Some Situations Are Made for Interpleader . . .
County of Santa Clara v. Escobar, No. H038121 (D6 Jan 26, 2016)Under Government Code 23004.1, a county that incurs medical expenses treating injured person P has a direct cause of action against D, who...
View ArticleArbitration for the Dead, But Court for the Living
Monschke v. Timber Ridge Assisted Living, LLC, No. A144289 (D1d1 Jan 29, 2016) As they told us in first year torts, a wrongful death claim is not just a continuation of the decedent’s claim for...
View ArticleDesignate or Die
Perry v. Bakewell Hawthorne, LLC, No B264027 (D2d2 Feb. 3, 2016).In opposition to one Defendant's motion for summary judgment in a premises liability case, Plaintiff submitted some expert declarations...
View ArticlePrivate AG Found Unecessary in Case Brought by Public Entity
San Diego Municipal Employees Assoc. v. City of San Diego, No. D066886 (D4d1 Feb. 9, 2016) A public employee retirement fund sued a city, challenging its assertion that the fund members were required...
View ArticleGetting to the Merits
Austin v. LAUSD, No. B258406 (D2d7) The trial court in this employment dispute granted the employer’s summary judgment motion, which plaintiff failed to timely oppose. Plaintiff filed an untimely pro...
View ArticleRunning from the Text
Leider v. Lewis, No. B244414 (D2d8 Feb 10, 2016)This is a long-running dispute about the treatment of the elephants at the LA Zoo. Plaintiff brought his case under the taxpayer standing statute, Code...
View ArticleWhat Can You Say When the Stay Gets Stayed?
Gastelum v. ReMax Int'l, No. B263213 (D2d5 Feb. 11, 2016)An employment dispute gets compelled to arbitration, but the employer fails to front the costs, as required under Armendariz v. Foundation...
View ArticleInexcusable, but Mandatory
Younessi v. Woolf, No. G051034 (D4d3 Feb. 16, 2106) After Plaintiffs failed to respond to a demurrer filed by Defendants in a legal malpractice case, the court granted the motion, albeit affording...
View ArticleThe Everfull California Sandbag
People ex rel GEICO v. Cruz, No. D067061 (D4d1 Feb. 17, 2016)An Insurance Company brings brings a qui tam against alleging fraudulent insurance billing practices in auto accident claims in violation of...
View ArticleLots of Waivers in Divorce Court
Obrecht v. Obrecht, No. H040827 (D6 Feb. 24, 2016) Husband in a divorce case objects to personal jurisdiction. His problem is that the record seems to establish that during his first appearance in the...
View ArticleSJ Evidence Rulings Get De Novo Review
Pitpitone v. Williams, No. H041468 (D6 Feb. 23, 2016)The facts of this wrongful death case are complicated, but they essentially entail a husband’s killing his wife in a domestic dispute. Plaintiff is...
View ArticleSworn Hearsay Permitted in SLAPP Step Two
Sweetwater Union Sch. Dist. v. Gilbane Bldg. Co., No. D067383 (D4d1 Feb. 24, 2016)A School District sued a contractor to void some contracts it alleged were corruptly procured by the contractor’s...
View ArticleTo Stop the Clock, It Better Be a Full Stay
Gaines v. Fidelity Nat’l Ins. Co., No. S215990 (Cal. Feb. 25, 2016)This is the Supreme Court’s review of the Gaines case I wrote about back in the tail-end of 2013. The interesting and fundamental...
View ArticleExtrinsic Mistake Relieves Trustee of Default
Bae v. T.D. Service Co., No. B262921 (D2d4 Feb. 25, 2016)Trustee to the deed of trust on a property gets sued in a real estate foreclosure dispute. Because trustees often get sued as relief-only...
View ArticleCourt for Me, but Arb for You, Means Court for Everyone.
Carbajal v. CWSP, Inc., No G050438 (D4d3 Feb. 26, 2016)The Court of Appeal here affirms a trial court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration based on a finding that the arbitration provision was...
View ArticleScapels and Sledgehammers
Mountjoy v. Bank of America, No. C077283 (D3 Feb. 29, 2016) Although trial courts get a lot of deference in fee award decisions, that deference is not unlimited. The court here decided that 70 percent...
View ArticlePre-Offer Expert Fees Unrecoverable Under § 998.
Toste v. Calportland Constr., No B256946 (D2d6 Mar. 2, 2016)Plaintiff appeals on a grab-bag of issues after a defense verdict in a wrongful death case. The jury found one defendant negligent but no...
View ArticleSargon v. Asbestos Litigation Science
Davis v. Honeywell Int’l, No. B256793 (D2d4 Mar. 3, 2016)This case addresses the admissibility of expert testimony on an issue that likely comes up in many of the wave of asbestos cases that are...
View ArticleNet Monetary Recovery II
DeSaulles v. Comty. Hosp. of the Monterrey Peninsula, No. S219236 (Cal. Mar. 10, 2016) The Supreme Court granted review of the DeSaulles case that I posted about a little less than two years ago. As a...
View ArticleClass Action Objectors Get No Ticket to the Appellate Party
Hernandez v. Restoration Hardware, No. D067091 (D4d1 Mar. 14, 2016)Plaintiff won a $36.4 million bench verdict in a rare class action that actually went to trial. The court awarded 25 percent of the...
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