California Appellate Tracker

The automatic stay in bankruptcy does not extend the three-year deadline for serving process on a co-defendant of the bankrupt debtor, that is not itself in bankruptcy. Read More

A seller of real property (here, a vineyard and tasting room) owes the buyer a duty to disclose facts materially affecting the value or desirability of the property that are not otherwise within a buyer's knowledge through diligent attention and observation—but only when the seller had actual or constructive knowledge of the undisclosed facts, which this seller lacked. Read More

With a long-tail loss, an excess insurer is not entitled to horizontal exhaustion of all underlying retention amounts for all years in which the loss is incurred; instead, vertical exhaustion applies: that is, once the retention amount for a single year is exhausted, the excess insurer for that year is liable for all sums incurred on the loss (up to… Read More

Since Oregon’s government claims statute reflected the same general policy as California’s Tort Claims Act by requiring plaintiffs to give pre-suit notice of injury within six months, California courts are required by the Full Faith and Credit Clause to apply the Oregon statute. Read More

An order granting or denying a motion to disqualify counsel is immediately appealable; the appeal automatically stays the appealed order but not other proceedings in the trial court, so a disqualified attorney may continue to the representation while the appeal is pending. Read More

Civil penalties may be recovered under the Private Attorney General Act without proving that the defendant employer’s failure to provide workers accurate, itemized pay statements was knowing and intentional. Read More

Filing suit and opposing a motion to compel arbitration are not, in themselves, breaches of the parties’ arbitration agreement sufficient to allow an award of fees under the agreement’s attorney fee clause. Read More

Criminal defendant’s constitutional due process rights are not violated by federal statute prohibiting him from subpoenaing third party internet service provider (here, Facebook) for disclosure of non-public postings by one of its subscribers (such as, here, the defendant’s victim). Read More

Plaintiff could not state a viable employment discrimination claim based on her supervisor’s actions favoring his co-employee wife, but plaintiff could state a viable whistleblower claim based on the supervisor’s retaliation for her complaining about his favoritism. Read More

Defendant’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied as the claim was based on defendant’s unprotected decision to terminate the plaintiff distributor rather than on the defendant’s later protected acts in a statutory arbitration proceeding concerning the termination. Read More

Defendant signed a settlement agreement providing that it would not contest plaintiff’s entitlement to attorney fees (but only the reasonableness of the fee award), so defendant could not later argue that various statutes limited or prohibited a fee award. Read More

The defendant’s attorney did not form a confidential non-client relationship with the plaintiff broker and so was not disqualified from representing the defendant; the information the attorney obtained from the broker either was necessary to the broker’s handling a property sale for defendant or was not confidential. Read More

Prior state court judgment based on collateral estoppel effect of a federal court judgment is not entitled to res judicata effect after the federal court judgment was reversed on appeal. Read More

California’s law banning foie gras and other products made from force-fed birds is not preempted by the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act, since that act only prohibits states from imposing ingredient requirements, as opposed to restrictions on animal husbandry practices.    Read More

Uncertainty regarding class members’ damages does not prevent certification of a class as long as a valid method has been proposed for calculating those damages such as, here, a full refund of the purchase price based on defendant’s suggested retail price and the price the individual plaintiff paid.  Read More

While a police department could not legally discriminate against its employee police officers based on their ethnicity, it could legally take adverse employment action against them based on the race of the man they shot.   Read More

The Home Owners Loan Act does not preempt a state law breach of contract claim that the bank miscalculated adjusted interest rates on loans, since common law breach of contract claims impose no requirements other than those the bank voluntarily assumed in its own agreements.   Read More

The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”) preempts a Nevada law that limited deficiency judgments on foreclosure to the amount by which the price the owner paid to acquire the loan exceeded the foreclosure sale price.   Read More

Plaintiff’s suit for physical injuries suffered when she tripped over a scale as she left a community health facility is governed by the two-year limitations period for ordinary negligence, not the shorter limitations period for claims against a health care provider’s negligent delivery of professional services.   Read More

False Claims Act lawsuit was not subject to defendant employer’s arbitration clause in its contract with employee claimant, since it had no substantial connection to the employment relationship, and it was a claim by the United States, not the employee, against the employer.   Read More