Probate Code 859 provides for an award of double damages if the court finds that the defendant son has in bad faith wrongfully taken . . . property belonging to a . . . dependent adult, . . . or has taken . . . the property by the use of undue influence in bad faith or through the commission… Read More
The trial court erred in failing to award the plaintiff the value of home health care and other household services provided to plaintiff’s decedent before his death by several of his children, as well as the value of nursing services that the decedent would have rendered to his wife had he not been injured by the defendant. Read More
PG&E was entitled to summary judgment on claim for punitive damages filed by victims of the 2015 Butte Fire since there was no evidence of malice. Read More
Noncompliance with a court order to disclose financial condition precludes a defendant from challenging the sufficiency of the evidence of a punitive damages award on appeal. Read More
The trial court erred in awarding damages in the amount of the difference between the amount of commission the parties sought in a separate suit against a third party and the amount for which they settled that suit, since the outcome of the lawsuit if prosecuted to completion was merely a matter of speculation. Read More
To support an award of damages for lost earning capacity, plaintiff must introduce evidence showing the career it is reasonably probable plaintiff would have pursued but for the tortious injury and the amount plaintiff would have earned in that career. Read More
In an insurance bad faith action, Brandt legal fees that the insured incurs in his successful effort to obtain insurance benefits are actual damages which must be included with other actual damages in computing the actual to punitive ratio, even if the parties stipulate to having the trial judge set Brandt fees after the jury has awarded both other actual… Read More
