California Appellate Tracker

(Overruling two prior 9th Circuit decisions, this en banc opinion holds that the federal False Claims Act's first-to-file rule (31 USC 3730(b)(5)) is not jurisdictional.  "Jurisdiction" is not a word used in that portion of the statute although it is used in connection with some of the statute's other limitations on false claims actions.) Read More

(Joining the chorus of decisions criticizing and departing from Felisilda v. FCA US LLC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486, review granted, this decision holds that the car manufacturer and authorized repair center are not third party beneficiaries of the arbitration clause in the auto dealer's conditional sale contract with the plaintiff car buyer.  Hence, the trial court erred in compelling arbitration… Read More

Uber was not liable for car accident by an Uber driver who had turned his Uber driver app to “offline”—meaning he was not available to receive requests for rides—about four minutes before the accident and more than a mile away from the location of the accident. Read More

(In this case, son held a durable power of attorney (DPOA) from mother, while daughter held a power of attorney for health care (health care POA).  Following Harrod v. Country Oaks Partners, LLC (2024) 15 Cal.5th 939, the decision reverses the trial court's ruling that only the daughter had authority to sign arbitration agreement for mother when she was put… Read More

Defendant did not incur the sanction under CCP 1287.97 and 1287.98 for failing to pay its share of arbitration fees within 30 days of the arbitrator's invoice.  Here, plaintiff's attorney mistakenly paid the entire initial invoice issued by the arbitrator within 30 days.  After refunding the defendant's half of the arbitration fees to plaintiff, the arbitrator issued another invoice for… Read More

(The common interest privilege protected a hospital's communications internally, with other hospitals, and potential employers about a physician it suspected of unsafe surgical procedures.  The absolute litigation privilege protected the hospital's communications with the state medical board about the suspension of the physician's surgery privileges at the hospital.) Read More

(An appeal from a domestic violence prevention order is not rendered moot by the expiration of the order because under Family Law 3044, for five years after entry of the order, it is presumed that the defendant found to have committed the domestic violence is not a proper person to be given custody of a child.  The trial court in… Read More

This opinion clarifies the distinction between Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (1993) 508 U.S. 49 and USS-POSCO Industries v. Contra Costa Cnty. Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council (9th Cir. 1994) 31 F.3d 800 in the application of the sham exception to the Noerr-Pennington doctrine.  Prof. Real Estate applies when the defendant has commenced only one… Read More

This decision finds that a successor judge did not abuse his discretion in granting summary judgment on a ground that the predecessor judge had rejected.  When the prior judge's ruling is overturned because it is clearly wrong, the successor judge must state in his order the reasons for finding the prior order clearly erroneous and why the interests of justice… Read More

This decision reverses a summary judgment for Google in a class action claiming that Google improperly used browsing history and other personal data when Google's privacy policy and disclosures to its users could be understood by a reasonable user to mean that Google would use that data only if the user subscribed to Google's "sync" product.  The district court improperly… Read More

In a class action brought under New York General Business Law 349, this decision affirms most of a judgment for the plaintiff class.  Even though the defendant had industry-paid studies showing that its product did, as the label said, reduce joint pain for those suffering osteoarthritis by keeping the cartilage "lubricated and flexible," plaintiff's independently funded studies showed that defendant's… Read More

Tesla was sued in a class action for racial discrimination and harassment of its Afro-American employees.  In addition to conducting discovery in the class action, several class members demanded pursuant to a Labor Code provision that Tesla provide their employment records, including their complaints of racial harassment and any investigations by Tesla of those complaints.  Citing some developments in the… Read More

This decision holds that an insurer can choose the risks it insures.  So long as it does so clearly and unambiguously, the policy terms will be enforced unless they are contrary to statutory law.  California does not recognize any illusory coverage doctrine that would force an insurer to cover risks beyond those stated clearly in the policy.  However, if the… Read More

This decision applies the Birnbaum buyer/seller rule to affirm dismissal of claims of shareholders in an acquiring company based on pre-merger misrepresentations made by the acquired company's executives about the acquired corporation.  In a case of alleged misstatements made in advance of an anticipated merger, purchasers of a security of an acquiring company do not have standing under § 10(b)… Read More

When Congress enacts a statute that first designates the venue in which suit on the statute may be brought and then provides for nationwide service of process, as it did in the Clayton Act and the Commodity Exchange Act, the statute is interpreted to permit exercise of personal jurisdiction over the defendant based on its contacts with the United States… Read More

Daughter of decedent failed to carry her burden of proof under Prob. Code 21622 that the sole reason she was omitted from the decedent’s trust was because the decedent was unaware of her birth.  The trust also omitted four other children that the decedent had had out of wedlock, naming only the two children he had with his wife.  That… Read More

Plaintiff's First Amendment  and associated claims challenging Meta's policy of censoring Facebook posts with what Meta considered inaccurate information about COVID or vaccine safety were properly dismissed because plaintiff could not establish that Meta was a government actor.  Meta didn't enforce a state-imposed rule restricting speech, but had its own policy for censoring Facebook posts, its own independent incentives to… Read More

Under the Federal Railroad Safety Act, the employer violates the Act's anti-retaliation provision if a discharge of an employee due even “in part” to the employee’s refusal to violate or assist in violating a railroad safety law, rule, or regulation.  Hence, the employer is not entitled to summary judgment on such a claim simply by proving it had good cause… Read More

To state a reverse False Claims Act claim, the plaintiff must allege that the defendant owed the United States an obligation to pay but submitted a false statement or record to improperly pay less than is rightfully owed.  Here, the defendant applied for B-1 employment visas that cost less than the petition-based visas for which defendants allegedly should have applied. … Read More

While a property division by a marital settlement agreement between divorcing spouses may be challenged as a fraudulent or voidable transfer, a property division entered by contested court order in a marital dissolution may not be.  If marital property is divided by contested order, Family Code 916 applies, absolving each spouse of liabilities incurred by the other spouse before or… Read More