California Appellate Tracker

This decision dismisses as moot a suit that a taxpayer brought seeking to enjoin a program for granting emergency aid to undocumented aliens in California during the COVID pandemic.  The program proceeded while the case was pending.  All the program's money was spent.  There is no way to get the money back and no realistic threat that the program will… Read More

This suit by one drug company against its competitor for the latter's attempts to derail FDA approval of the plaintiff's drug gave rise to an Anti-SLAPP motion.  The decision holds that the defendant's citizen's petition with the FDA seeking to prevent FDA approval of plaintiff's drug was protected activity under CCP 425.16(e) and that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine shielded defendant from… Read More

Under Gov. Code 44808, a school district is immune from liability for injuries students suffer while not on school property, except if the district has undertaken to transport the student to and from school or has undertaken a school-sponsored activity off premises.  Here, due to bullying by other students during the school year, which the district allegedly took insufficient steps… Read More

A district court may decline jurisdiction over an action that seeks only declaratory relief, so long as the district court properly considers the factors listed in Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co. (1942) 316 U.S. 491 and Government Employees Ins. Co. v. Dizol (9th Cir. 1998) 133 F.3d 1220.  However, the district court cannot decline jurisdiction if the declaratory relief claim… Read More

The automatic stay on appeal under CCP 916 applies only to civil actions, not special proceedings.  A proceeding under the Sister State Money Judgments Act (CCP 1710.10 et seq.) is a special proceeding because it is commenced simply by filing the sister state judgment with a California court, not by filing a complaint.  Accordingly, CCP 916 does not apply to… Read More

Under the outside reverse alter ego doctrine, a trial court may amend a judgment against an individual to also name a corporation or LLC which is the judgment debtor's alter ego.  This decision holds that the trial court did not err in applying that doctrine to add an LLC defendant to a sister state judgment against Schaefer after the judgment… Read More

This decision affirms a summary judgment for the employer in a FEHA disability discrimination case.  The employer met its McDonnell Douglas burden of proving a nondiscriminatory reason for terminating the plaintiff; namely, her chronic absenteeism and failure to document dispensing of prescription medicine properly.  Plaintiff didn't produce any evidence showing the employer's reason was pretextual.  Though the employer had misclassified… Read More

Indian tribes and their business entities are entitled to tribal immunity from suit in state court.  However, the tribe's officers and employees may not invoke tribal immunity if the suit seeks to recover damages or other relief from them individually.  Tribal judges, however, are entitled to common law judicial immunity from suit for actions taken in their official role as… Read More

The district court erred in dismissing plaintiff's sex discrimination/hostile working environment claim.  The employer failed to take immediate corrective action when a customer at the nail salon sexually propositioned plaintiff, a male pedicurist.  Instead of doing so, the employer sent plaintiff back to complete the pedicure of the offending customer.  Also, the later remarks by fellow workers about the incident… Read More

Under Civ. Code 3360 and applicable California decisions, a plaintiff who proves that defendant breached a contract is entitled to an award of nominal damages even if the plaintiff is unable to prove actual damages caused by the breach.  (Sweet v. Johnson (1959) 169 Cal.App.2d 630, 632.)  Two 9th Circuit opinions stating that breach of contract claims are not actionable… Read More

The district court erred in dismissing the plaintiff police officers' defamation complaint against a city council member for her telling a crowd that that a fatal shooting by the police constituted “a blatant murder at the hands of the police,” and calling for the Seattle Police Department to be held accountable “for their . . . individual actions.”  It was… Read More

A governmental entity is liable for a dangerous condition of its property only if it has actual or constructive notice of the condition and doesn't fix it.  The entity has constructive notice of a dangerous condition only if (1) the dangerous condition existed for a sufficient period of time before the plaintiff’s injury, and (2) it was sufficiently obvious that… Read More

Plaintiff recovered a $115,000 jury verdict after having rejected defendant's $200,000 998 offer.  This decision holds that the defendant's post-offer costs awarded by the trial court under CCP 998 must be subtracted from the $115,000 jury verdict before computing the amount of the judgment payable to the workers' comp. lienor under Lab. Code 3856.  Since the post-offer costs exceeded $115,000,… Read More

Defendant's $200,000 998 offer was clear, not ambiguous, and was enforceable when plaintiff recovered less than $200,000--even though the offer did not refer to the workers’ compensation lien and state whether settlement proceeds could be used to recoup the lien.  Absence of a reference to the workers' comp. lien didn't render the offer uncertain or invalid.  A party making a… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff a new trial on the ground of jury misconduct.  During deliberations one juror said that they were not to consider insurance, a worker's comp. lien was insurance, and since workers comp. had already paid for the plaintiff's medical treatment, the jury shouldn't award damages for those medical expenses.  The… Read More

Under the Knox-Keene Act, health care plans must reimburse out-of-contract hospital for emergency services provided to plan members at the reasonable and customary value for those services (in the absence of a contract setting another rate).  A hospital may sue a health plan in quantum meruit if if thinks the health plan has paid less than the reasonable and customary… Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the longshoremen's union permissive intervention in this multi-sided litigation over an environmental impact report for the China Terminal which handles 17% of the cargo at the Port of Los Angeles.  In ruling on a motion for permissive intervention, a court considers four factors:  1. whether the intervener has followed proper… Read More

This decision reverses a summary judgment in a disability discrimination case under FEHA.  Plaintiff presented sufficient evidence to support a prima facie case that he could perform the essential duties of a job with or without accommodation and that he was treated differently from other employees because of his disability. Defendant's showing of a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for plaintiff's discharge… Read More

In this attorney malpractice case, the trial court properly ruled against plaintiff on the case-within-a-case, establishing that the underlying insurance claim had no merit, so the attorney's negligence in not filing suit in a timely manner did not cause plaintiff's loss.  The insurance claim arose under a contractor's CGL policy, and the policy's own work exclusion clearly barred insurance coverage… Read More

CCP 340.5's one-year statute of limitations, not the general two-year limitations period for personal injuries applied to this action by an emergency room patient who was injured when she collapsed on the way back from the bathroom.  The emergency room nursing staff made a medical decision that the patient did not need to be accompanied to and from the restroom. … Read More