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Jury verdict for defendant on strict liability/duty to warn was fatally inconsistent with verdict against defendant on negligent failure to warn, requiring retrial of suit by a plaintiff who contracted a rare skin disease from taking ibuprofen.  Read More

Senior citizen who held controlling interest in corporate borrower could not state elder abuse claim against lender that foreclosed on borrower; the senior citizen suffered only derivative harm; any damage claim belonged solely to the corporate borrower.  Read More

An elderly couple stated an elder abuse claim against an insurance agency that schemed to gut their whole life insurance policies and replace them with a less desirable policy, all for the purpose of earning a larger commission.  Read More

Defendant hospital was entitled to summary judgment after plaintiff’s expert declaration stated only that husband "could have survived" had defendant treated him in accord with the standard of care—but stopped short of saying that survival was more likely than not but for the hospital’s acts, which is the standard for showing causation in a medical malpractice wrongful death action.   Read More

Proof of an employer's own wrongdoing is needed to impose punitive damages on the employer for an employee’s torts, even if as a separate matter it is vicariously liable for those torts.  Read More

A person who is arrested, but not ultimately prosecuted, may not maintain an action for malicious prosecution against the witness whose complaint prompted the arrest.  Read More

A federal False Claims Act suit was properly dismissed because the suit was based on facts publicly disclosed in a prior suit and the plaintiff was not the original source of that information, but learned it only as a party to the prior suit.  Read More

Governmental immunity from liability for injuries on recreational trails does not shield a city from liability for injury from errant golf balls hit from an adjoining commercial golf course on city property. Read More

Plaintiff, who was held involuntarily for 72 hours for a mental health evaluation, could not sue hospital and officers who had probable cause to detain her, due to their qualified immunity. Read More

The psychotherapist-patient privilege may not be raised in opposition to producing patient records in a Medical Board investigation, but to protect the patient’s privacy rights the subpoena must be carefully tailored to request only records that are relevant and material to a compelling state interest, such as avoiding over-prescription of controlled substances. Read More

Defendant city was not barred from imposing a lien on plaintiff’s property to pay for the cost of abating nuisance caused by absentee landowner plaintiff’s failure to maintain the yard. Read More

Resolution of the underlying lawsuit (here by a settlement) does not automatically moot an appeal by a person who unsuccessfully sought to intervene in the action, so long as effective relief may still potentially be awarded the would-be intervenor. Read More

To reduce a damage award in a medical malpractice case, the defendant may introduce evidence of collateral source payments to plaintiff for medical care including Obamacare and private medical insurance benefits that has already received or likely will receive in the future. Read More

A creditor seeking to void a transfer under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act loses if the transferee proves that it gave reasonably equivalent value for the transfer and lacked fraudulent intent and actual, not constructive, knowledge of the transferor’s fraudulent intent.  Read More

Under Government Code 850.4, a governmental entity was immune from liability for injuries the firefighter-plaintiff incurred when a truck ran over her while she was sleeping in a temporary firefighting base camp, as the injuries resulted from the condition of firefighting facilities.  Read More

Plaintiff cannot sue the United States for negligent injuries suffered in a foreign country, and plaintiff suffered her injury in Spain when she was prematurely born with brain damage, not in the United States where she was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.  Read More

To state a conversion claim, a plaintiff need only allege ownership or the right to possession of the converted property, not both ownership and right to possession.  Read More

Genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether construction employer’s yard amounted to a worksite, such that the employer could claim exemption based on the going and coming rule from liability for injuries caused by employee on his way from home to the yard.  Read More

Because a county charged admission for entry into a campground located inside a county-owned park, and PG&E maintained a power line to the campground’s bathroom, PG&E could not claim immunity for injuries suffered by the public in connection with the bathroom—even though PG&E received no portion of the campground fee.  Read More

Employer’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly granted in response to terminated CEO’s defamation claim, since the allegedly defamatory press release stated only that a third party investigation of allegations against the CEO had been undertaken and that he was terminated as a result of that investigation.  Read More

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