California Appellate Tracker

To establish organizational standing, the plaintiff associations  needed to show that the challenged conduct frustrated their organizational missions and that they diverted resources to combat that conduct.  Diversion of resources happens when the plaintiffs alter their resource allocation to combat the challenged practices, but not when they go about their business as usual.  Here, the evidence on defendant's Rule 12(b)(1)… Read More

In a proceeding under 9 USC 7 to enforce a subpoena that an arbitrator has issued to a non-party witness, when no federal claim is at stake, a federal court has jurisdiction over the matter only if the requirements for diversity jurisdiction (including the amount in controversy requirement) are satisfied.  The amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, if the value of… Read More

Plaintiff, who suffers from PTSD, has a dog to help her cope.  She could not afford to pay for formal training and certification of the dog as a service animal.  She trained the dog herself.  This decision holds that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require that service animals meet certification standards before their disabled owners are entitled to… Read More

Under the Song-Beverly Warranty Act, a new car manufacturer that is unable to repair the plaintiff's new car after a reasonable number of attempts must replace it or make restitution in an amount equal to the actual price paid or payable by the buyer of the car plus incidental damages.  (Civ. Code 1793.2(b)(2).)  When the plaintiff has leased rather than… Read More

The Administrative Procedure Act allows only three remedies for discovery abuse in the course of an administrative proceeding.  First, the requesting party may file a motion before the ALJ conducting the proceeding to compel the discovery.  (Gov. Code, 11507.7(a).)  Second, that party may request monetary sanctions from the supervisor ALJ, managing the regional ALJ office.  (Gov. Code, 11455.30(a).)  Third, the… Read More

Plaintiff sued for a violation of the Brown Open Meeting Act.  The suit was timely filed, but plaintiff delayed in seeking a ruling on whether the defendant had improperly conducted a non-public meeting which might have invalidated the dissolution resolution it adopted at the meeting.  Based on the resolution, defendant proceeded through the formal steps to dissolve, including holding a… Read More

Following Zehia v. Superior Court (2020) 45 Cal..App.5th 543 and distinguishing Burdick v. Superior Court (2015) 233 Cal.App.4th 8, this decision holds that California may exercise specific jurisdiction over the Canadian resident defendant.  He published defamatory internet postings about plaintiff, a California resident, on an internet site run by another California resident as well as on plaintiff's internet site.  The… Read More

Following Nieto v. Fresno Beverage Co., Inc. (2019) 33 Cal.App.5th 274, this decision holds that workers for a company 90% of whose business was providing "last mile" transportation of goods from Amazon warehouses to Amazon customers were employees in interstate commerce and thus exempt from the FAA.  Though the workers themselves did not cross state lines, they represented the final… Read More

Plaintiff obtained an arbitration award against Adamstos which it sought to collect from Vigorous and Blue Wall as successor corporations or alter egos of Vigorous.  Since the claim arose in admiralty, the court applied federal common law.  Summary judgment was affirmed.  Plaintiff failed to allege that Vigorous or Blue Wall received a transfer of all or substantially all Vigorous' assets… Read More

Employees of a private firm who, under the firm's contract with the district, sorted recyclables from a conveyor belt at a county sanitary district-owned facility were employed to perform "public work" to which the prevailing wage law applied.  Lab. Code 1720(a)(2) defines public work to include work done for irrigation, utility and other similar districts.  This work for the sanitary… Read More