procedurally unconscionable.  The… Read More

Corso obtained a default judgment against Rejuvi in a district court in South Australia.  Corso filed a proof of claim in Rejuvi's bankruptcy proceeding.  Rejuvi appealed from a bankruptcy court order allowing Corso's claim based on the South Australia default judgment.  Held, the claim was properly allowed.  Under California's Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgment Recognition Act (CCP 1713 et seq.), Rejuvi… Read More

A group representing the residents in the project area sued under the federal Fair Housing Act and California FEHA, claiming that the City's redevelopment plan for the area had a disparate impact on the mostly minority group residents because redevelopment would lead to gentrification, a rise in rents and the displacement of residents from the area.  This decision holds that… Read More

Distinguishing and disagreeing with Henriksen v. City of Rialto (1993) 20 Cal.App.4th 1612, this decision holds that the City is vicariously liable under respondeat superior for the negligence of one of its police officers in fail to secure a Police Department-approved, secondary firearm upon returning home from work.  The policeman left the gun, unlocked, in his car when he returned… Read More

Lab Code 925 prohibits employment contracts from containing provisions requiring an employee to litigate or arbitrate a claim in another state if the claim arises in California or depriving the employee of the substantive protection of California law in a suit arising in California.  A provision that violates the section is voidable by the employee, after which the matter shall… Read More

An employee did not agree to the employer's arbitration policy that was stated only in an employee handbook which the employee acknowledged receiving but did not sign anything agreeing to the employer's policies, particularly as the acknowledgement of receipt of the handbook didn't reference arbitration and the handbook itself said it was not an agreement.  The fact that the handbook… Read More

By failing to raise, in its opening memo on the motion to compel arbitration, the fact that the arbitration agreement contained a delegation clause that provided for the arbitrator to decide arbitrability issues, the defendant waived its right to rely on the delegation clause, and the court properly decided the arbitrability issues.  Waiting to raise delegation until the reply memo… Read More

Following Ahlstrom v. DHI Mortgage, Inc. (9th Cir. 2021) 21 F.4th 631, this decision holds that the court must always decide whether the party opposing arbitration entered into the agreement containing the arbitration clause.  That issue cannot be delegated to the arbitrator because the delegation clause itself is invalid if the opposing party didn't enter into the agreement containing it. Read More

The FCRA (15 U.S.C. 1681g does not require the CRA to disclose to a consumer on request information that the CRA collects on a consumer but would not place in a consumer credit report given to an actual or potential creditor, nor soft credit inquiries that, likewise are not reported in credit reports, nor information derived from the consumer's file… Read More

As the party invoking federal judicial power, the removing defendant bears the burden of establishing the facts necessary to support Article III standing (with the manner and degree of evidence appropriate to the stage of litigation--which on a motion for remand means taking alleged facts to be true).  Here, Experian established plaintiffs' standing.  They alleged that Experian had violated 15… Read More

Under 17 USC 411(b), a certificate of registration of a copyright is effective and satisfies the registration-before-suit requirement of 411(a) even if the certificate contains inaccurate information unless the applicant submitted the information with knowledge it was inaccurate and Register of Copyrights would have refused registration had it known of the inaccuracy.  Reversing the Ninth Circuit (Gold Value Int'l Textile,… Read More

If a trust provides a procedure or method for amending the trust, whether phrased as exclusive or optional, any amendment must conform to that procedure or method; otherwise it is invalid.  Prob. Code 15402’s “qualification ‘[u]nless the trust instrument provides otherwise’ indicates that if any modification method is specified in the trust, that method must be used to amend the… Read More

A school does not owe a student a duty to indemnify the student for attorney fees the student incurred in defending a suit by a football referee who claimed he was injured during a school-sponsored football game by plaintiff's post-play tackle of an opposing player who fell on the referee.  Neither the free school provision of the California Constitution nor… Read More

Sanctions may not be awarded under CCP 128.7 unless the party to be sanctioned has been given a full 21 days in which to withdraw the offending pleading.  The 21 days are calculated by omitting the day on which notice of the proposed sanctions motion is served and including the last day.  So the earliest the sanctions motion can be… Read More

Under Civ. Code 3333.2(c)(2), noneconomic damages in a medical malpractice case are limited to $250,000 unless the defendant provided services that exceeded "the scope of services for which the provider is licensed and which are not within any restriction imposed by the licensing agency or licensed hospital."  This decision holds that section 3333.2 applies to a physician's assistant who has… Read More

CCP 902 allows an appeal only by a party "aggrieved" by the appealed order or judgment.  Here, the watermaster appointed by the court to administer its judgment allocating water rights among claimants to the same river was not aggrieved and therefore lacked standing to appeal from a trial court order which interpreted the 60-year-old judgment allocating water rights among the… Read More

The district court abused its discretion in excluding the testimony of plaintiff's fire investigator expert witness.  Defendant conceded that the expert was qualified and used generally accepted methodology.  The district court improperly found there was too big a gap between the facts on which the expert based his opinion and the conclusions he drew from those facts.  The district court… Read More