California Appellate Tracker

The district court denied defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss the first amended complaint's defamation claims but granted defendant's motion to dismiss the other claims with leave to amend.  Plaintiff filed a second amended complaint before defendant appealed from the order denying the Anti-SLAPP motion.  This decision holds that the filing of the second amended complaint mooted the appeal from the… Read More

Following Judge v. Nijjar Realty, Inc. (2014) 232 Cal.App.4th 619 and disagreeing with Maplebear, Inc. v. Busick (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th 394, this decision holds that an arbitrator's preliminary injunction order is not an "award" and is not reviewable by a California trial court under CCP 1294, and the trial court's order dismissing a petition to vacate the arbitrator's preliminary injunction… Read More

This decision holds that under Evid. Code 721(b)(3), an expert may be cross-examined by a scientific or professional publication if the publication is established as a reliable authority by the cross-examined expert, another expert or judicial notice.  Such a publication may be used even if the testifying expert did not consult it in preparing his opinion.  Here, the testifying expert… Read More

On remand after a prior appeal decided in plaintiff's favor, the district court granted defendant summary judgment finding that defendant was not negligent or willful in including in its credit report mention of plaintiff's criminal charge that was filed more than 7 years before the credit report but was dismissed less than 7 years before the report.  This decision affirms… Read More

A jury found Ford liable to a purchaser for fraud and a CLRA violation as well as a violation of the Song-Beverly Act for selling plaintiff a Ford pickup with a Navistar engine when Ford knew the Navistar engine created unsolvable problems when put in a Ford truck.  This decision holds that substantial evidence supported the jury's compensatory damage award… Read More

This decision holds that a second plaintiff who had standing to sue when a different plaintiff filed this PAGA claim may be amended in to replace the original plaintiff and relate back to the original plaintiff's PAGA notice to the Division of Labor and Workforce Development--and so include a longer period of alleged Labor Code violations than would be possible… Read More

Plaintiff was injured while jogging across defendant's property while in training to run a marathon.  This case holds that jogging for that purpose is a use of the property for a recreational purpose, and so Civ. Code 846 immunized the owner of the property from liability for plaintiff's injuries. Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding plaintiff's principal officer from the courtroom during the portions of the trial in which the technical details were discussed regarding Yelp's software for filtering out unreliable reviews.  The officer was an experienced programmer who had previously managed to circumvent Yelp's software and might do so again.  Though a party, he… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff's motion to compel Yelp to produce the source code for its software that filters unreliable reviews from its website.  The battling experts disagreed as to the usefulness of the source code in proving whether Yelp's reviews were "trustworthy" as advertised.  Yelp demonstrated that production of the source code would… Read More

A hospital cannot recover more for its emergency care of patients injured in car accidents than the amounts it has agreed with the patients' medical insurers to charge for those services.  Here, the hospital tried to collect more by requiring the patients to sign conditions of admissions that contained assignments of the patients' underinsured motorist coverage and medical benefits coverage… Read More

The Judicial Council's COVID-19 Emergency Rule 10a extended the time for bringing a case to trial by six months (i.e., a total of 5 years and 6 months) for actions filed before April 6, 2020.  This was such an action.  However, plaintiff didn't get it to trial until 5 years and 7 months after the action was filed.  Held, the… Read More

The parties' arbitration provision said that "except for claims seeking injunctive or other equitable relief," the parties agreed to arbitrate any dispute between them.  Plaintiff filed suit including among others claims for specific performance, rescission, and violation of the UCL.  This decision holds that all of those claims are equitable or seek equitable relief and thus are not arbitrable under… Read More

On an earlier appeal, the court held that the indemnity provision that the plaintiff required the defendant to sign in order to apply for approval of its development project was not supported by consideration and that plaintiff had no statutory authority to impose an indemnity agreement as a condition of plaintiff's statutory duty to consider defendant's application.  On this appeal,… Read More

To enforce a judgment by sale of the judgment debtor's dwelling, the creditor must, among other things, obtain a court order directing the sheriff to sell the property.  The application to obtain that court order must state the amount of all liens and encumbrances on the property that are senior to the judgment lien.  This decision holds that the application… Read More

The trial court erred in sustaining defendant's demurrer to this complaint seeking payment for construction work.  The demurrer claimed that the services had been provided by an unlicensed contractor and that B&P Code 7031 therefore barred recovery.  The issue in the case was which of two affiliated corporations had really contracted to and in fact provided the contracting services, the… Read More

Plaintiff purchased a commercial condominium as an investment from defendants under a purchase agreement and at the same time entered into a management agreement under which one of the defendant companies would manage the condominium.  Only the management agreement contained an arbitration clause, and it was narrow, not broad, applying only to disputes arising in connection with the interpretation and… Read More

Under Gov. Code 913(b), a government entity that denies a tort claim must give the claimant a notice saying you have only six months to file suit and suggesting that the claimant seek legal advice immediately.  Here, the defendant agency's denial notice mentioned the six-month deadline but omitted the advice to seek legal advice.  Due to that defect, the notice… Read More

Torts, Medical Malpractice, Abandonment of Patient, Reliance on Other's Good Conduct, 1, 1 The trial court did not err in this medical malpractice case in not giving CACI 509, dealing with a doctor's abandonment of the patient.  For the instruction to be applicable, the doctor must accept the patient into his care and then refuse to treat the patient without… Read More

Although plaintiff prevailed on only one of several claims, it obtained a preliminary and permanent injunction on its claim for breach of a non-competition clause and was the prevailing party entitled to an attorney fee award. Read More

The trial court properly held that Owen's agreement not to solicit former customers was enforceable under B&P Code 16601 since Owen had sold all of his interests in several affiliated businesses to Blue Mountain as the first step in forming a joint venture with a Chinese company.  Even though Owen regained a 50% ultimate beneficial interest in Blue Mountain once… Read More