This Release Does Not Compute
Ignacio v. Caracciolo, No. B266930 (D2d8 Aug. 3, 2016) This is another case where an insurance company gets over its skis by making a Code of Civil Procedure § 998 offer of judgment that tries to do...
View ArticleMore on How to Deal with CCP § 425.16(e)(4).
City of Montebello v. Vasquez, No. S219052 (Cal. Aug.8, 2016).Another big anti-SLAPP opinion drops from the Cal. Supremes.I wrote on this case the first time around back in 2014 . It’s a lawsuit...
View ArticlePutting the System on Trial!
Weiss v. City of LA, No. B259858 (D2d4 Aug. 8, 2016) The Vehicle Code provides for three separate levels of review of parking tickets: First an initial paper review, conducted by “the issuing agency,”...
View ArticleBut How Can a Brown Act Claim Be a SLAPP?
Cruz v. City of Culver City, No. B265690 (D2d8 Aug. 8, 2016) We’ve had a pretty good run of decent anti-SLAPP decisions lately, so I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed with this one. But it’s a real...
View ArticleService on DeadCo's Authorized Agent Is Service Nonetheless
Pulte Homes Corp. v. Williams Mechanical, Inc., No. E064710 (D4d2 Aug. 9, 2016) A defunct plumbing company whose charter had been suspended got sued for negligent performance of a contract. Plaintiff...
View ArticleWe Don't Need No Stinkin' Lodestar...
Laffitte v. Robert Half Int’l, No. S222996 (Cal. Aug. 11, 2016) A long time ago, in Serrano v. Priest, 20 Cal. 3d 25 (1977)—Serrano III, the first two Serranos being about equal educational opportunity...
View ArticleDon't Need a Physiscist to Know What a Fender Bender Looks Like ...
Christ v. Schwartz, No. D068579 (D4d1 Aug. 12, 2016) Appeal from a defense verdict in a low-speed car accident case. Plaintiffs are the victim and her husband, who is suing for loss of consortium....
View ArticleYou Can Now Stop Drafting Those Rough Proportionality Instructions
City of Perris v. Stamper, No. S213468 (Cal. Aug. 15, 2016) The Court of Appeal decision in this case came down more than three years ago. I wrote about it in one of my first posts. Without rehashing...
View ArticleMunsingwear ...
La Mirada Neighborhood Assoc. of Hollywood v. City of LA, No B258033 (D2d7 Aug. 16, 2016) Generally, an action that moots a controversy while an appeal is pending results only in the dismissal of the...
View ArticleShe'll Have to Wait.
Young v. REMX, Inc. No. A143786 (D1d5 Aug. 17, 2016) The denial of a motion to compel arbitration is immediately appealable. See Code Civ. Proc. § 1294(a). But an order granting a motion to compel...
View ArticleShe'll Have to Wait Too.
Sese v. Wells Fargo Bank, No. C074663 (D3 Aug 18, 2016)A recently enacted statute addressing mortgage litigation permits the award of attorneys’ fees to a prevailing borrower. Te Homeowner here won a...
View ArticleTaking Isn't, But Talking Is
Greco v. Greco, No. C078369 (D3 Aug. 23, 2016) In his capacity as trustee of his parents’ trust and estate, Son uses the trust’s funds to engage in a bunch of allegedly poorly conceived litigation...
View ArticleCan't SLAPP on a Settlement Deal
Suarez v. Trigg Labs., Inc., No. B264511 (D2d4 Sept. 7, 2016) Settlement discussions are included within the anti-SLAPP statute’s protection as “any written or oral statement or writing made in...
View ArticleSo Much for Diamler . . .
Bristol-Myers Squibb. Co. v. Superior Court, No. S221038 (Cal. Aug. 29, 2016) Certain kinds of litigation gravitate towards California, even when neither the plaintiff nor the defendant is resident or...
View ArticleWhy Arbitrations Tend to Go on Too Long ...
Royal Alliance Assocs., Inc. v. Liebhaber, No. B264619 (D2d4 Aug. 30, 2016) It’s pretty hard to get an arbitration award vacated. The arbitrator’s error, even a really really bad one, is not enough....
View ArticleNo Arb for Trailer Park
Penilla v. Westmont Corp., No. B262097 (D2d4 Sept. 9, 2016) The court here finds an arbitration provision in a mobile home park rental agreement to be unconscionable. Procedurally unconscionable in...
View ArticleAnd Now for Some Qui Tam . . .
People ex rel Allstate Ins. Co. v. Dahan, No. B259799 (D2d3 Sept. 15, 2016) This is kind of interesting. A relator wins a false claims act case in which the government declined to intervene. The losing...
View ArticleGood Luck to All That
Randall v. Mousseau, No. B263945 (D2d7, as amended, Sept. 16, 2016)In California, the appellant bears the burden of showing error. That means, among other things, that she needs to present the record...
View ArticleNice Try...
Perez v. U-Haul of Cal., No. B262029 (D2d7 Sept. 16, 2016) The California Supreme Court held that PAGA claims aren’t arbitrable in the oft-cited Iskanian case. Defendant here raised a clever argument...
View ArticleWife Fails to Bounce Divorce Judge with § 170.6 Gambit
Rothstein v. Superior Court, No. B275603 (D2d5 Sept. 16, 2016). During Husband and Wife’s divorce case, Wife filed a peremptory challenge against the family law judge under Code of Civil Procedure §...
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