Liberal Construction Carries the Day
K.J. v. L.A. Unified Sch. Dist., No. S241057 (Cal. Jan. 30, 2020)An Attorney who represents a Kid suing LAUSD got held in contempt by the trial court for obstructing a court-ordered psychiatric exam of...
View ArticleWhy Don't YOU Meet and Confer with Luke Dumas...
Dumas v. L.A. Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors, No. B288554 (D2d4 Feb. 18, 2020) This pro se civil rights case got dismissed after plaintiff failed to show for his depo a couple of times. Plaintiff raises a...
View ArticleWage and Hour Double Dip
Grande v. Eisenhower Med. Ctr., No. E068730 (D4d2 Feb. 6, 2020)Plaintiff is a nurse who works for a Temp Service who assigned her to work at Hospital. She brought a wage and hour class action against...
View ArticleIf a Consumer Never Sees an Ad, Can It Deceive Her?
Downey v. Public Storage, Inc., No. B291662 (D2d2 Feb. 6, 2020)False advertising class action based on deceptive advertisements of a $1 first month promotional rate for storage spaces. There are...
View ArticleWhat's Your Issue, Textron?
Textron, Inc. v. Travelers Cas. & Sur. Co., No. B262933 (D2d4 Feb. 25, 2020)Back in 1991, in connection with a large exposure for environmental contamination, Insured won a declaratory relief claim...
View ArticleMNT after SJ.
Brewer v. Remington, No. F76467 (D5 Mar. 4, 2020)The trial court granted summary judgment for the Defendant in a medmal case based on the statute of limitations. Plaintiff moved for new trial, which...
View ArticleNo Free Pass for Misconduct While Away for the Summer in Federal Court.
Moofly Prods., LLC v. Favila, No. B294825 (D2d1 Mar. 4, 2020)Two issues here: 1. Can a superior court issue terminating sanctions based on conduct that occurred while a case, since remanded, had been...
View ArticleStill Aggrieved After All These Years
Kim v. Reins Int’l. Cal., Inc., No. S246911 (Cal. Mar. 12, 2020)I never thought this 2017 decision made much sense. The California Supreme Court apparently agrees. It holds that a plaintiff’s...
View ArticleAcknowledgement vs. Consent
Reeve v. Meleyco, No. C085867 (D3 Mar. 24, 2020) California is in the minority of jurisdictions that permit lawyers to pay referral fees to other lawyers who do not continue to work on a case. Under...
View ArticleChristynne, I am not your lawyer...
Wood v. Superior Court, No. D076325 (D4d1 Mar. 13, 2020)Plaintiff, a transgender woman, lodged a FEHA complaint against her gym with the DFEH. DFEH decided to bring suit. Plaintiff intervened. In...
View ArticleDomestic Waiver Obviates Need for Service Abroad
Rockefeller Tech. Inv. (Asia) VII v. Changzhou Sinotype Tech., Ltd., No. S249923 (Cal. Apr. 2, 2020)Back in 2018, the Court of Appeal vacated an arbitration award entered by default. The defaulting...
View ArticleNew Formatting Rules
I haven’t yet had occasion to file an appellate brief in either the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court this year. But I just noticed the Rules of Court on some formatting issues were amended as of...
View ArticleMandatory, Not Jurisdictional
Kelly v. House, No. A153735 (D1d1 Apr. 2, 2020) This is a pretty nasty land dispute over a right of first refusal to buy some farmland. The prevailing Plaintiffs sought attorneys’ fees under various...
View ArticleA Life in Litigation
Montrose Chem. Corp. of Cal. v. Canadian Univ. Ins. Co., No. S244737 (Cal. Apr. 6, 2020) So I have this pro bono case that was originally filed in 2002—I was still a 1L—which has been reversed on...
View ArticleThe Transportation Safety Grant Privilege
Ford v. City of L.A., No. B290239 (D2d8 Apr. 1, 2020)Apparently, there’s a federally codified privilege that prevents both the discovery and admissibility of studies and other work undertaken in...
View ArticleRight of Publicity Case Gets SLAPPed
Pott v. Lazarin, No. H044587 (D6 Mar. 30, 2020)Plaintiffs’ daughter was sexually assaulted, and afterwards, her assailants distributed photographs of the assault. She committed suicide shortly...
View ArticleThe Logical Limits of an Element Based Anti-SLAPP Analysis
Spencer v. Mowat, No. B295738 (D2d5 Mar. 24, 2020)Plaintiffs in this case allege that defendants are a gang of local surfers in the PV who have conspired in a campaign of intimidation and violence to...
View ArticleCalifornia Agrees: Only One Hit on the American Pipe
Montoya v. Ford Motor Co., No. G045752 (D4d3 Mar. 12, 2020)In 2018’s China Agritech v. Resh, the U.S. Supreme Court held that so-called American Pipe tolling tolls a class member’s statute of...
View ArticleFacebook III
Facebook, Inc. v. Superior Court, No. A157143 (D1d5 Mar. 6, 2020)This is on appeal again following remand from the Supreme Court’s decision in Facebook v. Superior Court. There, the court held that the...
View ArticleSelective Lawlessness Is Still Lawlessness
Siry Inv., L.P. v. Farkhondhepour, No. B277750 (D2d2, as modified Mar. 23, 2020)The trial court in this long-running partnership dispute entered a $7 million default judgment as a terminating sanction...
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