Plaintiff prevailed on a mandate petition challenging his one-year suspension from UC Davis for violating its policies against sexual harassment and assault. The trial court found that the university lacked evidence of sufficiently serious misconduct to support the one-year suspension. This decision holds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in holding that plaintiff was not entitled to… Read More
If the tenant surrenders possession, an unlawful detainer action is converted into a normal civil action. At that point, but not before, the tenant can file a cross-complaint. This decision holds that the tenant does not waive or forfeit cross-claims against the landlord by not pleading them initially in response to the unlawful detainer complaint or by surrendering possession before… Read More
Plaintiff recovered less than defendant's 998 offer. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in awarding defendant (a) $12,000 for an expert witness' two days of trial testimony, and (b) $6,000 in court reporter fees for real-time transcription of the trial proceedings. Read More
Defendant denied requests for admission that certain hospital records were authentic and business records. This decision holds that the trial court erred in failing to award plaintiff the cost of proving the records were business records under CCP 2033.420. The trial court erred in denying those costs on the ground that plaintiff did not prove the records were business records… Read More
This decision affirms a prejudgment attachment order. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the parties had not amended a fully integrated written contract which provided that all amendments had to be signed and in writing. Under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (CC 1633.1 et seq.), it is not enough to show that a document was… Read More
After Habelt filed a class action for securities fraud against iRhythm, Miss. Public Retirement System was appointed the class representative pursuant to the PSLRA. The Retirement System's amended complaint was dismissed without leave to amend. The Retirement System did not appeal from the dismissal. The mere fact that Habelt remained a name in the case caption didn't confer standing on… Read More
A civil harassment injunction entered in favor of an attorney for one of a divorcing couple against the attorney for the other spouse was reversed. Insofar as the injunction was based on emails that defendant sent plaintiff about the divorce, the emails didn't threaten violence and so were protected First Amendment speech which could not be considered in support of… Read More
This en banc opinion reverses a summary judgment the district court had granted the University of Arizona in a Title IX sex harassment claim based on a sexual assault by a male student on a football scholarship against a woman student in off-campus housing. To obtain damages under Title IX for student-on-student harassment, a plaintiff must show (1) that the… Read More
A forum selection clause in defendant corporation's Delaware by-laws selecting the Delaware Chancery Court as the forum for any shareholder disputes was unenforceable in California state court because there is no right to a jury trial in Delaware Chancery Court so the forum selection clause operated as a pre-suit waiver of the constitutional right to a jury trial which cannot… Read More
The trial court erred in granting homeowners an injunction against the county Road Commissioner barring the county from enforcing ordinances banning encroachments on a county road leading to a popular public hiking trail. Courts may not enjoin enforcement of the laws, which in this case make encroachments a misdemeanor offense. Contrary to the homeowners' claim, CEQA does not require any… Read More
A party may appeal from denial of its summary judgment motion by stipulating to entry of judgment after and based on the denial of the summary judgment motion and making clear that it is doing so only for the purpose of appealing the denial of summary judgment--because there was no full record developed at trial that could be said to… Read More
Equitable tolling could apply to a plaintiff's pursuit of an action in a foreign court to prevent destruction of evidence needed for proof of plaintiff's substantive claim eventually brought in state court. It is not necesssary for equitable tolling that the prior suit seek substantive relief that lessens the plaintiff's injury or damage. The plaintiff need only show notice to… Read More
A dismissal without prejudice in either state or federal court is not a final judgment given res judicata effect if the dismissal is entered after a demurrer has been sustained or motion to dismiss has been granted with leave to amend and the dismissal is filed within the time allowed for amendment. Read More
A federal court can may compel a witness to appear at a trial if the court is within the same state or within 100 miles of the witness' residence or place of business. FrCP 45. The court may take remote testimony for good cause in compelling circumstances. FRCP 43. But the court cannot compel a witness outside the normal subpoena… Read More
Following prior 9th Circuit precedent, this decision holds that an order denying an Anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss is immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine--unless the order denies the motion because the claim fits within one of CP 425.17's exceptions to the Anti-SLAPP statute--but in concurrences two of the panel's three judges urge the full court to overrule the prior… Read More
The trial court erred in sustaining defendants' demurrer to the class action allegations of the complaint in this case which sought actual and punitive damages for the defendants' misuse of the Ellis Act to evict tenants from rent-controlled units and then to list units in the same building on AirBnB for tenancies of up to three years. The decision holds… Read More
In this action, plaintiff sought a declaration that its use of the trademark "Impossible" in connection with its food products didn't infringe upon defendant's federal trademark of the same word. By a split decision, the 9th Circuit held that California could exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendant, a one-man LLC that for two years operated primarily from San Diego before… Read More
When a plaintiff seeks a preliminary injunction claiming a state statute infringes on plaintiff's constitutional rights, the district court must weigh the plaintiff's probability of success on the merits as well as the existence of irreparable injury and the balance of equities and public interest because the probability of success on the merits heavily influences the evaluation of the other… Read More
Attorneys representing themselves should not be afforded special consideration or the liberal pleading standard allowed other types of pro per litigants, and do not fall into the category of those “proceeding without assistance of counsel" under 9th Circuit rules. Read More
In federal court, FRCivP 41(a)(1)(B) treats the second voluntary dismissal without prejudice of the same claims as a judgment on the merits. However, this decision holds that the federal rule does not give a second dismissal in federal court the force of a judgment on the merits for claim preclusion purposes if the plaintiff files a third suit on the… Read More
