Excerpt: ... potentially recoverable under each theory. At the hearing, the court stated that it was going to rule on the viability of particular theories, but not as to any particular number that could be awarded under any viable theory. The court believed that the specific number would not be the proper function of a motion for summary adjudication, which, after all, still required that the moving party demonstrate no triable issue of fact. The court specu...

Excerpt: ...led this sexual harassment and discrimination action against defendants. Defendants have moved to compel arbitration, claiming that plaintiff so agreed as part of her employment contract. Plaintiff opposes. A party seeking to enforce an arbitration agreement has the initial burden of proving that such an agreement exists. (Giuliano v. Inland Empire Personnel, Inc. (2007) 149 Cal.App.4th 1276.) No matter how broad the alleged arbitration clause an...

Excerpt: ...ts demur on the ground that the complaint is barred by res judicata. Plaintiff opposes. Defendants' request for judicial notice is GRANTED. Although plaintiff objects, the objections were not timely. Even were they timely, though, the documents may be judicially noticed. The request is for an October 12, 2021 minute order issued by the court, the judgment in the earlier case, the notice of entry of that judgment, and various other pleadings filed...

Excerpt: ...erald Dairy. (For convenience, the court refers to defendants collectively because the differentiation does not really matter for purposes of this motion. The court recognizes, of course, that the defendants are different and that in some respects that distinction is important.) The agreement provided that defendants would purchase promissory notes in the amount of $1.75 million and would obtain warrants to purchase a number of shares of common s...

Excerpt: ...100% clear. However, the motion was not in proper format and was difficult (bordering on impossible) to read or understand. On May 3, 2023, the court continued the matter to June 7, 2023 and ordered USCL to submit a new brief that was no longer than 15 pages, and was double- spaced including quotes and footnotes. (The latter because USCL had an unusual number of lines and pages devoted to single-spaced things such that the brief was actually very...

Excerpt: ...s only to the easement; the court recognizes that an easement and an equitable servitude are different things, but the analysis below is the same either way) requiring that the property remain in its natural state. Defendants demur primarily on statute of limitations grounds. They claim that plaintiff was put on inquiry notice way back in 2016 by virtue of a letter sent by the California Coastal Commission that was copied to plaintiff. More on th...

Excerpt: ...ation is set forth (or appears to be set forth) in either the operative complaint or cross-complaint. There is no question but that there is a privacy interest here. Plaintiff is seeking financial records from defendant's financial institution. Those records not only show deposits from various sources, but also payments including the payees. It is private stuff, and there is really no doubt about it. Having successfully articulated a privacy inte...

Excerpt: ...lien-holders who had perfected liens relating to the injury. Plaintiff's counsel asked defense counsel to re-issue the check made out only to plaintiff or plaintiff and her counsel and not the lienholders because the check that had been issued could not be cashed without the lienholders' endorsements. Defendant refused, at least absent a statement from plaintiff's counsel that all the liens had been satisfied. The dispute is this. Defendant conte...

Excerpt: ...default, the default interest rate was to be 4%/month (or 48% per annum). Defendant did not repay the note when due. Plaintiffs (Nuguid) sued on the note and cross-complainant (Sokol) brought the cross-complaint alleging that the note was usurious and sought remedies therefor. Cross- defendants demur, alleging that the note is not usurious under New Jersey law, and that under California's choice of law rules, New Jersey law in fact governs. Sokol...

Excerpt: ...ruary 3, 2023, while their application for a writ of attachment (later granted) was pending. Specifically, plaintiffs sought an order enjoining Knibb from further transferring the proceeds from the loan until plaintiffs have been able to levy on the assets and requiring Knibb to disclose within a day all of the accounts in Knibb's name and to require Knibb to disclose within a day all the accounts into which the $200,000 had been deposited, and t...

Excerpt: ...nt on Monday or Tuesday of next week. As a preliminary matter, the court is aware of the supplemental declaration filed in support of the motion for a preliminary injunction filed yesterday but only available to the court this morning. The declaration consists of attachments only (that is, the declaration was authenticating only; it was not substantive in any other way). The court does not see how that document is particularly germane to the disc...

