California Appellate Tracker

The Ninth Circuit rejects the Department of Labor’s informal interpretation of the dual job limitation on tip credit against the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage; "two jobs" is determined by occupation, not individual tasks.   Read More

A collective bargaining agreement explicitly requires arbitration of wage and hour claims by referencing a wage order; so long as a Private Attorney General Act claim survives, decertification of a class is not immediately appealable. Read More

If a tenant’s leasehold interest is foreclosed upon, the purchaser at the foreclosure sale succeeds, as assignee, to the tenant's right to occupy the premises and to all covenants of the lease that run with the land, but not to the lease contract itself absent express assumption.   Read More

The insured was not entitled to require an excess insurer to pay under its policy just by showing claims remained unpaid after exhausting all underlying policies for the one policy year, as some excess policies’ “other insurance” provisions required exhaustion of insurance issued for other policy years if it covered the same loss.   Read More

A construction subcontractor’s CGL policy did not clearly exclude "completed operations" coverage for an additional insured (here, the developer) or terminate insurance coverage when the subcontractor finished working on the project.   Read More

Because hot air balloon operators are not common carriers, they can take advantage of the primary assumption of the risk doctrine and thus owe no duty of care as to risks inherent in the sport or activity of hot air ballooning—even if an injury is caused by pilot error in failing to adjust altitude properly to account for cross-winds.   Read More

Federal law recognizing the legality of tobacco and cigarettes does not preempt state tort law that holds most cigarettes to be a “defective product,” thus exposing the manufacturers to substantial tort liability in California.   Read More

A spouse is liable for the other spouse’s debts incurred for the “necessaries of life” before separation, but only for debts incurred for the "common necessaries of life" after separation and before divorce; the former includes only the basics of food, clothing, and shelter, whereas the latter is a broader category that takes into account the circumstances of the particular… Read More

Unionized prison guards’ pay is governed by the union’s memorandum of understanding, which was passed as state legislation, not general state wage and hour laws; but those general laws do apply to non-unionized prison workers.   Read More

The Fair Employment and Housing Act’s one year statute of limitations starts to run from the date of termination of employment of a faculty member, rather than the earlier date on which he was denied tenure for allegedly discriminatory reasons.   Read More

CIVIL PROCEDURE—STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS The last act in a series of sexual abuses remains the date of accrual of the claim for purposes of Gov. Code 901 and 905 requiring, as a condition of suing a government entity, that a claim be filed within 6 months of the accrual of the cause of action.  Following Shirk v. Vista Unified School… Read More

The California Constitution does not restrict the voters’ ability to impose or increase taxes by initiative measures, even though some restrictions do apply to local governments seeking to do the same.   Read More

Any Telephone Consumer Protection Act claim necessarily involves an invasion of privacy, so such a claim fell within the invasion of privacy exclusion to the insured's directors & officers insurance policy.   Read More

Nevada statute giving super-priority lien to homeowners’ associations for non-payment of dues is pre-empted by federal Housing and Economic Recovery Act, so HOA liens cannot trump Freddie Mac’s secured interest.   Read More

If the issues in a insurance coverage declaratory relief action overlap the issues in the underlying litigation against the insured, the insurer cannot, over the insured’s objection, take discovery on the overlapping issues or litigate them in the declaratory relief action.   Read More

A city is not liable in inverse condemnation for damage caused by a falling city-owned tree unless the tree was planted by the city as part of a civic improvement.    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, even if not all the officers actually sign the required certifications.   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

A primary actor or a party bearing derivative or vicarious liability for the primary actor's torts are in privity for res judicata purposes, and so, no matter which one the plaintiff sues first, a judgment against the plaintiff is binding in favor of both.   Read More

A retailer did not falsely advertise clothes it sold at its outlet stores by placing its brand-name labels on the clothes, even if they were of lesser quality and never sold in its main line retail stores.   Read More