Excerpt: ...ated seven causes of achon against the City and various Does who allegedly "completely dominate[] and control[]" the City. (Complaint at 12a.) The causes of action alleged were: (1) Discrimination in Violation of the FEHA (based on alleged discrimination against Amir for his "specific religious beliefs"); (2) Retaliation in Violation of the FEHA (based on alleged protected activ-ty consisting of requesting accommodation for his religious beliefs)...

Excerpt: ... Contract; (3) Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; and (4) Slander/Defamation (violation of Civil Code SS 43 and 46). The FAC alleged that Majors worked for Thing5 from December 2, 2019 until his termination on September 29, 2021. (See FAC at 21 and 4.) Included in Exhibit B to the FAC was a copy of Majors's employment offer letter and a copy of Thing5's Employee Handbook from August 2019. The offer letter expressly sta...

Excerpt: ...ng this motion. Tuan's counsel sent one substantive, sharply worded letter to Applied's counsel on December 8, 2022, in which he addressed Applied's objections and answers, and in which he concluded with a threat of monetary sanctions. After Applied responded to this letter, Tuan's counsel never responded substantively again, and he refused to engage in multiple efforts by Applied's attorneys to have a dialogue to resolve their disputes. In an em...

Excerpt: ... judgment debtors Qury Technologies, Inc. ("Qury Tech"), Wei Zheng ("Zheng"), Zhe Liu ("Liu"), and Huican Zhu ("Zhu") appeared, claiming that notice was insufficient and requesting additional time to file an opposition. The court granted the request, continuing the hearing to April 25, 2023 and setting a briefing schedule. The court also granted proposed judgment debtors' request to file a surreply brief. Having now considered all of the submissi...

Excerpt: ...d. 1. Procedural History On September 15, 2022, this court (Judge Kirwan) granted Gargano's motion for judgment on the pleadings, concluding that Plaintiffs' first cause of action and Permanent Injunction") and second cause of action ("Accounting") failed to state sufficient facts to constitute proper causes of action. In particular, the court concluded: (1) that the causes of action were in the nature of derivative claims rather than direct clai...

Excerpt: ...PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Li originally filed this case on July 7, 2020, alleging that Yu and Dæ Defendants 1-10 made false statements about her on a social media application (WeChat). Li subsequently added defendants Zheng, Wu, Peng, and Wang. On June 7, 2021, Li filed the operative Second Amended Complaint (the "SAC") against Defendants, asserting the following causes of action: 1. DEFAMATION PER SE (AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS); AND 2. DEFAMATION PER ...

Excerpt: ...ition"); (2) Request for Production No. 36 (which requests documents reflecting measures taken by the Church from 1990-2005 to protect children from sexual abuse); and (3) the corresponding person-most-knowledgeable deposition topics for these document requests (Topic Nos. 1 and 2). C.N. has filed a motion to compel further responses to this same discovery. In addition, C.N. requests monetary sanctions in connection with both motions. In its oppo...

Excerpt: ...January 5, 2023, Chase filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings ("JOP motion"). On February 27, 2023, Porras filed a declaration in opposition to the JOP Motion. He also filed an amended declaration on April 12, 2023. II. LEGAL STANDARD A plaintiff's JOP motion is proper when: (1) the complaint states facts sufficient to constitute causes of action against the defendant, and (2) the defendant's answer does not state facts sufficient to consti...

Excerpt: ...nicated productively about it. 80th sides sent needlessly contentious correspondence to the other. They should have been working cooperatively toward achieving a common goal: a prompt dismissal of this case with prejudice. The court finds that both sides are to blame for this situation. In addition, both sides shared the common goal of dismissal, so there is no "winner" or "loser," in the traditional sense, in connection with the ex parte applica...

Excerpt: ...e judicial reference provision is part of a void and invalid contract. The court finds Plaintiffs' arguments to be unpersuasive and concludes that the agreement may be enforced in this case. Nevertheless, the court also believes that ATI's motion may be incomplete, as it does not include any of the information required by rules 3.901 and 3.902 of the California Rules of Court. As a result, the court grants ATI's motion, as far as it goes, but the...

Excerpt: ...in Violation of Public Policy), and on September 29, 2022, the court (Judge Kirwan) sustained the demurrer with leave to amend. Dornidon filed her first amended complaint ("FAC") on October 11, 2022, alleging the same causes of action as in the original complaint: (1) Breach of Contract and (2) Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy. SHC now brings this demurrer to the second cause of action, arguing that it still fails to allege suff...

Excerpt: ... shelving and sorting books and miscellaneous closing duties. Laurent contends that he was fired from the Library because of his disabilities, which include autism and compartment syndrome, which Laurent describes as increased pressure in an anatomic compartment (of the leg), causing chronic knee pain. On May 2, 2018, Laurent approached his supervisor, Gena Cortez, and asked her to provide him with a different task from the shelving duties to whi...

Excerpt: ...ition brief is not yet due on that last motion. All three of these motions are interrelated, however, as evidenced by frequent references to the propriety of Google's confidentiality designations in the briefing on the first two motions, particularly by plaintiff Satrajit Chatterjee ("Chatterjee"). Nevertheless, because the third motion appears to raise the most substantive issues of the three, and because the court does not yet know the full ext...