Excerpt: ...s from Hewitt's personal bank account. Hewitt moved to quash the subpoena. That issue was resolved by way of an IDC before Judge Karlan that resulting in a stipulation signed by the parties and ordered by the court. The order required the production. Plaintiff served the order on Bank of America, which then produced certain records. Plaintiffs contend that as they went through the records, they realized that some were missing. Plaintiffs wrote to...

Excerpt: ...the court does not believe that the flaw is jurisdictional. The major point defendant makes is that in the early meet and confer process, these RFP's were not mentioned. However, defendant agrees that the matter was brought to defendant's attention during the process. Defendant repeatedly agreed to respond, but in fact never did. Defendant claims that the response was tied to the IDC date. That makes no sense to the court at all, although the cou...

Excerpt: ...ly, but the parties are ordered to meet and confer to reach acceptable search term parameters. Plamtiffs Media Rights Capital II, LLC (f/k/a Media Rights Capital II, LP), Knight Takes King Productions, LLC, and MRC II Distribution Company LP (collectively "plaintiffs") filed this insurance coverage action agamst defendants Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London Subscribing to Policy No. DRI 701899/243 (the Undenvnters Policy) and Fireman's Fund ...

Excerpt: ...ners is the developer of a project that aimed to redevelop the iconic Century Plaza Hotel together unth the construction of t'.vo condominium towers. (Compl„ 147.) In 2016, NCP secured 51.016 billion in private construction financing for the project (ld. at 155.) Plaintiffs allege that the senior construction loan of $446 million was from JP Morgan, the senior mezzanine financing of $120 million from CDCF IV, and $450 million in junior mezzanme...

Excerpt: ...mmed that he is not competent to stand trial. Even so, it was also determined that he could not be held involuntarily as a dangerto himself or others, and therefore he is (or was) being released. Plamtiffs allege that they are concerned that Arturo will return to his parents' home and continue to put plaintiffs and their property in jeopardy. Plamtiffs moved for a preliminary injunction to bar defendants from allowing Arturo to move back into the...

Excerpt: ... This is a very interesting discovery motion involving the attorney work product doctrine. (Although sometimes the patties throw in the attorney/client privilege, the work product doctrine seems more apt) At issue here are the notes and drafts of tvvo doctors who provided an opinion that Spacey had a sickness or Illness that was covered under the terms of the policies at issue. A bit of background. Kevin Spacey was mvolved in the production of th...

Excerpt: ...plaintiff. Plaintiff agreed to dismiss the instant case without prejudice, but if the agreed sum was not paid by a date certain, the dismissal would be with prejudice, meaning that plaintiff would no longer stand in the way of a foreclosure sale. Accordmg to plaintiff, the talks hit a glitch because (according to plamtim an unauthorized tenant was living in the home and plaintiff could not realistically sell it with the tenant in place. That mean...

Excerpt: ... 17, about a week and a half before the FSC materials were due. There is no indication that anything had been sent while defendant had counsel. Butbe that as it may, going forward withoutreal FSC materials in a jury trial is a recipe for disaster. Even with that, the court is notternbly sympatheticto defendants predicament The motion to be relieved as counsel was filed on March 10, 2023. There is no indication that defendant did much of anything ...

Excerpt: ...d stand or fall on what defendants knew and when they knew it In other words, ifthe defendants (or either of them) were on notice of this potential danger before plaintiff bought the product but yet kept it on the market, punitive damages was an issue that could well go the jury. On the other hand, if defendants were not on notice of this risk, then continuing to sell the product would not warrant punitive damages as there would be no fraud, oppr...

Excerpt: ... all cases. Rather, they are guidelines as to the court's general views. Each case, of course, will be decided on Its own facts and circumstances, and some of the guidelines below may not apply to particular circumstances. That said, the court does take these views seriously. Discovery Responses The Court provides the following guidance concerning Its general views on some common issues regarding responses to written objections. The Court has not...

Excerpt: ...sert that Honda knew of the defect due to several Techmcal Service Bulletins (TSB) issued as well as from consumer complaints, but that Honda failed to disclose the defectto plaintiffs before the carwaspurchased. (ld., at "21-42.) Plaintiffs' car had this defect Plaintiffs sue for fraud, claiming that Honda had a duty to disclose the problem, but failed to do so. Honda demurs to that cause of action. The parties' requests for judicial notice are ...

