Excerpt: ...he court will inquire whether the sanctions were paid. This is a landlord -tenant action filed by the tenant against the landlords. Although plaintiff has not lived in the unit for some time due to alleged hazardous conditions, she has continued to maintain legal possession of the unit. At issue in this motion is an inspection done by her expert. Although plaintiff has possession of her unit, and she has legal access to common spaces, she does no...

Excerpt: ...v. Moriana (2022) ___ U.S. ___, 142 S.Ct. 1906; Adolph v. Uber Technologies (2023) 14 Cal.5th 1104.) In fact, in Adolph , the plaintiff's second amended complaint (like this one) alleged only a PAGA claim. The problem plaintiff has is that although there is no obligation for a PAGA plaintiff to seek personal damages, to have standing to assert a PAGA claim as a representat ive the named plaintiff must have been “aggrieved” by the wage and hou...

Excerpt: ...er 14, 2023. On December 19, 2023, the court heard the motion and granted it. The court ordered that verified, code-compliant responses be served within 5 court days without objection other than privilege. But the court also stated that if Weiss and Hamer believed that the December 14, 2023, responses complied with the court's December 19, 2023, order, they could stand on those responses. The court warned, though, that if they stood on their resp...

Excerpt: ...that occurred after1/1/20, plaintiff has 3 years to go to the DFEH. The incidents here seem to have occurred in 2019, so plaintiff had 1 year to go to the DFEH. (It is not 100% clear that all of the conduct took place in 2019—the complaint is a bit vague on that.) Plaintiff alleges that she filed a timely claim with the DFEH. Although the actual claim is not attached, there is no requirement that it be attached and the court will presume that t...

Excerpt: ...elements do not require the specificity defendants demand. The demurrer is therefore OVERRULED as to Solis Design Studio. The demurrer is SUSTAINED WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND as to negligence per se (the seventh cause of action) because negligence per se is not a separate cause of action. Negligence per se is a form of negligence where a law or regulation provides the applicable standard of care, which is only an element of the cause of action. Becau...

Excerpt: ...r proper; defendant has met its burden of justification. As to requests 1-51, plaintiff has not filed any response at all. Even the supplemental responses fail to address the first fifty-one requests. The motion is therefore GRANTED as to those requests. Request 52 seeks documents relative to the location of the funds plaintiff received from Housing is Key. Defendant asserts that this money should have been paid to it because the money was for re...

Excerpt: ...urt will not stand on that technicality for purposes of deciding the instant demurrer. The gist of the contract is that defendant breached a contract by failing to pay plaintiff for services rendered. The contract at issue is reflected in a series of emails between the parties. Defendant demurs on grounds of uncertainty. Such demurrers are disfavored and succeed only where the complaint is so opaque that defendant (and the court) simply cannot un...

Excerpt: ...ile a redacted version in the public domain, but to file the unredacted version under seal. Plaintiff contends that the redacted portions discuss private medical issues relating to Spacey, a third party in this litigation (although a central figure). According to plaintiff, the information that is being redacted is similar in nature to information redacted during the demurrer hearings. Defendant objects. According to defendant, a lot has changed ...

Excerpt: ...an automatic renewal program the carrier had offered. Under that program, plaintiffs had pre-authorized premium payments to be made so as to renew the policy without the need for plaintiffs to take any affirmative action. Allegedly unbeknownst to plaintiffs, however, the carrier discontinued the program. As a result, the carrier did not collect the premium and the policy lapsed. Plaintiffs allege that they never received any notices warning them ...

Excerpt: ...nd responses were due on October 31, 2023. However, the responses were not served. When Surgical Center inquired, Strom's counsel said it was an oversight. Surgical Center gave Strom extensions, but that did not lead to responses. Surgical Center even agreed (at least initially) not to claim that good faith objections were waived, but even so, responses were not served. Further, Surgical Center claims that it has proof that Strom's counsel's clai...

Excerpt: ...dismissed. However, Donald Sterling is also a named defendant. He demurs, claiming that there are no allegations (other than boilerplate alter ego stuff) that tie him into anything. His claim is that he is named for the publicity it brings to harass him, and for no other reason. Plaintiff contends that Beverly Hills Properties is a part of the case, but it is only a DBA. Accordingly, those who are humans behind the DBA are properly named, and, ac...

Excerpt: ...n threatening the motion. Responses were served on November 15, 2023, but defendant had some problems with the response, leading to another letter written on November 20, 2023. On November 29, 2023, plaintiff's counsel wrote to say his email had been hijacked and that there would be supplemental responses forthcoming. But no supplemental responses were served. On December 1, 2023, defendant wrote again, and plaintiff promised to supplement by Dec...

