The trial court correctly denied defendant's Anti-SLAPP motion. The absolute litigation privilege did not protect her from liability for her web blog and Yelp! postings that allegedly defamed the plaintiff construction contractor that she said had botched repairs on her house. Though defendant had filed a complaint with the Contractor's Licensing Board which had awarded her compensation from the plaintiff,… Read More
A civil suit for child pornography under 18 USC 2255 is governed by a 10 year statute of limitations. However, the limitations period runs from each republication of the pornography since republication can cause a new personal injury. Here, the complaint alleged a republication of the record album containing a nude picture of plaintiff's naked body in a swimming pool. … Read More
In a case of first impression in California, this decision holds that a party to one of several cases that the Judicial Council has ordered to be coordinated is not entitled to mandatory intervention in other of the coordinated cases than the one in which it already is a party because the would-be intervenor cannot show that it is so… Read More
Civil Code 1566, 1567, and 1570 establish a right to rescission in cases in which a person’s consent to a transaction was obtained by “menace”: threats of confinement, of unlawful violence to the person or his or her property, or of injury to a person’s character. This is effectively the civil version of extortion. So, Tran could state a claim… Read More
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff leave to amend to bring in a new defendant and allege a new theory of liability when the motion was filed 8 months after the scheduling order's deadline for amending the pleadings. The plaintiff was not diligent having waited several months after learning of the new defendant's identity and… Read More
Persons paid under the In-Home Supportive Services program (Welf. & Inst. Code 12300 et seq.) to care for disabled and elderly California residents are not employees of the State of California which, therefore, is not vicariously liable for their torts, such as negligent driving in this case. Read More
Prior owners had deeded land to various grantees, reserving to the grantor-owners a partial interest in “all oil, gas, and other hydrocarbons and minerals” beneath the surface. This decision holds that "minerals" in the reservation includes sand and gravel that owners of the surface estate intended to obtain from the subsurface by open pit mining. To reach that conclusion, the… Read More
Plaintiffs claimed that defendant improperly charged them use tax on its lease-end vehicle turn-in fee. This decision holds that the suit was properly dismissed because plaintiffs did not first submit their claims to respondent California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and obtain its definitive ruling on the taxability question. Plaintiffs' claims were barred by their failure to exhaust administrative… Read More
When a trustee of an inter vivos trust does not initiate a proceeding under Prob. Code 19000 et seq. and there is no probate of the trustor's estate, a creditor of the estate may sue the trustee on the trustor's debt or file a petition against the trustee under Prob. Code 850 for any real or personal property that the… Read More
This decision holds that a holder of a consumer contract subject to the FTC Holder Rule cannot avoid liability on claims against the dealer by reassigning the contract to the dealer or a third party after liability for the claim has attached. Any person holding the contract when the claim accrues remains liable on the claim despite later transfer of… Read More
This decision affirms a trial court's denial of defendant elder care facility's motion to compel arbitration. The arbitration agreement was procedurally unconscionable because the arbitration clause was buried in a lengthy document about other matters, not presented as a separate agreement or marked in any manner to draw attention to it. Also, the plaintiff was under extreme time pressure to… Read More
This decision holds that the trial court erred in denying defendants' Anti-SLAPP motion to strike this malicious prosecution action. While the defendants made a bunch of mistakes in conducting the underlying quiet title action, they did not lack probable cause because two instruments describing the same easement signed by the same grantor gave conflicting information about the easement's temporal duration. … Read More
This decision affirms a summary judgment for defendant in a slip and fall case based on the trivial defect doctrine. The discontinuity between the sidewalk and PG&E's manhole cover was less than an inch vertically. There was nothing that concealed the discontinuity of the pavement from view. The fact that the sidewalk was on a steep hill did not make… Read More
This decision upholds COVID Emergency Rule 10(a)'s extension of the 5 year statute by six months. The rule did not permit tolling of the statutory period but instead simply added 6 months to the otherwise applicable 5 years to bring the case to trial. So in this case, it was error to dismiss the case less than 5-1/2 years after… Read More
If a party opposing arbitration wishes a court to decide whether a clause delegating arbitrability questions to the arbitrator is itself unenforceable for some reason, the party must mention that it is challenging the delegation provision and make specific arguments attacking the provision in its opposition to a motion to compel arbitration. It is permissible, however, for that party to… Read More
For the second time, the Ninth Circuit reverses approval of a class action settlement in this case which challenged Tinder's charging those over 30 more than younger subscribers for its dating services. The Ninth Circuit finds that the named plaintiff was not an adquate representative of the class because her interest conflicted with that of a large number of class… Read More
A UCL suit by a public prosecutor does not operate as merger and bar of private suits for the same alleged UCL violations against the same defendant. A law enforcement action by prosecutors is designed to protect the public, not one to benefit the individuals harmed by the defendant's illegal practices, even if restitution is sought and ordered in the… Read More
California recognizes a form of the filed rate doctrine for rates or prices approved by state or municipal regulatory agencies, but the state doctrine is more limited and not as restrictive as its federal counterpart. The California filed rate doctrine did not bar plaintiff's class action insofar as it sought injunctive relief (against false advertising) and punitive damages under the… Read More
This decision vacates dismissal of the mandate petition and remands to the trial court to determine in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Boermeester v. Carry (2023) 15 Cal.5th 72 whether the common law doctrine of fair procedure applies to this private vocational school and if so whether the school gave plaintiff a fair procedure including the right… Read More
The San Francisco Fire Department and San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Agency are departments of the City and County of San Francisco, not independent public agencies. Hence, a fireman was a city employee and when he was injured by an MTA bus driver who drove through an active fire scene, severing a fire hose which caused the fireman serious injuries, the… Read More
