California Appellate Tracker

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA), which subjects to criminal liability anyone who “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access.” 18 U. S. C. §1030(a)(2). " Exceeds authorized access” is defined to mean “to access a computer with authorization and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the computer that the… Read More

Hockey is a model whose authorized agent contracted for her to perform a 10-hour day's modeling for Brighton for $3,000 payable on receipt of the agent's invoice.  After modeling as agreed, Hockey sued Brighton, claiming it was her employer and that it violated Lab. Code 201 by not paying her the full amount due at the time her employment ended… Read More

California follows Rest.2d Torts sec. 920 in allowing a reduction of a plaintiff's damages if the defendant's tortious conduct has conferred a special benefit on the plaintiff as well as damaging the plaintiff.  But the reduction is permitted only to the extent it is equitable to reduce damages.  In weighing the equities, the court can consider not only whether the… Read More

Under the recently revised Rule 23(e)(2) requires a district court to consider, in determining whether to approve a class action settlement, not only the adequacy of the relief in light of the risks of litigation, but also the effectiveness of the proposed means of distributing the settlement and the terms of any proposed award of attorney fees.  This decision holds… Read More

Wal-Mart pays workers regular wages plus a quarterly bonus for good work during the quarter. Under California law, the bonus is regular wages which must be used to compute overtime time.  But since Wal-Mart doesn't know until the end of the quarter whether it will pay a worker the bonus, its biweekly pay statements don't include the bonus in calculating… Read More

Federal courts lack Article III jurisdiction over portions of a PAGA suit that attack alleged wage and hour regulations which did not injure the named plaintiff.  A PAGA suit does not fall within the qui tam action exception to the ordinary Article III requirement that the plaintiff has sustained injury from the wrong he sues to redress.  Unlike a traditional… Read More

Employer sufficiently complied with Lab. Code 226 and its requirement that wage statements show “all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked at each hourly rate by the employee” by showing the overtime pay rate as .5 times the average hourly pay rate--and including overtime hours in the normal hourly category… Read More

Plaintiff is a medical doctor specializing in pain management.  CVS, a pharmacy, informed him it would no longer fill his patients' prescriptions, citing conerns he was over-prescribing controlled substances.  Plaintiff sued for an injunction directing CVS to fill his prescriptions.  Held, injunction properly denied.  The State Board of Pharmacy has primary jurisdiction over the issues in this litigation.  It enforces… Read More

Under Lab. Code 558.1, an owner, officer, director, or managing agent of the employer may be held liable for the employer's violation, if the owner, officer, director or managing agent "violates or causes to be violated" an IWC wage order or certain wage and hour sections of the Labor Code.  This decision holds that to be liable under section 558.1,… Read More

Under Gov. Code 821.6, a public employee is immune from liability for instituting or prosecuting a judicial or administrative proceeding.  That immunity extends to investigation activities that precede a potential judicial proceeding.  This decision holds that the immunity applies to policemen who investigate a crime scene.  So plaintiff cannot recover from the police or their public employer for the emotional… Read More

Under Fed. R. App. 39(a), the Court of Appeals determines which party is the prevailing party entitled to an award of costs on appeal, and it may, in its discretion, order that the prevailing party recover only some of the normally awardable costs on appeal.  Under Fed. R. App. 39(e), costs for preparing and transmitting the record and appellate transcripts… Read More

BMW sent plaintiff a 998 offer, proposing to settle this personal injury case for $15,000 in exchange for a general release.  The 998 offer did not mention entry of judgment against BMW or specify that plaintiff would file a dismissal with prejudice instead.  Plaintiff accepted the offer.  Then the parties disagreed about terms of the release and entry of judgment. … Read More

This decision holds that a suit filed by the decedent's heirs under CCP 377.32 was timely since it was filed within the limitations period even though the heirs didn't file the required declarations until after the limitations period expired and even though after probate proceedings were begun on the decedents' estates, the complaint was amended to name as an added… Read More

It is an abuse of discretion in a civil rights or public interest case (such as this Song-Beverly Act case) to deny attorney fees altogether for time spent after the plaintiff rejects a 998 offer, so long as the plaintiff ultimately recovers more than the 998 offered.  Though the trial court retains broad discretion to evaluate post-offer attorney fees and… Read More

Plaintiff hired E to sell its cyptocurrency assets for cash.  E did so using defendant's website.  The proceeds of sale were stolen from the website allegedly because defendant failed to implement elemental security measures.  This decision holds that the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion to compel arbitration based on its terms of service to which E… Read More

The trial court did not err in enforcing decedent's contract with defendant under which defendant was to liquidate decedent's Iranian properties and transfer the proceeds to decedent.  Although the contract violated the federal sanctions imposed on Iran, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in awarding the plaintiff heirs relief since (a) the sales of the Iranian properties were… Read More

A defendant may challenge an order denying his forum non conveniens motion on an appeal from a final judgment even though CCP 418.10 allows a petition for writ of mandate from the order, just as it permits such a petition from denial of a motion to quash the summons for lack of personal jurisdiction.  But unlike the personal jurisdiction objection… Read More

Molfetta was White's criminal defense lawyer.  After White was convicted, he requested Molfetta's files so he could prepare habeas corpus petitions.  Molfetta failed to turn over the files.  While some of the files were confidential and could not be turned over, most were not and should have been timely provided once White requested them.  While condemning Molfetta's actions, this decision… Read More

The party moving to compel arbitration bears the burden of proving that the parties entered into an arbitration agreement.  Here, plaintiff employee denied that she had electronically signed the arbitration agreement during the employment onboarding procedure that defendant implemented on taking over the acute care facility at which plaintiff worked.  One way to authenticate an electronic signature is to show… Read More

On behalf of a putative class of prescription drug buyers, plaintiff alleged that Rite Aid reported inflated "usual and customary" drug prices to the pharmacy benefits managers which transmitted the inflated figures to plaintiffs' health insurers, causing the plaintiffs to pay higher than proper deductibles for the drugs.  This decision affirms an order denying Rite Aid's motion to compel arbitration. … Read More