An organization may have associational standing to sue on behalf of its members when: (1) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (2) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization’s purpose; and (3) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit. When… Read More
A federal court may award sanctions using civil procedures only if the sanctions are compensatory in nature, recompensing the harmed party for harm that was caused by (would not have occurred but for) the sanctioned party's sanctionable conduct. For any sanctions beyond that or having a punitive or deterrent purpose, the court must employ criminal type of procedure with an… Read More
The trial court prejudicially erred in granting plaintiff's in limine motion to exclude defendant from introducing evidence and seeking allocation of fault to two defendants (the State of California and an adjoining landowner) which had settled out of the case before trial. Under Prop. 51, a defndant is entitled to have the jury allocate fault (and thus the share of… Read More
This split decision holds that when the case is in federal court under their federal question jurisdiction, federal common law, rather than the law of the state or foreign country in which the contract was entered into, governs threshold questions of arbitrability, such as whether a nonsignatory to the arbitration agreement may enforce it through equitable estoppel. Under federal common… Read More
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's regulation interpreting 49 U.S.C. § 31141(c) governing preemption of state law relating to commercial motor vehicle safety was entitled to Chevron deference. The regulation reasonably found California's meal and rest breaks statutes preempted by federal law since the state laws required more frequent and longer rest and meal breaks than federal law and with… Read More
On remand from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal decides that the plaintiff hospital cannot prevail on its claim of equitable tolling of the statute of limitations to petition for relief from the state agency's decision against it. The decision clearly stated that it was effective immediately. The state APA sections (Gov. Code 11521 and 11523) clearly provide that… Read More
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting defendant's forum non conveniens motion, but did err in dismissing the action rather than merely staying it. The suit was by residents of China against a California resident regarding alleged misuse of funds donated to the defendant's charitable foundation for his personal benefit. China was an available forum. It was… Read More
Under CCP 340.5, the statute of limitations on a medical malpractice claim expires at the earlier of three years from the date of injury or one year from the date of discovery. Injury from the failure to diagnose a latent, progressive condition occurs “when the undiagnosed condition develops into a more serious condition,” and that more serious condition is made… Read More
The trial court erred in granting defendant summary judgment on the issue of duty of care when defendant moved for summary judgment, and its statement of undisputed facts related, only to the different issue of causation. A court may grant a summary judgment motion on an issue not raised by the moving party, but only if the moving party's statement… Read More
CCP 2019.210 provides that in a trade secret misappropriation case under Civ. Code 3426, before commencing discovery relating to the trade secret, the party alleging the misappropriation shall identify the trade secret with reasonable particularity. This decision holds that the plaintiff cannot wait to raise a new alleged trade secret in opposition to a summary judgment motion directed towards its… Read More
Plaintiff was a licensed solicitor in London and the subject of disciplinary proceedings before the independent regulatory body that governs solicitors and barristers in the UK. He traveled to California and then claimed he was too ill to return to the UK, so an adjournment of the disciplinary proceedings should be continued. Defendant, a doctor, was appointed as a neutral… Read More
In Omstead v. Dell, Inc., 594 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir. 2010), the Ninth Circuit had held that a plaintiff, against whom the district court had entered an order compelling arbitration, could take an appeal from that otherwise unappealable order by dismissing all his claims with prejudice. Now, reviewing that same question in light of Microsoft Corp. v. Baker (2017) 137… Read More
A plaintiff alleging an accounting action must plead a specific dollar amount to support a default judgment awarding monetary relief. The complaint can plead an estimated amount of damage and can err on the high side. The decision does not resolve how the maximum default recovery is to be calculated if the complaint's prayer does not distinctly request award of… Read More
A qui tam complaint under the California False Claims Act must be filed under seal to give the Attorney General an opportunity to investigate the claim to see if she wishes to intervene and take over prosecution of the suit. While the complaint remains sealed at the Attorney General's or a local prosecutor's request, it is impossible, impractical or futile… Read More
"Jurisdiction" is a term with many meanings. As used in Probate Code 17000, jurisdiction does not refer to fundamental jurisdiction of the subject matter, nor to in personal, in rem, or quasi-in-rem jurisdiction. Instead, that section simply provides that probate matters are to be heard in the superior court's probate division rather than its normal civil courts. The section does… Read More
The State of California is the real party in interest in a qui tam action brought by a private party under the Insurance Fraud Protection Act (Ins. Code 1871 et seq.). The state is not bound by an arbitration provision in a contract signed by the private party bringing the qui tam action. Accordingly, arbitration of the qui tam action… Read More
On claims to which Civ. Code 1717 applies (claims on a contract), the statute's definition of "prevailing party" supersedes any definition of that term in the parties' contract. In applying the Hsu v. Abbara (1995) 9 Cal.4th 863 test of prevailing party, the trial court may not consider settlement offers the parties have made either informally or under CCP 998… Read More
In building a house on his own property, defendant severed roots of a large pine tree that was partly on defendant's property and partly on plaintiff's. Following Scholes v. Lambirth Trucking Co. (2020) 8 Cal.5th 1094, this decision holds that plaintiff can recover only single damages for killing the pine tree. The injury to the tree occurred from severing roots… Read More
Adams, a lawyer, switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, and then filed this case challenging the constitutionality of Delaware's constitutional provisions that allow only a bare majority of judges on its top five courts to be of the same political party and require that the remaining judges on the top three courts be of the other major political… Read More
Under the Stored Communications Act (18 USC 2701, 2707) creates a private right of action against a person who intentionally accesses, without authorization, an electronic communication system, thereby obtaining an electronic communication in the system's electronic storage. For this purpose, electronic storage includes storage by the system for the purpose of backup. This decision holds that wife raised triable issues,… Read More