Excerpt: ... BACKGROUND A. Factual Allegations in the Complaint Plaintiff Applied Materials, Inc. ("Applied") supplies equipment, services, and software for fabrication of semiconductor products. (Complaint ("Compl.") '16.) It brings this action against defendants Huu Vu ("Huu") and Tuan Vu ("Tuan") (brothers and former employees of Applied) 3 , defendant James Nguyen dba Mechatronics Engineering Group ("Nguyen"), and defendant Capital Asset Exchange & Tradi...

Excerpt: ...sona, [slhe is entitled to the same, but no greater, consideration than other litigants and attorneys. Further, the in propria persona litigant is held to the same restrictive rules of procedure as an attorney." (Burnete v. La Casa Dana Apartments (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 1262, 1267, internal citatons omitted; see also Rappleyea v. Campbell (1994) 8 Cal.4th 975, 985.) The original complaint in this action, filed on June 20, 2019, stated claims for:...

Excerpt: ...-represented here, is a full-time physician for the County at the South County Clinic, run by Substance Use Treatment Services ("SUTS"). (SAC at 1.) He has been employed as a category "P28" Senior Staff Physician II since July 2013. (SAC at '1 1, 30.) Per County records, he is paid every two weeks with the terms and conditions of his employment set forth in the Memorandum of understanding ("MOU") between the County and the Union of American Physi...

Excerpt: ...ity. Johnson visited the California Pizza Kitchen located at 136 El Camino Real in Palo Alto California in May and June 2021 and alleges that he was "deterred from physically attempting to sit" at the restaurant as a result of noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). The complaint states two causes of action: (1) Violation of the Unruh Act; and (2) Violation of the California Disabled Persons Act. The complaint primarily re...

Excerpt: ..., subdivision (e), of the Code of Civil Procedure i.e., on the ground that the complaint fails to state sufficient facts to allege a cause of action. A. Factual Allegations in the Complaint Catchlight filed the complaint on June 24, 2022. It alleges that Zhu misappropriated and absconded with investments that were originally made by Zhen Partners, a venture capital firm, in 2017. (Complaint, 2-3.) In that year, Zhen Partners and Leadvisor entered...

Excerpt: ...s, the requests at issue are: Nos. 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, and 20. For the reasons set forth below, the court DENIES the motion. As an initial matter, Travelers points out that Plaintiffs' motion is untimely. Travelers served its amended responses to the requests for production on November 22, 2022, and so Plaintiffs' deadline to file their motion was January 10, 2023 (45 days + 2 court days). Plaintiffs did not file the Notice of Motion until ...

Excerpt: ...fessor at Stanford, asserted that he was entitled to reimbursement for expenses incurred in bringing a lawsuit to defend both his academic integrity and that of others. The underlying Labor Code proceeding (sometimes referred to as a "Berman hearing") "is designed to provide a speedy, informal, and affordable method of resolving wage claims." (Post v. Palo/Haklar & Assocs. (20W) 23 Cal.4th 942, 947; see also Arias v. Kardoulias (2012) 207 Cal.App...

Excerpt: ...020. She filed a First Amended Complaint ("FAC") on September 15, 2020. She filed a Second Amended Complaint ("SAC") on April 28, 2022. The SAC stated 11 causes of action: (1) Gender Discrimination in Violation of the FEHA; (2) Retaliation; (3) Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy; (4) Failure to Pay Overtime Wages; (5) unpaid Meal Period Wages; (6) Unpaid Rest Period Wages; (7) Failure to Pay All Wages Due; (8) Failure to Provide A...

Excerpt: ... for negligent misrepresentation. A. Facts On November 30, 2017, third-party Kurt Orban Partners, LLC entered into an $85,000,000 credit facility with several lenders, including Plaintiffs. (FAC, '13.) Initial and subsequent funding underthe credit facility was conditioned on Kurt Orban Partners, LLC's delivery of an unqualified audit opinion on its consolidated financial statements. (Ibid.) Accordingly, Kurt Orban Partners, LLC retained Squar to...

Excerpt: ...this case. De La Rosa's Retail Installment Sales Contract ("sales contract") with Premier included an agreement to arbitrate all claims arising out of or relating to the "purchase or condition of this vehicle, this contract or any resulting transaction or relationship (including any such relationship with third parties who do not sign this contract).. " Although Nissan was not a signatory to this sales contract, De La Rosa alleges that "[allong w...

Excerpt: ...nits and 18 office units. Plaintiff filed the original complaint in this action on May 28, 2021. It filed the operative First Amended Complaint ("FAC") on August 12, 2021. The FAC states five causes of action against Defendant and various Does: (1) "Breach of CCRs and Civil Code 4775"; (2) "Breach of the SAR Contract"; (3) Negligence; (4) Common Counts and Quantum Meruit; and (5) Declaratory Relief. Both the original complaint and the FAC allege ...

Excerpt: ...llectively, "Defendants") breached a settlement agreement that arose from a loan ownership dispute between the Trust and Neal. (SAC, '1 12.) Neal filed that underlying loan ownership dispute against the Trust, which Neal alleges was represented by Robinson and WFZ. (ld. at '1 14) Neal also alleges that on December 30, 2021, he made an initial offer of $750,000 "in exchange for conveyance of complete title of the subject property to Plaintiff by D...