Excerpt: ... 2d 7, 8, referencing repealed Art. XII, Section 16. Code of Civil Procedure, section 395(a), states (at its pertinent parts): “Except as otherwise provided by law and subject to the power of the court to transfer actions or proceedings as provided in this title, the superior court in the county where the defendants or some of them reside at the commencement of the action is the proper court for the trial of the action . . . “Subject to subdi...

Excerpt: ...fendant American Matar International, Inc., dba Statewide Commercial Insurance Brokers is ordered to serve verified responses without objections to the First Set of Special Interrogatories and the First Set of Form Interrogatories within ten (10) court days of this order. Plaintiffs are awarded sanctions in the amount of $660.00 against American Matar International, Inc., dba Statewide Commercial Insurance Brokers for each motion, for a total of ...

Excerpt: ... is subject to” the demurrer or motion to strike. (Code Civ. Proc. §§ 430.41(a), 435.5(a).) The self‐represented 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 citations and quotation marks omitted.) In the instant case, moving party failed to meet and confer with Defendant prior to filing the instant motions. Parties are requi...

Excerpt: ...ed responses to form interrogatories, set one, special interrogatories, set one, and request for production of documents, set one. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2030.290, subd. (b) and 2031.300, subd. (b).) Frank Cruz to provide complete verified responses to all discovery set out above, without objection within 10 days after service of this order. To deny defendant Mel Abdelaziz's motion that the truth of the matters specified in the requests for admis...

Excerpt: ... Currently the property is rented to non‐parties to this litigation. Plaintiff has served a demand on defendants to conduct a one‐hour inspection of the property. Defendants were unsuccessful in their attempts to obtain the current tenants' permission to inspect the property. Plaintiff moves to compel defendants to permit the inspection. The motion is brought under Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.320(a), which provides that if the party ...

Excerpt: ...s. The Motion is Authorized: Plaintiff contends the motion is unauthorized because Fresno County Superior Court Local Rule 2.1.17(A) provides: “. . . no motion under [C.C.P.] sections 2016.010 through 2036.050 . . . shall be heard . . . unless . . . [a] request for a Conference has either been denied and permission to file the motion is expressly granted via court order or the discovery dispute has not been resolved as a consequence of such a c...

Excerpt: ...to allow Plaintiff to allege some other basis for attorney's fees, if it can. Plaintiff shall have ten (10) court days in which to file a First Amended Complaint. Explanation: A general demurrer admits the truth of all material allegations and a Court will “give the complaint a reasonable interpretation by reading it as a whole and all its parts in their context.” (People ex re. Lungren v. Superior Court (1996) 14 Cal.4th 294, 300.) A demurre...

Excerpt: ...Cal.App.4th 1049, 1054, internal quotation marks and citations omitted; see Code Civ. Proc. §472(a).) Accordingly, the filing of an amended pleading renders a demurrer to the original pleading moot. (Ibid.; Morehead v. Turner (1940) 41 Cal.App.2d 414, 418.) In the instant action, Defendants Growers Farm and Garcia filed a first amended answer on June 13, 2018. Though the amended answer was late‐filed (see Code Civ. Proc. §1005(b)), the Court ...

Excerpt: ... for $143,551.00. This includes an unpaid principal of $110,000, interest of $27,126.00, attorney's fees of $5,850.00, and court costs of $575.00. None of these are accounted for on the CIV‐100 form. Furthermore, the declaration does not explain, or contain any documentation supporting, the claim for $110,000 other than a conclusion that that was the unpaid principle for the note. Therefore, unless plaintiff can produce the evidentiary proof fo...

Excerpt: ...he petitions setting out the rule 7.955 factors and no Attachment 18a copy of the fee agreements attached to the petitions. The declarations and fee agreement were presented in a separate document dated a week after the petitioner signed the petitions. The petitions are supposed to contain all the required attachments and state how many pages are attached. See Item 23 of the petitions. This is how the Court can ensure that the petitioner had prop...

