The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.
The defendant’s jury demand in the bankruptcy trustee’s adversary proceeding did not deprive the bankruptcy court of jurisdiction to decide a non-merits issue, such as whether to compel arbitration, and arbitration was properly denied since, in claiming a fraudulent transfer, the trustee stepped into the shoes of a judgment creditor, not the debtor, which had signed the arbitration clause. Read More
A vexatious litigant pre-filing order under CCP 391.7 prevents appeals by plaintiffs, but not by defendants. Read More
The local controversy exception to federal CAFA jurisdiction applied in this pollution class action because the plaintiffs sought significant relief from and based their suit in significant part on a nondiverse defendant’s negligence in performing its contract to remediate the diverse defendant’s pollution. Read More
Independent contractors hired by a governmental entity for purposes of letting public contracts are subject to the same anti-corruption prohibitions that apply to government officers and employees, who are forbidden from having any interest in public contracts that they let. Read More
CCP 340.5’s one-year-from-discovery limitations period applies to a patient’s claim she was injured by a hospital negligent maintenance of its equipment or furniture if the particular equipment or furniture (here, guard rails on a hospital bed) are integrally related to medical diagnosis or treatment of the patient. Read More
The actual facts, not the claimant’s allegations, determine whether an action arose from conduct in the course of employment for purposes of determining whether a governmental entity must reimburse its employee for cost incurred in defending the claimant’s suit. Read More
Plaintiff suing a federal official in her individual capacity for violation of constitutional rights may recover only damages, not injunctive or declaratory relief. Read More
A motion to compel arbitration was properly denied because current suit challenged a corporate acquisition while the arbitration clause covered only exclusive marketing arrangements. Read More
An insurer that was assigned its insured’s claim against its subcontractor could continue the suit in the insured’s name under CCP 368.5 after the assignment, but could not use that procedural convenience to avoid liability for the subcontractor’s attorney fees when it lost. Read More
Fair report privilege bars defamation and trade libel claims based on a press release issued by plaintiffs’ attorneys accurately summarizing jury verdict and proceedings in a False Claims Act suit against the defamation plaintiff. Read More
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting terminating sanctions after plaintiff’s attorney repeatedly disobeyed in limine orders by referring to excluded evidence in his opening statement and questioning of witnesses, prejudicing defendants because jury might think their repeated, proper objections were hiding the true facts from the jury. Read More
Res judicata did not bar current because since the current defendants who were not parties to the prior suit and were not in privity with those parties, and because the record did not show the reason why the prior suit was dismissed on the pleadings. Read More
Under the FLSA, an employer may round work start and stop times to the nearest 15 minutes, if the rounding does not decrease work time considering all workers over an extended period; also, another practice that deprived plaintiff, alone, of one minute of work time was a de minimis violation for which the FLSA provided no remedy. Read More
State law claims based on manufacturer’s failure to adequately train physicians on installation of its lap-band implant is preempted by the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act since, apart from the FDCA, state law imposed no duty on a manufacturer to train physicians Read More
A parent corporation lacked standing to seek a declaratory judgment regarding coverage under an insurance policy under which only its subsidiary corporation was an insured. Read More
A loan servicer, and its principal, the loan’s owner, can be held liable to a borrower for negligence in handling the borrower's loan modification application; however, the borrower has no breach of contract claim for the loan servicer’s failure to offer a permanent loan modification after performance of a non-HAMP trial period plan. Read More
To prove a common law dedication, plaintiff need only show the owner’s intent to dedicate the property to public use and the public’s acceptance of the dedication; no written conveyance or acceptance by a public entity is required. Read More
Because a property owner has no right to unobstructed views, the owner cannot sue a city in inverse condemnation for planting trees that block views even if the loss of views lowers the value of the property. Read More
A party moving to compel arbitration need not authenticate the opposing party's signature on the agreement containing the arbitration clause in its initial moving papers, but can wait until after the opposing party has challenged the authenticity of his signature, so defendant's supplemental declaration which was submitted after its moving papers but before plaintiff's opposition was not untimely. Read More
