California Appellate Tracker

Arbitrator did not exceed his powers in dismissing plaintiff HOA’s claims against developer on the ground that HOA violated its own CC&Rs by bringing the claims without first having obtained approval from a majority of homeowners. Read More

The act of state doctrine defeated this attempted antitrust suit against a salt production company that was 51% owned by the Mexican government.  Read More

Civ. Code 1942.5(d) and (h), which grant a tenant a cause of action for a landlord's retaliatory eviction create an implied exception to the litigation privilege since otherwise the anti-retaliation statute would be rendered toothless; so tenant survived landlord’s Anti-SLAPP motion. Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in assessing against a trust beneficiary's share and against the beneficiary personally the attorney fees incurred by the trustee in defending against the beneficiary's unreasonable and bad faith objections to the trustee's third accounting. Read More

To be subject to the doctrine of incorporation by reference and reviewable at the pleading stage, a document must be mentioned "extensively," not just once, in the complaint and must be a significant basis of the claims the complaint alleges; by the same token, the district court must be careful about the facts that it takes from documents that are… Read More

A cautionary tale for all those who draft and review settlement agreements: plaintiff’s attorney who breached confidentiality clause in settlement agreement could not be liable for breach of contract, since he signed off on the agreement only by indicating his “approval as to form and content” and therefore could not be considered a signatory or party to the contract. Read More

Summary judgment for promoters of a half-marathon race is reversed; though the race’s release form was enforceable, it could not waive liability for gross negligence, and a triable issue of fact existed as to whether the promoters were grossly negligent in failing to provide adequate emergency medical care at the finish line. Read More

An employer must give an employee a meal break if the shift is five hours or longer, but if the total work period is not more than six hours, the employer and employee may waive this requirement by mutual agreement, such as through a clear and unmistakable collective bargaining agreement. Read More

Defendant city government is immune from liability for accidents caused by police vehicular pursuits if it has promulgated a suitable written pursuit policy and requires annual training and certification by all officers that they have received, read, and understood the policy; the officers need not have actually signed the required certifications. Read More

A borrower may challenge an interest rate as unconscionable even when the Legislature has exempted the loan from usury rate limitations. Read More

Even though compensatory damages were reduced to zero by an offset for the other party’s breach of an independent covenant of a contract, a $2 million punitive damage award is affirmed on a breach of fiduciary duty claim. Read More

An agreement settling a fee dispute between a client and a law firm is enforced despite the client’s argument that the agreement lacked consideration. Read More

Department of Justice required SABMiller to divest entirely of its domestic beer business as a condition of approving its merger with Anheuser-Busch; so consumers could not maintain suit alleging that the merger would lessen competition in the domestic market. Read More

A trial court has no discretion to deny a prevailing party ordinary court costs on the ground that the losing party lacks the financial ability to pay those costs, and may deny or reduce expert witness fees awardable under Code of Civil Procedure section 998 only upon making specific statutory findings. Read More

A former client need prove only that attorney’s fraud and breach of fiduciary duty in secretly funneling information about the client to opposing party while negotiating a settlement was a substantial factor in causing her harm, not that she would have obtained a better result but from the attorney’s wrongdoing. Read More

College’s disciplinary procedures did not pass due process muster because student accused of assault did not have the opportunity to cross-examine the accuser either directly or indirectly, and fact-finder did not have the ability to watch accuser testify so as to assess her credibility. Read More

Facts sufficient to show recklessness (not merely negligence) are necessary in order for the issue of liability on elder abuse claim by medical services provider to go to the jury. Read More

A will’s bequest of 35% of residue including a specific ranch is a residuary, not a specific, bequest and so the distribution to the donee of the bequest is measured by the ranch’s post-death sale price. Read More

Although corporations are immune from antitrust liability for conspiracy when their alleged co-conspirator has substantially common ownership, this immunity does not apply when wholly unrelated corporations are alleged to be part of the conspiracy. Read More

A homeowner who hired an unlicensed gardener to trim tall trees is vicariously liable to gardener’s employee who was injured in a fall due to gardener’s negligence. Read More