California Appellate Tracker

Judgment may not be entered against someone who has not been made a party to the suit even if that person funded the litigation.  See Moore v. Kaufman (2010) 189 Cal.App.4th 604. Read More

Gov. Code 835, which imposes liability on governmental entities for dangerous conditions of their property, does not impose liability for injury that may be caused by conditions of the property to someone who never came in contact with it.  Here, plaintiff claimed that the unsanitary conditions of a downtown police station caused Wong, a policeman, to catch typhus.  Plaintiff, who… Read More

For purposes of unemployment insurance, the test set forth in G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341 governs the determination whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, not the more employee-friendly ABC test of Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903.  Nevertheless, in this case, substantial… Read More

Under Probate Code 6100.5(a)(2), a person lacks testamentary capacity if at the time of making a will or trust, he or she suffers from a mental health disorder with symptoms including delusions or hallucinations, and those delusions or hallucinations lead the person to make a disposition of property he or she otherwise would not have made.  Here, the court affirms… Read More

An insurer may be liable in bad faith if it fails to settle within policy limits when given the opportunity to do so.  This decision holds that to pursue a bad faith claim on that basis, it is not necessary for the insured to show that the claimant actually make a demand for settlement at or under policy limits.  Following… Read More

Ins. Code 12414.26 does not immunize a title insurer from liability with respect to rates it has not filed with the Insurance Commissioner.  The section provides:  “No act done, action taken, or agreement made pursuant to the authority conferred by Article 5.5 [dealing with rate filing and regulation] . . . of this chapter shall constitute a violation of or… Read More

This decision affirms the trial court's reduction of punitive damages to a 2:1 ratio to actual damages in a disability employment discrimination case.  The employer's conduct was reprehensible, although not grossly so.  The large award of emotional distress damages already contained a punitive element, and particularly when combined with the 2:1 punitive damage award and with the large attorney fee… Read More

The first trial of this case resulted in a jury verdict for defendant on all seven of plaintiff's claims.  The trial court granted plaintiff a new trial on three of her claims.  The second trial resulted in a verdict for plaintiff on all three of those claims.  This decision holds that the jury verdicts on the four claims that were… Read More

Daughter owed a duty of care to in-home healthcare aides she hired to assist her two elderly parents to warn the aides that there were loaded firearms on the premises.  It is foreseeable that a worker in the home would be injured by a loaded weapon, and public policy favored imposing a duty on the daughter who knew of the… Read More

Under the Rest.2d Conflicts of Law's most significant relationship test, the law of the state of incorporation governs a directors and officers liability policy rather than the law of the state where the corporate headquarters are located.  The state of incorporation's law governs the directors' and officers' duties to the corporation, so it is logical that the same state's law… Read More

Under San Francisco's rent control ordinance, a “landlord” to evict renters from a unit to make the unit available for a close relative of the landlord.  The ordinance defines "landlord" for this purpose as a natural person.  Here, the property was held in the name of a revocable living trust, not a natural person.  However, the decision holds that the… Read More

To prove a prima facie case under the  Equal Pay Act (29 USC 206(d)), the plaintiff need only show that men were paid more for substantially equal work. In making that comparison it is the overall job, not its individual segmnents that is to be considered. Here, the male professors of psychology were paid more than plaintiff for essentially the… Read More

Probate Code 2640.1 allows a trial court to award attorney fees against the estate of the conservatee and in favor of the person who petitioned for appointment of a conservator if the court appoints a conservator different from the one the petitioner requested.  Here, however, the conservatorship petition was dismissed in a settlement before any conservator was appointed.  In that… Read More

With the exception of one claim, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying class certification in this wage and hour case.  Plaintiffs claimed that the employer misclassified them as independent contractors.  While the proper classification of the workers was a common question, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the common issue did… Read More

A doctor's whistleblower retaliation suit was dismissed as premature where the only adverse action taken against the doctor was the medical committee's recommendation that he be disciplined.  The medical committee is a body independent of the hospital.  Until the hospital takes some adverse action against him, the doctor has no accrued claim on which to sue. Read More

Under CCP 708.410, a judgment creditor may obtain a lien on the judgment debtor's right to obtain any money under a judgment, order or decree in any other action in which the judgment debtor is a party.  This decision holds that the lien under sectin 708.410 attaches to money owed the judgment debtor under an order requiring the other party… Read More

Even if interpretation of an administrative regulation does not depend on special expertise and technical knowledge, the agency's interpretation of its own regulation may be entitled to judicial deference because the agency is likely to be familiar with the policy it promotes and sensitive to the practical implications of the competing interpretations.  Here, the university was entitled to deference in… Read More

When an attorney sues a client for attorney fees under an express or implied in fact contract for non-contingent fees that satisfies the requirements of Bus. & Prof. Code 6148, the attorney is entitled to the agreed fees even if they exceed a "reasonable fee" set by the lodestar plus multiplier method--so long as the fees and fee agreement are… Read More

In a construction dispute that originally was over $22,096, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in awarding plaintiff only $90,000 in attorney fees out of the $292,140 requested.  The case was relatively simple, ultimately turning on the contractor's lack of a license and proper insurance.  It involved only money, so it was reasonable to compare fees against recovery… Read More

Before 2011, one person owned both of two adjoining lots.  Tenants on one of the lots used portions of the adjoining lot for access, parking, and garbage removal, and as a garden.  After 2011, different lenders foreclosed on the two lots, separating their ownership.  Plaintiff bought one of the lots and sued to keep the tenants of the other lot… Read More