Serial Discovery Abuser Gets Terminating Sanctions. And they Stick, for Once!
J.W. v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of N.Y., No. E066555 (D4d2 Dec. 10, 2018) A Girl sued the Watchtower Society—the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses—for its failure to prevent her...
View ArticleInsurers Litigating the '70s Get a Break
Mechling v. Asbestos Defendants, No. A150132 (D1d5 Dec. 11, 2018) Plaintiffs claim they were exposed to asbestos due to the actions of a long-dead company that stopped operating in 1974. Some of them...
View ArticleAnti-Vaxer Benchslap II!
Love v. State Dep’t of Ed., No. C086030 (D3 Dec. 6, 2018)The Court of Appeal slaps down another constitutional challenge to the repeal of the personal belief exemption to child vaccination laws. The...
View ArticleAll About the Lodestar
Warren v. Kia Motors Am., Inc., No. E068348 (D4d2 Dec. 12, 2018)Plaintiff won a jury verdict for about $17 grand on a Song-Beverly Act claim over a defective Kia Forte. That gave her a statutory right...
View ArticleStatistician as Star Chamber
McCleery v. Allstate Ins. Co., No. B282851 (D2d1 Dec. 14, 2018)Plaintiffs in this wage and hour class action put forward a trial plan where the only evidence on liability would be statistical analyses...
View ArticleOn Appealablity
Donohue v. AMN Servs. Inc., No. D071865 (D4d1 Dec. 10, 2018)The Court of Appeal here affirms a summary judgment for the defendant in a wage and hour case. Something about time clock rounding.But the...
View ArticleProphylaxis, Not Punishment
City of San Diego v. Superior Court, No. D073961 (D4d1 Dec. 19, 2018) Plaintiff is a detective, bringing some employment-related litigation with city’s police Department. Plaintiff’s lawyer also...
View ArticleDQ Is an Equitable, Not Per Se, Standard
Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases, No. F078517 (D5 Dec. 20, 2018) Firm represents two water districts. District 1 has been embroiled in a litigation for almost two decades. District 2—for which a Firm...
View ArticleThey Come in Groups
Etcheson v. FCA US LLC, No. D072793 (D4d1 Dec. 27, 2018)This case is pretty similar to the Warren case decided by the 4/2 two weeks ago. Like Warren, it's a Song-Beverly lemon law case where an...
View ArticleQuickie § 998 Offer Not in Good Faith
Licudine v. Cedars-Sinai Med. Cntr., No. B286350 (D1d2 Jan. 3, 2019)If a Defendant turns down a Plaintiff’s valid § 998 offer and then Plaintiff beats the number at trial, Plaintiff gets to recover...
View ArticleFairwell to California-Forum Going-Private Litigation
Drulias v. 1st Century Bancshares, Inc., No. H045049 (D6 Dec. 21, 2018)Most public companies are incorporated in Delaware. Which means that, under the internal affairs doctrine, Delaware law governs...
View ArticleNominal Statutory Damages Draw Right to Jury Trial
Brown v., Mortensen, No. B281704 (D2d1 Jan. 3, 2019)The Court here holds that there’s a right to jury trial over a claim to recover nominal statutory damages under the Confidentiality of Medical...
View ArticleAccording to Proof Ain’t Worth Jack
Yu v. Liberty Surplus Ins. Corp., No. G054522 (D4d3 Jan. 4., 2019)Although basically everyone does it, it’s not really proper to to demand unquantified “damages according to proof” in a complaint. In...
View ArticleSo That's What Those Are For
Morgan v. Davidson, No. E068.44 (D4d2 Nov. 27, 2018)This is a battery case arising from a fight between neighbors. Plaintiff prevailed and obtained a substantial punitive damages award. There’s two...
View ArticleA Little Victory for the Freedom of Anonymous Speech on the Internet
Roe v. Halbig, No. H043248 (D6 Nov. 20, 2018)Some foil-hatted deplorable claims to be getting at the “truth” of the 2012 Sandy Hill school shootings. He started a GoFundMe campaign and, in testament to...
View ArticleCosts of Proof
Orange Cnty. Water Dist. v. The Arnold Eng’g Co., No. D070763 (D4d1 Jan. 10, 2019)This is a sixty-page opinion entirely devoted to an appeal of an award of $615,000 in costs of proof because the...
View ArticleNo Bar Doesn't Bar DQ
O’gara Coach Co. v. Ra, No. B268730 (D2d7 Jan. 7, 2018)This is kind of a tricky one. Attorney went to law school but didn’t take the bar. He eventually became the CEO of a Company that is the defendant...
View ArticleVoluntary Mediation Fees Are Sometimes a Recoverable Cost
Berkeley Cement, Inc. v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., No. F073455 (D5 Jan 7, 2019)This is one of those long, grab-bag post-trial appeals that raises too many issues. As is typical when parties dilute...
View ArticleA Bondsman, a Surety, and the People Walk into the Court of Appeal . . .
People v. Am. Surety Co., No. E067831 (D4d2 Jan. 15, 2019)Under Code of Civil Procedure § 917.1, by posting an undertaking, a party can stay the enforcement of a money judgment pending appeal. If the...
View ArticleThe Mind of a Jury
Guernsey v. City of Salinas, No. H043283 (D6 Dec. 17, 2018)The Court of Appeal reverses and remands a defense verdict for one defendant because some jury instructions suggested a government immunity...
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