Excerpt: ...erk's service of this order. As an evidence sanction, if the cell phone is not produced within 20 days of the clerk's service of this order, the court hereby orders that the cell phone and videos filmed on that cell phone may not be referred to at trial or introduced in evidence in this proceeding. To order plaintiffs Manuel Cubias and Gustavo Gonzalez to appear for properly noticed depositions within 30 days of the date of the clerk's service of...

Excerpt: ... 11, 2018. Service shall be by email. Explanation: Defendant Aerotek moves to compel plaintiff to arbitrate his claims against “all defendants.” The notice of motion was not directed to defendant O'Neill Beverage Company, LLC, and that defendant has neither joined in this motion, nor opposed it. A refusal to arbitrate is a prerequisite to a motion or petition to compel arbitration. Also, Aerotek only cites authority indicating that a third pa...

Excerpt: ...r Admission admitted “establishes, by judicial fiat, that a nonresponding party has responded to the requests by admitting the truth of all matters contained therein.” (Wilcox v. Birtwhistle (1999) 21 Cal.4th 973, 979.) Any matter admitted in response to a Request for Admission is conclusively established against the party making the admission. (Code Civ. Proc. § 2033.410, subd. (a); see Murillo v. Sup.Ct. (People) (2006) 143 Cal.App.4th 730...

Excerpt: ...ubdivision (b). The motion is timely and is based on Plaintiff's attorney's affidavit of fault. Counsel states he failed to appear at the OSC due to a calendaring error. The only possible exception to the mandatory provision of Code of Civil Procedure section 473, subdivision (b), is where the dismissal is not the result of attorney fault. Here, there is no evidence on which to base such a finding. Accordingly, Plaintiff's motion to have the dism...

Excerpt: ...ars to have been filled out correctly. However, again, what Plaintiff appears to be asking for (as far as the declarations seem to suggest) does not appear to match the allegations in the complaint. The previous ruling asked for briefing on whether the change in terms was allowed for Plaintiff's specific performance claim. “A cause of action for damages for breach of contract is comprised of the following elements: (1) the contract, (2) plainti...

Excerpt: ...and sanctions Tentative Ruling: The motions to compel United Automotive Incorporated to provide further responses to form interrogatories, set one and special interrogatories, set one, request for admissions, set one and for sanctions are off calendar. The motions to compel Hadie Saadeldin to provide further responses to form interrogatories, set one, and sanctions are off calendar. Carlos Gonzalez has failed to comply with Local Rule 2.1.17 prio...

Excerpt: .... All new allegations shall be in boldface. Explanation: First of all, plaintiff's counsel has not submitted a declaration stating that he attempted to meet and confer with opposing counsel before bringing the demurrer, as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 430.41. “Before filing a demurrer pursuant to this chapter, the demurring party shall meet and confer in person or by telephone with the party who filed the pleading that is subject...

Excerpt: ... v. Apple Computer, Inc. (2001) 91 Cal.App.4th 224, 240; see Dunk v. Ford Motor Co. (1996) 48 Cal.App.4th 1794, 1803, fn. 9, 19.a) The trial court has a “fiduciary responsibility” as the guardian of the absentee class members' rights to decide whether to approve a settlement of a class action. (Luckey v. Superior Court (2014) 228 Cal.App.4th 81, 95.) A precertification settlement may stipulate that a defined class be conditionally certifi...

Excerpt: ... SLAPP statute, defendants need make only a prima facie showing that plaintiff's complaint “arises from” defendant's constitutionallyprotected free speech or petition activity rights as defined in Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16, subdivision (e). (Equilon Enterprises, LLC v. Consumer Cause, Inc. (2002) 29 Cal.4th 53, 61; Governor Gray Davis Committee v. American Taxpayers Alliance (2002) 102 Cal.App.4th 449, 458‐459; see also...