Excerpt: ...has moved to compel responses and there is no opposition. The motions to compel further responses to the RFAs are GRANTED. Verified responses without objection other than privilege will be served within 30 days of today. The court notes that plaintiff did not seek to deem the matters admitted, which is a gift to the defense. The requests for production are more difficult. Even where there has been no response, the propounding party must demonstra...

Excerpt: ...orce the fee provision. He also notes that plaintiff would have sought fees from him. Plaintiff opposes. Plaintiff asserts that Shiri was sued only in tort; he was not sued for breach of contract. In point of fact, as Shiri points out, he was initially sued for breach of contract, although that was dropped in the amended complaint. The court believes that the contractual language is broad enough to support fees here given that the tort is interfe...

Excerpt: ... that the unredacted materials were not properly filed under conditional seal. Defendant contends that in fact the filing was done properly on October 27, 2023. For now, the court will assume a timely filing by the defense, although the court will inquire. Turning to the merits, the standard is well settled. The moving party must show that there is an overriding interest that overcomes the public's interest in access, the overriding interest supp...

Excerpt: ...oduced (as to these requests). Plaintiff first contends that objections were waived because they were served a day or two late. In fact, though, it appears that they were served on time. Defendant argues that the RFP's relating to employment are not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Had defendant not camouflaged that objection with the other boilerplate ones, the court might have agreed, although that is not c...

Excerpt: ...d that they will be produced but only subject to a confidentiality order or agreement. Plaintiff has refused to so agree as to those documents (but has as to other documents). Turning first to the policies and procedures, the court generally agrees with plaintiff. It is up to defendant to make at least some showing as to why those documents should be subject to a confidentiality stipulation. Although those stipulations have become less cumbersome...

Excerpt: ...hitect until after the site inspection. They claim that to get a certificate of merit (as is required to sue the architect) they needed to have both the actual plans (which they claim that they did not get until relatively late) and also inspect the site, which plaintiff would not allow until about a month before the motion was filed. It is and was proper to get the certificate of merit before suing the architect and the court is not prepared to ...

Excerpt: ..., but have no actual ownership of the entity. What it did have was a 28% income interest. That interest was held “in trust” by CVC and Samara. Plaintiff was therefore not an NHH member and did not sign the NHH Operating Agreement. Rather, plaintiff and defendants signed what has been referred to as the “November Agreement,” which governed plaintiff's rights. Eventually, there was a capital call to fund a change in the hotel's flag. (The N...

Excerpt: ...rts that now that trial is fast approaching the need has changed. The information in question consists of updated financial figures. It is updated in that it consists of more current information than the information previously provided. The confidentiality agreement and order states that if a party seeks to challenge a designation, it will notify the producing party and give the specific reasons for the challenge. Plaintiff here notified the defe...

Excerpt: ...to use Kings as the auctioneer. Kings has not yet valued the artwork. Generally, before the process begins, Kings (according to its principal) takes physical possession of the art to be sold. Here, however, defendant does not want Kings to have physical possession. At first, that seems like an attempt to delay the auction. But the court is not so sure. Defendant's position is that once Kings has established an estimate, defendant will turn over t...

Excerpt: ...e, especially given the alternatives offered in both the opposition and reply. Defendant offered to provide a redacted settlement agreement (but never produced it) and plaintiffs offered to have documents produced pursuant to a protective order. The court questions why these alternatives are offered in briefing and not in meet and confer efforts. However, while these were offered in briefing, that is no substitute for a meet and confer. The court...

Excerpt: ...sought—on multiple occasions—a preliminary injunction or TRO to allow him to stay on the property. Those motions were denied because the court found that plaintiff had not shown a likelihood of success on the merits. The written contracts all had fee-shifting clauses. Defendant obtained summary judgment and now seeks fees. There is an initial question whether fees are recoverable. Defendant has argued, with force although ultimately not fully...

Excerpt: ... necessary assistance at meals and that plaintiff would often feed himself. According to plaintiff, defendant was reminded of the risk whenever a family member came to visit. Even so, plaintiff contends, defendant failed to take the appropriate steps. Plaintiff further contends that defendant understaffed even knowing of the risk that presented. On June 5, decedent was found with coffee ground emesis and was in respiratory distress. Plaintiff ass...

Excerpt: ...es were served right before the motion was filed. Those supplemental responses are the same: “After an exhaustive search attached is a true and correct copy of all responsive documents in Plaintiff's possession documents are attached as Exhibit 1 and 2.” Plaintiff is correct that this is not code-compliant. The code is quite specific as to the response. The response must be that the production “will be allowed either in whole or in part, an...