California Appellate Tracker

"Affiliate" means a person in a dependent or subordinate relationship with another, not just anyone with some sort of connection to the other; so a settlement agreement’s release did not extend to the lessor of released defendants and plaintiff’s suit against that entity could proceed.  Read More

A district court or Bankruptcy Appellate Panel order which reverses a bankruptcy court order in part and remands for additional fact-finding is not a final appealable judgment, nor is it otherwise appealable absent certification.  Read More

If an excess insurer rejects a settlement proposed by the primary insurer and insured and does not assume the insured’s defense, it cannot avoid liability for paying its share of the settlement (if a court later finds the settlement reasonable) by relying on the excess policy’s no-action clause.  Read More

Normal Chapter 11 priority rules apply to structured dismissals of Chapter 11 cases, so that in a structured dismissal, lower priority creditors may not be paid over the objection of higher priority creditors whose claims have not been fully satisfied.  Read More

Employer improperly calculated overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act when it paid employees for overtime at a rate less than 150% of their usual non-overtime pay.  Read More

Health care workers may waive their otherwise mandatory second meal break during shifts of over eight hours. Read More

An arbitration clause that states each party gives up the right to discovery and appeal does not waive the right to a judicial review of the arbitration award on the limited grounds available under the Federal Arbitration Act or the California Arbitration Act, nor does it waive the right to appeal from a judgment confirming or vacating the arbitration award.  Read More

An arbitration clause in a high executive’s employment contract was enforceable after severance of its single unconscionable provision exempting from arbitration any claim for breach by the employee of the employer’s confidentiality agreement.  Read More

A bankruptcy trustee may recover principal distributions from a spendthrift trust that are already due and payable to the bankrupt and up to 25% of future anticipated distributions from the trust to the bankrupt, both diminished by sums needed for the bankrupt’s and his/her dependents’ needs for support and education.  Read More

To withhold attorney-client communications from a successor trustee, a predecessor trustee must take affirmative steps, at the time of seeking the attorney advice, to show the consultation was made in the trustee’s personal, not fiduciary, capacity.  Read More

San Francisco’s ordinance requiring landlords to pay enhanced relocation assistance amounts to tenants evicted under the Ellis Act is pre-empted by that Act.  Read More

On an Anti-SLAPP motion attacking a “mixed” claim alleging both protected and unprotected conduct, the allegations of protected conduct are viewed separately, and if not merely incidental, are stricken unless the plaintiff shows a probability of succeeding on the claim based on those allegations alone. Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting a letter, containing a remark showing callous indifference to worker death from asbestos, because the letter showed the employer was on notice of the risks of asbestos early, and prejudice from the callous remark was avoided by a jury instruction limiting consideration of the letter to the issue of notice… Read More

A patent infringer cannot avoid liability for damages during the 6-year statutory limitations period by raising an equitable defense of laches.  Read More

Designs on cheerleaders’ uniforms were copyright protected because they could both (a) be perceived as two-dimensional artwork separate from the uniform itself, and (b) qualify as a protectable pictorial or graphic artworks in their own right or as applied on another medium.  Read More

A home loan borrower could survive summary judgment on her claims for breach of contract and violation of the unfair competition law based on deceptive processing and denial of the borrower's loan modification applications, since servicer should have known from the beginning that borrower’s loan exceeded eligibility guidelines yet reviewed her three times anyway.  Read More

Successive suits by mortgage borrower based on breach of contract and the Truth in Lending Act are not barred by the merger-and-bar aspect of res judicata, since the primary right sued upon is different—TILA protects a right of disclosure of key loan terms, whereas contract law protects the parties' agreement.  Read More

City settled a class action lawsuit involving garbage fees by returning the money it had charged class members and agreeing not to impose similar charges in the future, so would-be plaintiffs in a second concurrent class action had already received all the relief they sought in that second case for themselves and no longer had standing to proceed.  Read More

Unless it expressly provides otherwise, a statute granting a right to an attorney fee award contemplates a fee calculated by the lodestar method, whether or not the party seeking the fee award was personally liable to pay the attorney.  Read More

A trial court may not vacate an arbitration award for the arbitrator’s failure to disclose a possible ground for disqualification unless it is shown that the arbitrator actually knew (not merely should have known) of the undisclosed ground for disqualification.  Read More