Excerpt: ...re enjoined and restrained from the following acts, during the pendency of this lawsuit: (1) from selling, transferring, encumbering, conveying or otherwise disposing of any assets of New U Life; (2) from dissolving New U Life, and (3) from using any other entity, such as Strike First Nutrition, to sell New U Life's HGH Gel and testosterone related products. (4) Defendants shall keep and maintain complete and accurate books and records of account...

Excerpt: ...aintiff must file the declaration required by CCP § 435.5 (a)(3). Before the next hearing, defendant should read the case of CLD Construction, Inc. v. City of San Ramon (2004) 120 Cal.App.4th 1141, 1145, which makes clear that, unlike a natural person, a corporation may not represent itself in court proceedings or represent itself through a non‐attorney officer. Should an attorney fail to file a Notice of Appearance on behalf of Damax before t...

Excerpt: ...fiduciary duty and other similar claims. Answers and Cross‐complaints were filed on 6/17/16, and discovery was served on 7/13/16 by the Schulers, Stones and Turners (“clients”) to Reed (“attorney”), consisting of requests for admission, interrogatories and requests for production of documents. The first Motion to Compel was filed on 9/16/16 because attorney had provided no responses to the discovery requests. Attorney responded to the m...

Excerpt: ...s timely. Therefore, the case will be reassigned to a new judge and notice will be mailed to all parties/counsel. In the meantime, the motion for summary judgment/adjudication of Defendant Clare as to Plaintiff's complaint has been reviewed and the following tentative ruling posted. Neither this motion nor the tentative ruling appear to affect new Cross‐Defendant Jeff Nelson. However, if any party wishes to have the tentative ruling set aside a...

Excerpt: ...with CCP § 435.5. It has the same meet‐and‐confer requirements as CCP § 430.41 provides for demurrers. The new statute became effective on January 1, 2018. Here, the motion to strike was filed on February 27, 2018. Given the relative “newness” of the statute and there being no objection from the opposing party, the Court will “excuse” compliance this once. However, future motions to strike must comply with CCP § 435.5 or risk being...

Excerpt: ...e effective, such a release must be clear, unambiguous, and explicit in expressing the intent of the subscribing parties. Yet, the release need not achieve perfection. See Paralift, Inc. v. Superior Court (1993) 23 Cal.App.4th 748, 755. The determination of whether a release contains ambiguities is a matter of contractual construction. See Paralift, supra, 23 Cal.App.4th at 754‐ 755. An ambiguity exists when a party can identify an alternative,...

Excerpt: ...ion alleged that defendant Universe Ventures owed plaintiff CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 17 HEARING DATE: 03/29/18 ‐ 2 ‐ the amount of $18,006.65. Defendant cross‐complained for quiet title – that is, to extinguish the mechanic's lien. The case came to bench trial on December 18, 2017. Plaintiff's attorney was at the trial, but plaintiff itself failed to appear. Not surprisingly, the result was a complete v...

Excerpt: ...Edgardo Bejarano and plaintiff David Marks (collectively “Plaintiffs”). Defendants have filed a reply. For reasons stated below, the Motion is granted. Relevant Factual and Procedural Background This is a personal injury case involving a motor vehicle collision. Plaintiffs were both riding a single bicycle when they were struck by a vehicle owned by defendant Claudio Escoto and driven by defendant Adrianna Escoto. It is undisputed that Plaint...

Excerpt: ...Court cannot conclude that collateral estoppel applies as a matter of law. As a result, the MSJ is denied. CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 33 HEARING DATE: 03/29/18 ‐ 6 ‐ Brief Background This case arises out of a landlord‐tenant relationship between two of the plaintiffs, Olga Chan and Feliciano Puerto, and the moving defendant, Sekk Investments. Chan and Puerto were tenants at a property in Concord. In the fal...

Excerpt: ...he calendar and the parties shall appear (appearance by CourtCall is acceptable) to discuss a new trial date and any other issues related to the continuance of the trial date and/or appropriate for a Case Management Conference. CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 09 HEARING DATE: 03/28/18 ‐ 2 ‐ Saicon seeks leave to amend its complaint to substitute Aurionpro's CEO and former CFO as Does 1 and 2 and to make various re...

