California Appellate Tracker

This decision affirms denial of defendant's motion to disqualify the private attorneys whom San Diego hired on contingency fee contracts to prosecute this suit for civil penalties under B&P Code 17200.  The contingency fee contracts specified that the City Attorney retained ultimate control over the litigation or its settlement, and the contracts contained other clauses required under County of Santa… Read More

Dameron required emergency room patients to sign a "conditions of admission" agreement, which assigned to the hospital the patients' rights under their auto insurance policies' uninsured or underinsurance motorist coverages and under the medical payments coverage.  This decision holds that assignment of un-or underinsured motorist coverage is contrary to public policy and unenforceable because it is merely a way to… Read More

Following State of California ex. rel. Dept. of Transportation v. Superior Court (Hall) (1985) 37 Cal.3d 847, this decision holds that,under Veh. Code 20012, a plaintiff is an "interested person," entitled to production of unredacted motor vehicle accident reports showing names and contact information for drivers and witnesses involved in other similar accidents at or around the same location as… Read More

World Services holds intellectual property rights in Narcotics Anonymous' publications as trustee under a trust created by a loose association of Narcotics Anonymous adherents, known as the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.  The Autonomous Region sued World Services claiming it breached its fiduciary duties under the trust.  This opinion affirms dismissal of the action on the ground that Autonomous Region lacks… Read More

In this asbestosis case, plaintiffs added Air Brake in place of a Doe defendant shortly after Boeing produced documents showing that Air Brake designed the brake shoes for its light rail cars, specifying brake pads containing asbestos.  The trial court erred in granting summary judgment on limitations grounds after concluding that plaintiffs "knew or should have known" of Air Brake's… Read More

This decision holds that an insurer's allegedly wrongful denial of an insurance claim or its claim handling leading to that denial cannot be the basis of a viable claim under the Insurance Fraud Pevention Act (Ins. Code 1871.7).  The Act was designed to prevent fraudulent insurance claims not impose added duties on or create new remedies against insurers in connection… Read More

The right of a trademark owner to control the distribution of its trademarked product does not extend beyond the first sale of the product, and trademark rights are “exhausted” as to a given item upon the first authorized sale of that item.  This first sale doctrine applies not only to the resale of the product in unmodified form by the… Read More

While an employer has an affirmative duty to provide employees with a safe place to work (Lab. Code, § 6400(a); Seabright Ins. Co. v. US Airways, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 590, 603), this decision holds that this duty does not  include ensuring that an off-site meeting place for coworkers and business associates--such as at an employee’s private residence is safe… Read More

Following Roes, 1-2  v. SFBSC Management, LLC (9th Cir. 2019) 944 F.3d 1035, this decision holds that when a class action settles before class certification, the district court may not apply a presumption of fairness to the settlement based on arms-length negotiation between experienced counsel.  Instead, the court mus employ extra caution and more rigorous scrutiny in evaluating a pre-certification… Read More

This decision holds that losses due to COVID closures are not covered by the business income and extra expense coverage of a business insurance policy since to trigger coverage the loss must be due to an impairment of operations caused by direct physical loss or damage to property.  For there to be coverage under this policy language, some external force… Read More