California Appellate Tracker

Though exempt from federal income tax under 26 USC 529, an education or tuition trust is not designed or used for retirement purposes and so is not exempt from execution on a judgment under CCP 704.115.  Read More

A car dealer adequately “provided” an inspection certificate for a “certified” used vehicle by placing it in the glove compartment before the sale so that it could be reviewed by prospective buyers.  Read More

Trustor conveyed real property to a revocable trust in 1985, and then created a new revocable trust in 2009; his 2009 trust instrument, which purported to transfer all of the 1985 trust’s property into the new trust, sufficed to perfect the conveyance without the need of a separate deed.  Read More

Defendant failed to introduce any substantial evidence that plaintiff, though a salesman of asbestos-containing insulation and refractory, was aware of its cancer-causing quality, as would have been required for defendant to assert the sophisticated user defense.  Read More

A badly drafted settlement agreement did not condition plaintiff’s right to receive the settlement funds on plaintiff’s prior discharge of medical liens on his claim.  Read More

The trial court erred in looking at a disputed e-mail's contents to help it decide whether the communication was privileged or whether the privilege was waived, since Evid. Code 915 forbids in camera review of prima facie privileged communications to decide privilege issues.  Read More

A non-party witness must be subpoenaed for a deposition unless, among other things, the witness can be expected to comply with a party’s directive to appear for the deposition.  Read More

Plaintiff who took a medical leave of absence from her full-time job and, upon her return, was offered only part-time work, could not show that the employer's legitimate business reason for not offering full-time work was pretextual.  Read More

Filing bankruptcy reinstates a lawyer’s license to practice by discharging her obligation to repay improperly collected attorney fees to her client.  Read More

The bankruptcy court wrongly held a creditor in contempt where the creditor reasonably believed that its action in seeking an attorney fee award from the debtor in state court litigation did not violate the discharge injunction based on the Ybarra rule.  Read More