Civil Code 1566, 1567, and 1570 establish a right to rescission in cases in which a person’s consent to a transaction was obtained by “menace”: threats of confinement, of unlawful violence to the person or his or her property, or of injury to a person’s character. This is effectively the civil version of extortion. So, Tran could state a claim… 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
This decision affirms a $7 million judgment, including $6 million in punitive damages, against an employer for firing plaintiff in violation of Lab. Code 1102.5(c) (which prohibits adverse employment action in retaliation for a refusal to work reasonably perceived to violate a local, state or federal rule or regulation) and 232.5 (which prohibits retaliation for reporting working coinditions). Plaintiff was… Read More
The district court abused its discretion in approving a $1.7 million fee award in a class action copyright infringement case in which class members received only $50,000 in a claims made settlement and no injunctive or other non-monetary relief. While $1.7 million might be an actual assessment of fees by the hours times rate lodestar method, the resulting amount must… Read More
Gov. Code 818 immunizes governmental agencies from liability for damages imposed primarily for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant. This decision holds that section 818 bars a claim for treble damages under CCP 340.1(b) for a childhood sexual assault resulting from the defendant's concerted effort to hide evidence relating to such assaults. Section 340.1 imposes… Read More
In this case, plaintiff obtained a UIM arbitration award for the entire $1 million umbrella policy limit due to emotional distress plaintiff suffered from seeing the underinsured motorist hit her mother who was crossing the street with her. Before the arbitration award, plaintiff made a 998 offer for a penny less than the umbrella policy limits, which the insurer refused. … Read More
Plaintiff wanted to give her cat "a good death." She alleged an actionable fraud claim against the defendant vet for promising to give the cat a painless death, thereby getting plaintiff to agree to an intracardiac injection. Plaintiff suffered damage from her reliance on that representation when her cat suffered a long and painful death instead. Plaintiff also stated a… Read More
Plaintiff mother sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress. She was on the telephone with her daughter while the daughter drove a car at an intersection where her vision of on-coming traffic was obscured by defendants' negligent maintenance of vegetation on adjoining property. That mother heard the crash on the phone was insufficient in itself to allow her to sue. … Read More
Husband's divorce attorney violated the federal Wiretapping Statute (18 USC 2511) when he filed transcripts of conversations between wife and her child which husband had surreptitiously taped on a recorder hidden in the child's backpack. Husband couldn't vicariously consent on the child's behalf to recording the conversations since the child was not in husband's custody at the time of the… Read More
This case denies American Pipe tolling of the statute of limitations on claims for statutory penalties under the Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (Civ. Code 1786.50). The act clearly states that statutory penalties cannot be recovered in a class action, so that affected consumers could not reasonably rely on the pendency of a prior class action to protect their right… Read More
Heirs who filed a medical malpractice wrongful death suit lack standing to challenge the constitutionality of MICRA's limits on noneconomic damages (Civ. Code 3333.2) and attorney fees (B&P Code 6147). Plaintiffs' attorney had not withdrawn or moved to withraw due to the statutory limits on attorney fees. Moreover, there is no constitutional right to an attorney in civil litigation. Plaintiffs… Read More
Under CCP 340.1(b), a plaintiff may obtain treble damages against a person whose cover up is found to be the cause of a sexual assault on a child through a concerted effort to hide evidence relating to childhood sexual assault. This decision holds that the treble damage provision does not apply retroactively. The statute espressly makes the lengthened statute of… Read More
This decision holds that there is a constitutional limit on aggregate statutory damage awards even if the statutory damage per violation passes constitutional muster. An aggregate damage award may exceed due process limits in extreme situations—that is, when they are “wholly disproportioned” and “obviously unreasonable” in relation to the goals of the statute and the conduct the statute prohibits. Constitutional… Read More
In these individual lawsuits arising from VW's emission defeat devices, the district court erred in reducing the juries' punitive damage awards to 4 times actual damages. Reprehensibility here was high--a years-long intentional deceit that defeated the fuel-economy and reduced emissions goals of car buyers. The high reprehensibility plus relatively low actual damages warranted punitive damages of more than 4 to… Read More
This decision reverses a judgment for the employee in a suit for unpaid overtime wages because of a botched special verdict question regarding the employer's affirmative defense that the employee was an exempt executive under Wage Order No. 5. The question asked only if the employee spent more than 50% of her time on exempt duties. The question overemphasized the… Read More
Agreeing with Switzer v. Wood (2019) 35 Cal.App.5th 116, this decision holds that Penal Code 496(c) authorizes an award of treble damages and attorney fees whenever the plaintiff proves any type of theft—whether it be fraud, misrepresentation, conversion, or breach of fiduciary duty—by which the defendant obtains money or property. Read More
This decision reverses a punitive damage award against a supplier of talc to the manufacturer of Old Spice talcum powder. Defendant did not contest the jury's verdicts finding that plaintiff contracted mesothelioma from the asbestos in the talcum powder and that defendant was negligent in failing to detect and warn consumers about its presence in the product. However, there was… Read More
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that neither party prevailed in this action against a subcontractor and its bonding company. The plaintiff city won on liability but was awarded only nominal damages though it had sought $3.4 million. The trial court could properly conclude that the win on damages was not a total victory for the… Read More
An award of punitive damages was excessive where it equaled the full value of the only asset that the defendant was shown to own. It is plaintiff's burden to produce evidence demonstrating the defendant's financial condition--including both assets and liabilities. Here, plaintiff failed to present evidence of liabilities or show that defendant had more than a minimal annual income. Proof… Read More
Under the out-of-pocket loss rule for fraud damages, a purchaser cannot recover the purchase price as consequential damages. However, in applying the out-of-pocket loss rule, the trier of fact is not limited to considering the market value of the product or service on the date it was purchased, but may also consider post-sale evidence that bears on its market value… Read More