Excerpt: ...fers from InterGroup to Doyle during a four month period. Defendant claims that the SI is overbroad but the court disagrees. Whether InterGoup is sending money to Doyle is pertinent to the case. Defendant contends that there is no allegation that Doyle stole money or obtained it wrongfully. But plaintiff need not allege or so prove. The point is that if money is headed Doyle's way, it could support the theory that the investment was a fraud. It a...

Excerpt: ...trial subpoenae are narrower. They must set forth what is being sought with particularity and they must be targeted. They must be necessary to the trial, meaning that they are not available simply because they might lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. The subpoena here is overbroad and invades Pomerantz's privacy without cause. While Buckley adverts to federal law concerning what is private, California law is broader. To get private inf...

Excerpt: ...y of a charging order. Such an order constitutes a lien on the judgment debtor's transferable interest and requires the entity to pay over to the judgment creditor any money that would otherwise have been paid to the judgment debtor. Here, Harari seeks a charging order for Marmon's alleged membership in Joshua Tree 1, LLC. Harari has presented evidence suggesting that Marmon attempted to transfer his interest to his wife as her sole and separate ...

Excerpt: ...19, 2022. That motion was denied as untimely and it did not comply with California Rule of Court 3.1324. As to re-opening discovery, the court stated that it was not clear that re-opening was needed to the extent that the new causes of action were based on the same facts. Further, in that motion, plaintiffs' counsel admitted that he was not sure what discovery was done by prior counsel. In the instant motion, plaintiffs seek to add causes of acti...

Excerpt: ...lopment Corporation, Sweetwater Holdings LLC, and FASP as DOE defendants. Currently before the court is defendants Matthew Dugally, The Dugally Group, LLC, Oberfeld Development Corporation, and Sweetwater Holdings LLC (collectively “DOE defendants”) motion to dismiss and demurrer to the SAC. FASP is a DOE defendant but not a moving party. Hakim opposes. This matter previously came on before the court in September 2022. (9/2/22 MO.) At that po...

Excerpt: ...rm interrogatories. Turning to the RFAs, plaintiff initially sought to compel further responses as to eight of them. Plaintiff withdrew the motion as to three of four as to Kosova. The remaining RFA asks defendant to admit that it “did not disclose to Plaintiff any pre-existing issues” with the car before leasing. The response was that defendant denied “that the subject vehicle had pre-existing issues prior to Plaintiff's lease.” Plaintif...

Excerpt: ...y urges the parties to get this done. Illulian lost the underlying case and he has been ordered to do certain things. His seeming refusal to do them is not a good strategy. While the court does not enjoy contempt proceedings, so long as Illulian faces no more then 180 days in jail the proceeding is a bench trial and the court will reluctantly conduct it. The court hardly relishes such a trial, but if it is needed, Illulian and his wife both face ...

Excerpt: ...aintiff's responses are not sufficient. First, even though not always stated in the form of an objection, some of the introductory text suggesting that plaintiff is not going to produce all documents as requested operates in the same manner as an objection, and that is not sufficient. For example, in the response to request number 1, plaintiff states he will produce all documents as they pertain to the defendant. That is in effect an objection th...

Excerpt: ...ff's employees. One such employee, Venegas, was a bad actor and stole money by creating false documents and submitting them to defendant. Defendant processed the false documents and supposed wages were paid to a non-existent person for the benefit of the erstwhile employee (who had previously been defendant's employee before working directly for plaintiff). Plaintiff contends that defendant breached its contract and committed various torts by not...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiff contends that defendants owe her money. Defendants contend that legally, they do not. At issue here is a motion to compel further responses to certain special interrogatories and requests for production brought by defendants. Preliminarily, plaintiff contends that the meet and confer process was inadequate and she reiterates her request for a discovery referee. (Defendants have no objection to a referee, but they state that they do oppo...

Excerpt: ...formed the procedure so that he could refer plaintiff to PTS for physical therapy. PTS is owned by defendant's wife. Plaintiff has moved to amend the complaint to assert punitive damages and defendant has opposed. The court has continued the motion to allow plaintiff to try and obtain sufficient evidence to warrant the amendment. One avenue plaintiff wants to pursue is PTS's economic interest in plaintiff's referral or the referrals of others by ...

Excerpt: ...ng that the landlord is 93 years old and in very poor health. According to the defense, well before the events leading up to this case she turned management of the property over to her daughter, who is the person with whom plaintiff actually interacted. Defense counsel claims that the defendant actually knows nothing pertinent here and that a deposition will put her in physical jeopardy. Normally, the court would side with plaintiff. While it cou...

