Excerpt: ...nsel also should provide a red-lined version of any revised papers, including the notice to the class. The Notice to Class on p. 4 incorrectly states the amount of PAGA penalties to be paid to the LWDA under the Settlement Agreement (¶47) as $10,000 rather than $7,500, and thus incorrectly states the Net Settlement Amount as $637,500 rather than $630,000. The Settlement Agreement defines the Putative Class on p. 3 in ¶24 as starting on August 1...

Excerpt: ...re plaintiffs must make sure they timely file and serve all their papers in this case, and serve them in compliance with the Code of Civil Procedure. Plaintiffs' Complaint does not allege compliance with the Government Claims Act, Gov. Code §§810, et seq., for any of plaintiffs' tort-based causes of action. Attaching a copy of an alleged claim directed to the City of Garden Grove cannot take the place of alleging compliance in the Complaint, es...

Excerpt: ...aintiffs intend to allege both types of fraud, they should have separate causes of action, and clearly allege, as against all three of the defendants, the facts and elements required of each different type of fraud in each of their separate causes of action. Plaintiffs also must allege their fraud claims with the specificity required of such claims. Conclusory allegations will not suffice. The Status Conference set for today is continued to Octob...

Excerpt: ...settlement that includes $7,500 being paid to each of seven allegedly aggrieved employees who are not named plaintiffs in this action, like the other six named plaintiffs who have asserted individual claims for relief. Counsel's assertion that those seven people filed arbitration actions against defendant is insufficient to bring those claims into this case without a pleading having been filed on their behalf. Since a PAGA settlement involves one...

Excerpt: ...ded settlement agreement. Counsel also must provide a red-lined version of any revised papers, including the proposed letter to the aggrieved employees. Although the settlement agreement provides in ¶33 that uncashed checks will be deposited in the California Unclaimed Property Fund in the name of the employees, the cover letter to be sent with the aggrieved employees' PAGA checks provides that any uncashed checks will go to the California Depar...

Excerpt: ...t identifies an allegedly unfair business practice and potentially seeks restitution of the premium plaintiffs paid, they state a cause of action. Kapsimallis v. Allstate Ins. Co. (2002) 104 Cal. App. 4th 667, 676. Defendant's arguments that go to the merits of plaintiffs' case have no relevance to this kind of motion. Defendant USAA Casualty Ins. Co.'s unopposed Motion to Bifurcate Punitive Damages and Exclude USAA CIC's Financial Condition is g...

Excerpt: ...icy, is not a proper subject for summary adjudication under CCP §437c(f)(1). Defendant Casa Apartments LP's Objections to Declaration of Robert Closson are sustained. As a result, there is no foundation for the relevant insurance policy and application. While there is testimony within the deposition of defendant Sohi confirming that a document marked as Exhibit 15 is the Application for the 2014-2015 policy he signed, Exhibit 15 is not provided ...

Excerpt: ...al, but plaintiff alleges in ¶38 that due to the taping of the sprinkler heads the fire sprinkler covers would not open as required during a fire, and the sprinklers would not deploy to put out the fire, creating a serious safety issue that put tenants and visitors at risk. Defendant argues plaintiff fails to allege that defendant had knowledge of the concealed defects, but plaintiff alleges in ¶97 that defendant knew of the material fire sprin...

Excerpt: ... of efforts and inefficiency. Although plaintiff has cited cases authorizing this court to award a fee multiplier to the lodestar, this court will not do so, just like 40 of the 44 courts did not do so in the 44 cases cited by plaintiff in paragraphs 34-77 of his attorney's declaration. Plaintiff's counsel's contingency and payment delay risks appear to be taken into consideration in setting counsel's hourly rates in this contingency case, making...

Excerpt: ...t approval of a PAGA or Class Action settlement files the settlement agreement, and the parties must do so here as well. If the parties want to file the settlement agreement conditionally under seal, and file a Motion to Seal, they are free to do so, and the court will consider the motion pursuant to CRC Rules 2.550 and 2.551. The court notes that it does not appear that the individual settlement amount is confidential, because the motion disclos...

Excerpt: ...Hearing is set for January 10, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. The parties must file a Joint Status Report at least a week before the hearing, and may request a continuance if arbitration is not yet complete. Defendant has shown that there exists a valid written agreement to arbitrate the claims asserted by plaintiff and that no grounds exist to bar enforcement of the agreement. CCP §1281.2. The FAA applies since defendant is engaged in interstate commerce. P...

Excerpt: ...ear to be taken into consideration in setting counsel's hourly rates in this contingency case, making it improper for this court to use a multiplier based on those same factors. Robertson v. Fleetwood Travel Trailers of California, Inc. (2006) 144 Cal. App. 4th 785, 822. In addition, defendant made a 998 offer for the full purchase price of the vehicle only five days after plaintiff filed this case. For plaintiff to confidently refuse the offer s...

