A judgment lien on the judgment debtor's property expires when the underlying judgment expires, 10 years after entry unless renewed. Here, the judgment creditor with a first priority to proceeds of a partition action brought by creditors to satisfy the liens on the judgment debtor's property failed to renew its judgment, allowing it to expire in the midst of the… Read More
A party cannot acquire good title by adverse possession against the beneficiary of a deed of trust that was recorded on the property before the alleged adverse possession began. This is for third reasons. First, the beneficiary has no right to possession of the property until after foreclosure on the deed of trust. Since the beneficiary cannot oust the alleged… Read More
The trial court erred in granting relief from a default judgment under CCP 473's attorney fault provision. That provision permits relief only when the attorney error causes the client's default to be entered, not when, as in this case, the error occurs after entry of default and before entry of a default judgment. This is true even in a quiet… Read More
Term of 998 offer requiring plaintiff to indemnify defendant against claims by third parties on the same allegations as the complaint rendered the 998 offer ineffective to shift costs after defendant was dismissed from the action. Though it was understandable that defendant wanted preclude wrongful death claims by heirs of the plaintiff who claimed defendant was liable for his mesothelium… Read More
California's requirement that charitable organizations disclose to the attorney general Schedule B to their Form 990 filing with the IRS--a schedule that lists the organization's major donors--violates the First Amendment. The disclosure causes a major intrusion on the donor's First Amendment right to freedom of association and is not justified by the public interest in preventing fraud or other wrongs… Read More
In a case involving a retaliatory firing of a deputy fire marshal, the appellate court affirms the judgment finding the defendant city liable, but reverses the award of $2 million for past noneconomic damages and $1.5 million in future noneconomic damages as excessive given the slight evidence of emotional distress, the fact that plaintiff found other employment, the fact that… Read More
An employee who had complained about his supervisor, was terminated and then claimed retaliation for his whistleblowing was not required to exhuast his administrative remedies before the employer's human relations commission because the commission's decision would have been subject to review and change by the supervisor in consultation with the mayor. To have the personally involved supervisor (who had been… Read More
Following E.J. Franks Construction, Inc. v. Sahota (2014) 226 Cal.App.4th 1123, this decision holds that Bus. & Prof. Code 7031 does not preclude a contractor's recovery of compensation where at all times during the performance of work under the construction contract, the contractor's corporation was duly licensed--even though when the contractor entered into the contract and when he assigned it… Read More
The nature of the right sued upon and not the form of action nor the relief demanded determines the applicability of the statute of limitations. So, in this case where plaintiff alleged that the seller's disclosures regarding real property sold to plaintiff were inaccurate or incomplete, the action was governed by the 3-year limitations period for fraud even though the… Read More
The trial court properly granted summary judgment to defendant in this invasion of privacy suit which alleged that the defendant neighbor invaded plaintiff's privacy by audio and video recordings made by defendant's security cameras and recorders of goings on in plaintiff's backyard. The opinion states that defendant had a legitimate need for the security equipment as she was a media… Read More
This decision affirms a judgment holding that Certified Tire's method of compensating its technicians did not violate California's wage & hour laws. The compensation formula gave each technician a base salary rate that was above the minimum wage but allowed the technician to increase his hourly rate by performing more production work that customers paid for during the work week. … Read More
Under Corp. Code 185 and 1601, a shareholder of record may demand the right to inspect certain corporate records. This decision holds that the beneficial owner of shares held in street name (i.e., in the name of the beneficial owner's broker) is not a shareholder of record and thus is not entitled to inspect corporate records. Read More
The trial court properly denied defendant's motion to vacate the arbitration award on the ground of manifest disregard of the law. The arbitrator properly reconsidered his initial award and reentered an award based on other grounds after defendant's criminal conviction for fraud was vacated for retrial. The arbitrator properly drew negative inferences from defendant's invoking the Fifth Amendment in response… Read More
Though the filming and exhibition of a public television reality show regarding persons aspiring to be models was entitled to protection under the Anti-SLAPP statute (CCP 425.16(e)), the plaintiff, a real, well-known model, presented enough evidence to show a probability of success on her claims for invasion of privacy, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and misappropriation of her… Read More
This decision refuses to overrule the assignor estoppel doctrine which prevents the assignor of a patent from challenging the patent's validity if doing so would contradict the assignor's express or implied warranty that the patent was good at the time the assignor sold it. However, the estoppel does not apply when the assignment is made before a patent application is… Read More
Buyers of VW's corporate bonds could not rely on the Affiliated Ute presumption of reliance on VW's non-disclosure of its diesel engines' pollution testing defeat devices because their complaint was not based solely or primarily on that omission, but instead also included allegations of multiple affirmative misrepresentations about environmental compliance and financial liabilities in its offering documents. Thus, the case… Read More
Distinguishing In re Pecan Groves of America (9th Cir. 1991) 951 F.2d 242, this decision holds that a creditor with a security interest in the debtor's real property has standing to quiet title to the property based on the fact that the homeowners association foreclosed on the property while the automatic stay was in effect on the debtor's bankruptcy. Under… Read More
Employer sued the union and its workers for RICO violations, claiming that the workers and the union had conspired to fraudulently furnish timesheets reporting hours that were not actually worked, causing employer to overpay the workers by $5.3 million. Over a strong dissent, this opinion holds that the suit is preempted by section 301 of the LMRA because the collective… Read More
The tenant served his summary judgment motion one day late in this UD action, six days before the hearing rather than the required seven for service by express mail. Nevertheless, the the judgment is affirmed. Plaintiff filed an opposition. Though complaining about the short service, it did not claim any prejudice. Also, there was no record of oral proceedings at… Read More
Each class member must establish Article III standing in order to recover relief in a case in federal court. Here, TransUnion included incorrect OFAC terrorist information in its credit files on 8,000 class members but issued credit reports to third parties with the incorrect OFAC information only as to 1,600 of the class members. This decision holds that only the… Read More
