California Appellate Tracker

This decision reverses a punitive damage award against a supplier of talc to the manufacturer of Old Spice talcum powder.  Defendant did not contest the jury's verdicts finding that plaintiff contracted mesothelioma from the asbestos in the talcum powder and that defendant was negligent in failing to detect and warn consumers about its presence in the product.  However, there was… Read More

A judgment debtor's interest in an ERISA-compliant profit-sharing or pension plan is automatically exempt from execution to enforce a money judgment.  ERISA provides that qualified pension plan interest are not assignable.  29 USC 1056(d).  Under CCP 695.030, property that is not assignable is not subject to enforcement of a money judgment. That section prevails over CCP 704.115, which allows a… Read More

The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion for reconsideration of its order granting the judgment creditor the right to execute on defendants' IRA and ERISA plan interest because the motion failed to cite new facts or law.  However, the trial court then properly exercised its inherent authority to reconsider its order because the reconsideration motion brought to its attention the… Read More

In a case with facts closely similar to Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist. Court (2021) 141 S.Ct. 1017, the court follows that decision in holding that Daimler was subject to personal jurisdiction in California even though Daimler had not sold the truck involved in the accident in this state nor did the accident occur here.  Daimler purposefully… Read More

Following County of San Mateo v. Chevron Corp. (9th Cir. 2022) 32 F.4th 733, this decision affirms an order remanding this climate change public nuisance suit against major oil companies to state court. Read More

Summary judgment was properly granted to defendant in this 10b-5 suit that came after a dramatic decline in Align's stock price following an abrupt decrease in its sales growth in China.  The abrupt decline in sale growth which came only three months after positive remarks by Align's management and was unexplained by other external events was sufficient to give rise… Read More

A hospital may be held vicariously liable for a doctor's negligent treatment of a patient at the hospital if the doctor is a hospital employee or the hospital's ostensible agent.   Mejia v. Community Hospital of San Bernardino (2002) 99 Cal.App.4th 1448; Whitlow v. Rideout Memorial Hospital (2015) 237 Cal.App.4th 631.  Here, the trial court correctly granted the hospital summary judgment… Read More

The trial court correctly granted defendant summary judgment in this slip-and-fall injury suit in an exercise facility's sauna room.  The release of claims in the fitness center's membership agreement absolved the fitness center of liability for ordinary negligence.  Plaintiff failed to submit evidence creating a triable issue of fact as to gross negligence.  She claimed to have fallen because the… Read More

In this PAGA suit, the original plaintiff died while the suit was pending.  This decision holds that the trial court correctly denied a different employee's motion to intervene in the action in place of the deceased plaintiff because the would-be plaintiff was not an employee at the time the original plaintiff sent her complaint to the DLSE and therefore would… Read More

A PAGA suit is not a class action and need not satisfy Rule 23 requirements, including the requirement of manageability.  In light of PAGA's structure and purpose, imposing a manageability requirement in PAGA cases akin to that imposed under Rule 23(b)(3) would not constitute a reasonable response to a specific problem and would contradict California law by running afoul of… Read More

This decision rejects plaintiff's argument that the PAGA statute violates the state constitution's separation of powers clause because it supposedly allows private citizens to seek civil penalties on the state’s behalf without the executive branch exercising sufficient prosecutorial discretion.  The contention is barred by Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348, 360 which held that “PAGA… Read More

Plaintiff sued for defamation, alleging that defendants falsely told several reporters that plaintiff had provided explicit nude photographs of Bezos to the National Enquirer as part of a conspiracy to damage Bezos.  On defendants' Anti-SLAPP motion, plaintiff's only evidence was his declaration stating that several news reporters had told him that Bezos told them plaintiff had given the photos to… Read More

Plaintiff was a nurse, employed by a staffing company, on temporary assignment to a hospital run by defendant.  Plaintiff brought separate class actions against the staffing company and the hospital for wage and hour violations.  This decision holds that the settlement and dismissal of plaintiff's suit against the staffing company did not end or preclude her suit against the defendant. … Read More

Plaintiff's attorney registered to use defendant's website, agreeing to its arbitration clause, before accessing the website's picture of plaintiff and then filing suit for plaintiff, alleging that defendant's commercial use of her picture violated Ohio's right of publicity law.  This decision reverses denial of defendant's motion to compel arbitration, finding there are unresolved questions of fact as to whether the… Read More

Another employee of the same defendant employer is not entitled to intervene as of right in a PAGA suit brought by a different employee of that employer in order to challenge the settlement to which the latter employee and the employer have agreed.  To intervene as of right under FRCivP 24(a)(2), a party must show (among other things) that his… Read More

The trial court erred in granting defendant school district summary judgment.  Plaintiff, a student at the district's high school was stabbed by third person when following after school sports practice, she briefly visited a Starbucks and then returned to the high school to recover her books from her school locker.  The brief diversion to Starbucks did not interrupt the school's… Read More

Plaintiffs' decedent suffered a massive heart embolism while in the bathroom of a Southwest Airlines plane flying from Oakland to Orange County.  When the airplane's flight attendants became aware something was wrong, they wrongly diagnosed the problem as a terrorist threat.  The pilot contacted the Orange County Sheriff's office, which sent officers to the plane on arrival and removed all… Read More

An employee who complains to the DLSE and seeks relief from the Labor Commissioner in a Berman hearing is entitled to back wages for the limitations period calculated backwards from the date the employee files an initial report or claim with the DLSE, not from the later date of filing a formal complaint.  Though it doesn't say so expressly, Lab.… Read More

On appeal from denial of a Gov. Code 946.6 petition for relief from denial of his government claim as untimely, the plaintiff can argue, and the court can find that the plaintiff's claim was actually timely, so no relief under section 946.6 was required.  Here, plaintiff filed a government claim within 6 months of his injury.  The defendant agency waived… Read More

Disagreeing with Grand Prospect Partners, L.P. v. Ross Dress for Less, Inc. (2015) 232 Cal.App.4th 1332, this decision holds that a co-tenancy clause in a shopping center lease, which allowed the tenant to drastically reduce its rent if less than 60% of the shopping center's space was leased to other tenants, was enforceable.  Failure of the shopping center to meet… Read More