California Appellate Tracker

An indemnification plan offered in connection with a self-storage lease is not insurance so the lessor/indemnitor needs no insurance license. Read More

Judgment in earlier wage & hour class action that employees filed against their staffing company employer barred later suit on the same claims by same employees against the firm where they worked since that firm was the staffing company’s agent with respect to payroll matters. Read More

A derivative action against Google’s executives was properly dismissed as the plaintiff shareholders were on inquiry notice of their claim outside the limitations period. Read More

A trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing wage & hour putative class action for failure to bring to trial within five years since pending arbitration did not prevent plaintiff from moving forward with the non-arbitrable pieces of litigation. Read More

Defendant was sufficiently engaged in collection efforts to qualify as a debt collection agency and hence did not run afoul of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act’s prohibition on creating the false belief in a consumer that a person other than the creditor is participating in the collection of the debt. Read More

After the close of evidence but before submission of briefs in lieu of closing argument, plaintiff was entitled to voluntarily dismiss her complaint, thus avoiding an attorney fee award under Civil Code section 1717. Read More

An “impaired property” exclusion barred coverage of a claim for loss of use of medical equipment allegedly caused by the insured’s negligent installation of an electrical cabinet. Read More

Investors were entitled to a Private Attorney General fee award for their opposition to the State’s settlement with a securities fraudster; the opposition triggered changes in the settlement that benefited the public. Read More

Proposition 65 is constitutional despite requiring cancer warnings as to chemicals designated as carcinogenic by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. Read More

Plaintiff may amend the original complaint once before answer or demurrer hearing, but leave of court is required for any amendment to an amended complaint. Read More

A limitations period runs from the date plaintiff suffers injury or the date she discovers the facts showing its wrongful cause, whichever is later. Read More

Interesting California lease case.  The tenant exercised an option to purchase the property “at fair market value” but the parties’ appraisals were miles apart, predictably.  The holding is narrow: the trial court should have awarded tenant credit for rent paid after exercising the option.  But the opinion illustrates a broader message for options and future rent increases: vague references to… Read More

Since website’s data security breach exposed plaintiffs to a substantial risk that hackers will commit identity theft, they had Article III standing to maintain the suit. Read More

Only negligence, not scienter, need be shown to state a claim under Section 14(e), the provision of the Securities Exchange Act that makes it unlawful for a person to make a false statement or engage in any fraudulent or manipulative acts in connection with a tender offer. Read More

The amount in controversy for federal jurisdictional purposes includes all relief, including awards of future damages, that could be awarded to the plaintiff, if successful, on the complaint as it stands on the date of removal. Read More

Defendant’s complaint about plaintiff to the private Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards is not protected speech under the Anti-SLAPP statute since the Board is neither a government agency nor a public forum. Read More

The dormant Commerce clause does not apply to acts that a state takes as a participant in the market, even if such acts discriminate against interstate commerce (such as, here, regulation of the rates at which the State of California will reimburse hospitals for services rendered to Medi-Cal patients). Read More

Automotive service advisors (i.e. those who sell automobile servicing) are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime payment requirements. Read More

Under the “pragmatic approach” to determine who is the prevailing party for purposes of statutory attorney fee awards, the question is whether by filing suit, the plaintiff achieved a better result than the defendant's last pre-suit offer of settlement. Read More

An employer may not defend an Equal Pay Act claim by showing that pay disparities are based on differences in the workers’ wages at prior jobs. Read More