Civil Procedure

At trial, the court must give a party it has granted in forma pauperis status a free court reporter or other means of obtaining a verbatim transcript. Read More

Claims for prenatal injuries to a baby caused by the mother’s exposure to toxic chemicals are governed by the two-year statute of limitations for personal injuries from exposure to toxic chemicals, which includes tolling provisions for minors and for delayed discovery. Read More

A statute cannot be proactively invalidated on the ground that compliance with it is impossible, although noncompliance can be excused on impossibility grounds. Read More

The creditor of a father could not sue son to collect supposedly fraudulent transfer of money in the form of tuition payments that father made to cover son’s university education. Read More

When an appeals court affirms a trial court’s ruling on only one ground, that is only the ground that can be given claim preclusive or issue preclusive effect in subsequent litigation.  Read More

A court may not sanction a party for filing an improper reconsideration motion without first giving the party 21-days notice and opportunity to withdraw the offending motion. Read More

Individual plaintiff-voter lacks standing to challenge statewide voting inequalities involving districts other than his own. Read More

A suit challenging the non-waivable $150 jury fee in civil cases should have been filed against the Judicial Council, not the State of California. Read More

When the government sues for civil penalties under a statutory cause of action, the defendant is entitled to a jury trial on the issue of liability but not the amount of any resulting civil penalty. Read More

FRCP 44.1 permits federal courts to determine the meaning of a foreign country’s law, and in doing so, the court should accord respectful consideration to a foreign government’s submission regarding the meaning of its own law; but the court is not ultimately bound by that submission. Read More

American Pipe tolling during the pendency of an initial class action does not toll the statute of limitations for a follow-on class action, but only for individual suits by members of the putative class in the initial class action. Read More

Demurrer sustained on grounds of misjoinder was reversed and remanded after one of two misjoined plaintiffs settled out while the case was on appeal, thereby resolving the misjoinder. Read More

A premature post-trial motion (in this case, a Rule 59 motion to alter or amend the judgment) neither shortens nor extends the time for appeal. Read More

By moving to have the judge decide an equitable claim, plaintiff waived error in an allegedly premature mistrial based on a hung jury. Read More

Mail service on a Chinese defendant was ineffective, even though it had agreed to such service because China has opted out of the Hague Convention’s article allowing service by mail. Read More

This California case is at the intersection of interpleader and foreclosure litigation. A foreclosure trustee interpleaded surplus funds following a foreclosure sale that was challenged by the borrower in a wrongful foreclosure action.  It shouldn’t have.  An interpleader lies only where the holder of third-party funds may face multiple liabilities, but Civil Code section 2924k sets forth exactly how surplus… Read More

Interpleader cross-complaint filed by the trustee of a deed of trust was correctly dismissed because there was no question that surplus proceeds from a foreclosure sale belonged to the trustor, notwithstanding the trustor’s ongoing wrongful foreclosure lawsuit. Read More

A settlement agreement and judgment dismissing a prior class action wage & hour suit bars plaintiff's follow-on complaint for nonpayment of reporting time pay during the period covered by the prior litigation, since the agreement’s release was broad enough to cover this component of wages even though it didn’t actually come up in the previous suit. Read More

A person adversely affected by a bankruptcy court order has the standing to appeal from the order, even if he did not appear at the hearing or raise an objection before entry of the appealed order. Read More

Plaintiff’s shareholder derivative action against a corporation's executives and auditor in California was properly dismissed on forum non-conveniens grounds since corporation’s by-laws included a forum selection clause in favor of Delaware and auditor had consented to jurisdiction in Delaware. Read More