Excerpt: ...tted show that there is no triable issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 437c(c). The party moving for summary judgment carries both the burden of persuasion and the burden of production of evidence. (Evid. Code §500; Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal. 4th 826, 850.) This action arises out of a car accident that occurred on May 11, 2015 on De...

Excerpt: ... Washington, 98002 in conformity with lease and guaranty agreements entered by the parties. The notice to this motion lists only Regency as the moving party, and does not include any of the individual defendants. Thus, the Court only rules as to Regency regarding the motion to quash. However, the Court's ruling regarding the motion to stay for forum non conveniens is binding on all parties. Defendants Timothy Lehner and Deborah Lehner's motion is...

Excerpt: ...g or denial of a preliminary injunction does not amount to an adjudication of the ultimate rights in controversy. It merely determines that the court, balancing the respective equities of the parties, concludes that, pending a trial on the merits, the defendant should or . . . should not be restrained from exercising the right claimed by him or her.” See SB Liberty, LLC v. Isla Verde Ass'n, Inc. (2013) 217 Cal.App.4th 272, 280; Continental Baki...

Excerpt: ...n. Petitioner contends that Respondent omitted the documents she lists and that all of the documents were considered directly or indirectly by the Department in making its decision. Respondent is also alleged to have redacted items from the record and edited the transcripted testimony. Petitioner's request to augment the record is denied for three reasons. First, Petitioner did not produce any of the documents she seeks to add to the record at th...

Excerpt: ...ted.) He declined, sending a hostile email complaining that she had been delaying the matter, declining the request (in all caps, underlined, and bold type). Longmire filed this motion on February 8, 2018. In support of her motion she states that she does not understand the requests, they appear to be complicated, and she is seeking to obtain counsel. In opposition, Kessler states that Longmire already has counsel in another matter raising the sa...

Excerpt: ...ion under CCP § 473. (See Harris v. Wachovia Mortgage, FSB (2010) 185 Cal.App.4th 1018, 1023.) If plaintiff files a Second Amended Complaint all demurrers and motions to strike not already heard will automatically be dropped from the calendar. Third Cause of Action, Violation of Business and Professions Code section 17200 Business and Professions Code section 17200 prohibits “any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice and unfa...

Excerpt: ...s, she finally tendered a request for publication in March 2017, which was however rejected for lack of any supporting paperwork such as a showing of diligence. In June 2017 her renewed request to serve by publication was rejected with a direction that she check criminal dockets for relevant cases (because this case arises out of an alleged DUI accident). Plaintiff apparently misread this rejection as an approval, and proceeded to publish during ...

Excerpt: ...tration Code of Civil Procedure § 1281.2 creates a summary proceeding for resolving petitions to compel arbitration. “A petition to compel arbitration ‘is in essence a suit in equity to compel specific performance of a contract.'” Rosenthal v. Great Western Fin. Securities Corp. (1996) 14 Cal.4th 394, 411 (internal citation omitted). In these summary proceedings the trial court sits as a trier of fact, weighing all the affidavits, declarat...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiff Manh Singh Khalsa is a Sikh man. On September 25, 2016, while driving home, he encountered defendants Chase Little, Colton LeBlanc, Dustin Albarado and Doe 26 at a red light at an intersection in Richmond. Little threw a beer can at plaintiff, and the others yelled at him. The cars proceeded beyond the intersection. At another red light, Little, LeBlanc, and Albarado exited their vehicle and punched at plaintiff through his open window....

Excerpt: ...ered to meet and confer in person or by telephone, as required by Code of Civil Procedure § 430.41 (a). Meeting and conferring by letter, as occurred here, is not sufficient. Plaintiffs' Opposition to this motion was filed late. It was required to be served and filed on or before March 12, 2018. It was personally delivered on March 13, 2018. It was not filed until March 14, 2018. In its discretion, the court considers the late‐filed Opposition...

Excerpt: ...1985) 167 Cal. App. 3d 544, 549; CRC 3.1300 (d).) The central issue in this case is who had the responsibility for verifying that plaintiff was well enough to under surgery by requesting that there be a metabolic panel test, ensuring it was done before permitting the surgery to proceed, and ensuring that the appropriate persons were provided the results for review. Plaintiff alleges that before the July 18, 2017 deposition of his CONTRA COSTA SUP...