Excerpt: ... add up, and because plaintiffs failed to provide the court with an updated figure for the amount of payroll taxes to be paid from the settlement funds, the court cannot figure this out for itself. Plaintiffs request attorneys' fees of $98,418.26 based on that number being 1/3 of the settlement amount minus the employer's share of payroll taxes to be paid from the settlement funds. Since 1/3 of $300,000 is $100,000, the difference of $1,581.74 su...

Excerpt: ...ters stated within documents. This action is ordered stayed pending completion of the arbitration. The Status Conference set for today is ordered off calendar. A Post-Arbitration Review Hearing is set for December 6, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. The parties must file a Joint Status Report at least a week before the hearing, and may request a continuance if arbitration is not yet complete. Defendants have shown that there exists a valid agreement to arbitrat...

Excerpt: ...“In computing the time within which service must be made pursuant to this article, there shall be excluded the time during which any of the following conditions existed: The validity of service was the subject of litigation by the parties.” Here, plaintiffs purported to serve defendant Nguyen with the Summons and First Amended Complaint by substituted service on April 28, 2018. Defendant failed to respond, and plaintiffs had his default enter...

Excerpt: ...s a 50% shareholder of CSS. Thus, even if all this litigation had never been filed, Wardak would have been free to invoke the involuntary dissolution procedures of Corp. Code §1900(a). This ruling is without prejudice to (1) a petition under Corp. Code §1904 asking the court to take jurisdiction over the voluntary winding-up proceeding if it appears necessary for the protection of any parties in interest, or (2) defendants, or any other appropr...

Excerpt: ...ut of having their personal information disclosed in response to a mutually agreeable (or court- ordered) Belaire-West notice, whose cost defendant fully bears. In addition, defendant's supplemental response to Special Interrogatory #30 may be limited to “AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES” instead of “PERSONS”, as defined in plaintiff's Special Interrogatories. Plaintiff indicated a willingness to have a Belaire-West notice sent in connection with the ...

Excerpt: ...istrator's fee is $20,000 (P's & A's at 6:26, Settlement Agreement at p. 4, proposed Order at 2:22) or $12,000 (P's & A's at 7:13, Nordrehaug declaration at 4:2). The distribution numbers do not add up. The Settlement Agreement on p. 3, in Section III(4), says the allocations to be paid from the $450,000 gross settlement amount are the $168,000 PAGA payment, $150,000 in attorneys' fees, $12,000 in attorney costs, and not to exceed $20,000 for the...

Excerpt: ...f nebulous evidentiary objections, a fair sample of which appear to be meritless, the court can properly overrule, and a reviewing court ignore, all of the objections on the ground that they constitute oppression of the opposing party and an imposition on the resources of the court”. Plaintiff's Objection #24, 26-28, 38-39, 41, 58 and 61, which object to statements of direct, personal knowledge, which the court can address without having to dig...

Excerpt: ...should provide a red-lined version of any revised papers, including the notice to the class. Counsel must explain why the parties are using April 1, 2014 as the start date for both subclasses, since the pleadings used October 18, 2013 as the start date. Counsel also must explain why the parties are using October 31, 2018, rather than the date of preliminary approval or some other later date, as the end-date for the Commissions/Break Class. The se...

Excerpt: ...has considered plaintiff's argument, but believes that some of defendants' employees could implement the proposed new employee instructions in a way that would violate Civil Code §1747.08 (and thus also sections 1.2 and 1.3 of the Settlement Agreement). The last sentence of the last paragraph is not clear enough to be sure of a consistently proper interpretation, and must be modified to clearly instruct defendants' employees to comply with the l...

Excerpt: ...ecord. Patel's claims are subject to conflict preemption under ERISA. In Port Medical Wellness, Inc. v. Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. (2018) 24 Cal. App. 5th 153, the court summarized the ERISA preemption doctrine in the context applicable to this case: “Stated simply, these cases (and others cited therein) stand generally for the proposition that a health care provider that treats a beneficiary of a welfare benefit plan may assert a claim ...

Excerpt: ...an amendment to the settlement agreement rather than any amended settlement agreement. Counsel also should provide a red-lined version of any revised papers. Plaintiff requests the dismissal of this action, but CRC Rule 3.769(h) provides that when a court approves a class action settlement, the court must make and enter judgment. This Rule suggests that in a PAGA case a Judgment should also be entered, consistent with class action settlements, an...

Excerpt: ...so should provide a red-lined version of any revised papers, including the notice to the class. The moving points and authorities are 22 pages long, far exceeding the 15-page limit of CRC Rule 3.1113(d) and even the 20-page limit of CRC Rule 3.764(c)(2) for motions to certify a class, which usually are contested. The court expressly orders that plaintiff's points and authorities in support of the Motion for Final Approval be limited to no more th...

Excerpt: ...so should provide a red-lined version of any revised papers, including the notice to the class. All such documents must have numbered pages, unlike the Addendum to Class Action Settlement filed for this hearing. In addressing Section 14.2 of the settlement agreement, which provides that the attorneys' fees award will include work done by past class counsel, plaintiff explained work done by and payment to The Cooper Law Firm, but nothing as toHaeg...