Summary Judgment

Plaintiff obtained an arbitration award against Adamstos which it sought to collect from Vigorous and Blue Wall as successor corporations or alter egos of Vigorous.  Since the claim arose in admiralty, the court applied federal common law.  Summary judgment was affirmed.  Plaintiff failed to allege that Vigorous or Blue Wall received a transfer of all or substantially all Vigorous' assets… Read More

In a transactional legal malpractice case arising from the defendant lawyer's advising plaintiff to enter into two marketing contracts that conflicted with each other, the plaintiff had to show only that the lawyer's negligent advice was a substantial factor in causing her loss.  This she did at least sufficiently to overcome summary judgment by showing that she was considering not… Read More

Questions of fact about when Greenberg's partner stopped working for plaintiff precluded summary judgment in Greenberg's favor on statute of limitations grounds. Read More

The trial court abused its discretion in excluding an expert's opinion as to lost profits in ruling on a summary judgment motion.  While most of his opinion was speculative, one part dealt with lost profits using a before-and-after method based on 16 months of actual profits earned before the allegedly harmful event.  The before-and-after method is an approved way to… Read More

Having secured a default judgment against the contractor that build a retaining wall on adjacent property which collapsed damaging plaintiff's property, plaintiff sued the contractor's general liability insurer.  This decision holds that the trial court erred in entering summary judgment in the insurer's favor.  The insurance policy was an occurrence policy.  With a continuing loss, coverage attaches when the damage… Read More

The Ninth Circuit applies the abuse of discretion standard of review to review a summary judgment in a trademark infringement case if the summary judgment is granted on equitable grounds such as unclean hands, laches or acquiescence. Read More

Summary judgment was properly entered against plaintiff on his FEHA retaliation claims.  The employer introduced evidence showing it promptly investigated plaintiff's complaint about his supervisor's discriminatory conduct and moved plaintiff to a different part of the company under a different supervisor.  When plaintiff was later fired, it was for poor performance, as determined by three supervisory employees who were unaware… Read More

Summary judgment was properly granted the employer on plaintiff's California Family Rights Act claims.  Plaintiff introduced no evidence that he had requested medical leave.  Instead, when he complained about suffering migraine headaches, and the employer asked who could replace plaintiff in supervising his staff, plaintiff said medication would cure the headache in a few hours.  The employer also produced unrebutted… 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