California Appellate Tracker

(Under FRCivP 4(k)(2), a federal court may exercise jurisdiction over a foreign defendant on a federal claim if the defendant is not subject to personal jurisdiction in any state's courts and exercising jurisdiction over the defendant comports with due process considering his contacts with the US as a whole.  Here, the district court could properly exercise jurisdiction over the foreign… Read More

Probate Code 8402(a)(4) provides that to be eligible to serve as an executor or administrator of an estate, a person must be a resident of the US.  This decision interprets the statute as meaning that an executor or administrator must be "domiciled" in the US--that is, reside in the US with the intention of remaining there.  Here, the proposed administrator--the… Read More

The insured landlord's CGL policy excluded claims for claims arising out of actual or claimed uninhabitable conditions on the premises--and all other claims (whether or not otherwise covered) which were alleged in the same suit as claims for non-habitability.  This decision holds that the exclusion was plain, clear, conspicuous, and enforceable.  As a result, the exclusion relieved the insurer of… Read More

CCP 995.240 grants a trial court authority to waive any provision requiring a litigant to post a bond if the trial court finds the party that is otherwise required to post a bond is indigent and unable to obtain sufficient sureties.  This decision holds that the statute applies, and grants the trial court discretion, to waive CCP 917.1's otherwise applicable… Read More

This decision reverses a JNOV and new trial order overturning a jury verdict for plaintiff in this slip and fall accident caused by liquid on the floor tile of the defendant restaurant.  The plaintiff offered a reasonable explanation for how the ten foot long, ten inch wide strip of liquid got on the floor in a location leading past the… Read More

The district court properly granted defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion.  Anti-SLAPP motions do not conflict with federal procedure and so may properly be brought in federal court on diversity claims governed by California law.  Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P.A. v. Allstate Ins. Co. (2010) 559 U.S. 393 did not overrule or undermine prior 9th Circuit authority so holding.  Plaintiff could not show… Read More

Over a strong dissent, this decision holds that under 1 USC 1124, when the debtor is solvent, it must pay contract interest (or interest at a rate set by state statute) on unimpaired claims of unsecured creditors, not the lower federal interest rate under 28 USC 1961. Read More

A shareholder who sues to dissolve a corporation may be forced instead to sell his shares to the other shareholders at the price set by the appraisal procedure set out in Corp. Code 2000.  This decision holds that the selling shareholder is not entitled to prejudgment interest on the appraised price of the shares between the valuation date and the… Read More

To determine whether speech or other conduct falls within the scope of CCP 425.16(e)(4)'s catchall provision, the court must make a two-step analysis, first asking what public issue or issue of public interest the defendant's conduct or speech implicates, and second asking what functional relationship exists between the speech and the public conversation about that issue of public interest--i.e., whether… Read More

Under Civil Code 846, landowners are generally immune from liability for personal injuries suffered by persons entering their property for recreational use. There is an exception to that immunity if the plaintiff was "expressly invited rather than merely permitted to come upon the premises by the landowner."  This decision holds that despite the statutory wording, immunity is lost if the… Read More

The FCC's regulation governing the standards for the permissible amount of radio frequency emission from a cellphone (47 C.F.R. § 1.1310(c)) preempt plaintiff's state law claims that Apple's iPhones are unsafe even though they conform to the FCC's standards.  The FCC issued its regulation under the broad authority that Congress conferred on it in the Federal Communications Act of 1934. … Read More

Landlord violated Pasadena's eviction control ordinance by failing to offer tenants a one-year lease after giving them notice of a rent increase.  Also, the landlord violated the ordinance in treating as cause for eviction the presence on the premises of the husband and daughter of one of the authorized tenants.  The ordinance requires landlords to allow occupancy by dependent minors… Read More

Enacted in 2002, Civ. Code 3339, Gov. Code 7285, Health & Saf. Code 24000, and Lab. Code 1171.5 each provide that all rights and protections of law are available to all without regard to immigration status, that immigration status is irrelevant to proof of liability for violation of state labor, employment, civil rights, consumer protection, and housing laws, and that… Read More

A "conditional acceptance" of a 998 offer is ineffective to become on enforceable settlement under CCP 998, although it may become a settlement upon the original offeror's acceptance of the other party's counteroffer.  Here, Sutter's 998 offer was $500,000.  Plaintiff's "conditional acceptance" added three terms for the court to "clarify" including whether prejudgment interest was owed on the $500,000.  The… Read More

The Ellis Act re-subjects to rent control units that are taken off the market under the Act but then are re-rented within five years thereafter.  (Gov. Code 7060.2(d).)  That provision prevails over Civ. Code 1954.52 which exempts separately alienable single family dwellings or units from rent control.  So, the landlord did not evade rent control by withdrawing five units on… Read More

Silver, a Hollywood executive, took his chef and an executive assistant, Musgrove, with his family for their vacation on Bora Bora.  The chef met Musgrove after hours and gave her alcohol and cocaine, after which she went swimming and drowned.  This decision holds that Silver is not vicariously liable for the chef's after hours activities with Musgrove under any of… Read More

For purposes of ERISA plan insurance policies, the Ninth Circuit defines "accident" or "accidental" to mean that the insured did not subjectively expect injury or death to result from his actions--so long as those subjective expectations were reasonable from the insured's perspective.  If the insured's subjective expectation cannot be ascertained, then the court asks whether a reasonable person with a… Read More

Since 2010, the public disclosure bar to a False Claims Act qui tam action (31 USC 3730) has applied to public disclosure of the same claim in an "other" Federal "hearing."  This decision holds that ex parte patent prosecutions before the Patent Office are other hearings for this purpose.  The statute was intended to encompass public disclosures made in federal… Read More

A trade dress need not be associated in the public mind with a particular manufacturer or other provider in order to acquire secondary meaning and thus be protectible under the Lanham Act.  It is enough to show that the public thinks the product in that dress comes from a single source, even if the public cannot identify which source that… Read More

LA's COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Ordinance which banned evictions for reasons other than the tenant's fault was not preempted by state law.  A demurrer was properly sustained to the owner's unlawful detainer action which alleged no tenant default but instead claimed the owner wanted to move into the unit himself. Read More