Excerpt: ...ere based on the original August 17, 2022 trial date. While the discovery was timely served, the motion was not filed for a timely hearing (even based on the original motion papers). To obtain a ruling, defendant must seek relief from CCP section 2024.020, which requires that discovery motions be set for hearing no less than 15 days before the initial trial date. This is a question of power; the court cannot ignore this deadline. (Pelton‐Shephe...

Excerpt: ...unsigned. Plaintiff also complains that the description was too vague. And plaintiff argues that the motion is improper because it should be a motion for leave to conduct a second examination rather than a motion to compel. Frankly, many of those objections are not ill-taken. But the court is nonetheless inclined to overlook them and construe the motion as one for leave rather than one to compel. The trial is currently set for March 6, 2023. If d...

Excerpt: ...iction proceedings. On August 23, 2022, a notice to pay or quit was served. In October 2022, the parties reached an agreement, confirmed in writing, whereby defendant would make four weekly payments of $26,501.81 each, in return for which plaintiff would dismiss then then-pending UD action. Defendant made the first payment and was late on the next two. The fourth payment was not made. According to plaintiff, there was never an agreement that the ...

Excerpt: ...y McCarty's expert as well as an expert appointed by the court, and the conclusion has been adopted by the criminal court. McCarty has a Guardian ad Litem in this case. Plaintiff here seeks to depose McCarty. McCarty objects based on his mental health issues. McCarty does not object based upon the right against self-incrimination (although McCarty would reserve the right to assert that privilege at any deposition) or on the ground that a depositi...

Excerpt: ... to tax the cost bill submitted on October 6, 2022, by defendants Valley Surgical Center, LLC, Cindy Omidi, Julian Omidi, and Michael Omidi. No hearing is requested at this time.” Not only was there no hearing date in the actual motion, no hearing date was set forth in the caption (likely because, as was stated, no hearing date was requested) and the notice was phrased in the future tense. On November 8, 2022, plaintiff filed a “Renewed Notic...

Excerpt: ...ry low bar. Here, on the day that the opposition was due, defendant sought, ex parte, a continuance under 437c(h). The theory was that defendant suspected that plaintiff had received government assistance to cover lost rents, the implication being that the assistance was in the form of a grant, not a loan, and that recovering the rent as well as the assistance would be a double recovery and windfall. Plaintiff did not make her showing that day ba...

Excerpt: ...f mold in her apartment. (Id. at ¶29.) Plaintiff purportedly contacted management, which sprayed the apartment for treatment and this temporarily alleviated the issue. (Id. at ¶30.) Plaintiff asserts that from 2016 to 2022, she was bitten again and asked management to fumigate again. (Id. at ¶¶31-37.) Management allegedly did not comply with this request. (Ibid.) Plaintiff claims she received a tetanus shot for these bites and the doctor conf...

Excerpt: ... here, but there are also additional motions to compel. Frankly, this case is turning into a procedural quagmire. And it is almost impossible to have a motion without some form of dispute about what was served and when. The Court has addressed these service issues in the past, but apparently to little avail. There is also a history to this case. Last year, there was another discovery dispute. In the course of resolving that dispute, the Court con...

Excerpt: ...vil Procedure section 36. That statute states that a cause of action to recover damages for wrongful death is entitled to preference on motion of a party under 14 years of age unless the Court finds that the moving party does not have a substantial interest in the case as a whole. No one really disputes that this is a wrongful death case or that the children are under 14. The Smuckler defendants seem to contest the age issue, but the Court is not...

Excerpt: ...nding party has the expertise to answer. These are not requests where plaintiff is seeking to force defendant to an early expert witness disclosure; they are requests for information within the responding party's knowledge. The Court also notes that a response to a document request stating that there are no documents to produce must include the information set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.230. The Court also notes that the assert...

Excerpt: ... conclude that it will survive demurrer. Cross‐defendants also claim that they are not liable because the cross‐complaint does not sufficiently allege precisely who is at fault for what. But the cross‐complaint has alleged enough for the pleading stage. Who bears specific responsibility for what, and what (if any) actions were ratified by whom is better tested by summary judgment than demurrer. As to the 789.3 claim, it, too, is a close que...