Excerpt: ...ing date, they may simply notify the Court of that intention and provide a stipulation in due course. The parties have stipulated to continue all hearings to April 13, in order to accommodate a serious personal situation for defendants' counsel. However, the Court also wishes to receive supplemental briefing on selected issues, as discussed below, and the proposed April 13 date would likely not provide enough time for the parties to prepare such ...

Excerpt: ...ior briefing order. The statements to which Fry's makes “objections” are arguments and characterizations of the state of the record, not evidence. Fry's is thus trying to sneak in a reply brief, not called for in the Court's order, by relabeling it as “objections.” In any event, the objections, such as they are, go to the weight the Court should give to the material presented by the March 19 Response, rather than its admissibility. On tha...

Excerpt: ... attorney; and Meyers's law firm, Westpro Realty, Inc. In brief, plaintiffs allege that defendants contrived to evict plaintiffs from the premises by serving a series of inflated or unfounded three‐day notices to quit or pay rent and then filing two unmeritorious unlawful detainer actions (the second of which is apparently still pending). Plaintiffs also allege that defendant Pineda unlawfully applied plaintiffs' $2,000 security deposit to plai...

Excerpt: ... the consolidated or coordinated cases should be in Contra Costa County rather than San Mateo County. The Court notes that the defendants in both cases are on record as preferring Contra Costa. Plaintiff, for its part, argues unconvincingly against transferring either case. But, if one of the cases is to be transferred, plaintiff gives no indication which County it thinks would be more appropriate. If the Court sticks with its tentative view that...

Excerpt: ....12; (4) negligence; and (5) violation of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200. On January 23, 2018, Plaintiff filed an Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order. The Court heard the Ex Parte Application, granted the TRO, and entered an Order to Show Cause to show why a preliminary injunction should not be granted, enjoining the Trustee's Sale of the Subject Property. The OSC was originally set for February 22, 2018. The parties stipulated ...

Excerpt: ...on 430.10, subdivision (f), and the complaint fails to plead the facts with particularity as required in causes of action involving fraud. Pleading Standard for Fraud Actions Fraud actions are subject to a stricter pleading standard and allegations of fraud must be pleaded with particularity. (Committee on Children's Television, Inc. v. General Foods Corp. (1983) 35 Cal. 3d 197, 216.) (disapproved on other grounds.) The legal conclusion of �...

Excerpt: ... per se. The Court understands this to mean that Plaintiff dismisses the fourth cause of action as that cause of action appears to based solely on a negligence per se argument. Without the fourth cause of action, the Antioch Defendant is only sued in cause of action three. Therefore, this Court must decide whether summary judgment is appropriate based solely on cause of action three. Defendant argues that the assumption of risk defense applies. A...

Excerpt: ... per se. The Court understands this to mean that Plaintiff dismisses the fourth cause of action as that cause of action appears to based solely on a negligence per se argument. Without the fourth cause of action, the Antioch Defendant is only sued in cause of action three. Therefore, this Court must decide whether summary judgment is appropriate based solely on cause of action three. Defendant argues that the assumption of risk defense applies. A...

Excerpt: ...int which allege that defendants have been sued repeatedly for elder abuse caused by understaffing and lack of staff training, have received repeated Statements of Deficiencies from the California Department of Public Health (the “Department”) regarding similar concerns, and have been repeatedly cited by the Department regarding similar concerns. To obtain enhanced remedies in an elder abuse action, the plaintiff must prove a pattern of reckl...

Excerpt: ...nd obvious. Dangerous Condition To prevail on her dangerous condition cause of action, Government Code § 835, the relevant jury instruction, and prevailing authority require Grilho to prove each of the following: 1. That BART owned or controlled the property; 2. That the property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the incident; 3. That the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred; 4. ...

Excerpt: ... shall state that it is also in favor of co‐defendant BDFTW, whose declaration of non‐monetary status was not timely contested. (Civ. Code, § 2924l, subd. (c).) The basis for this ruling is as follows. RJNs. Defendant Wells Fargo's requests for judicial notice are granted. (See, Scott v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (2013) 214 Cal.App.4th 743, 752‐761.) 1st, 2nd, and 3rd C/As. Plaintiffs have failed to allege a “material” violation of the...

Excerpt: ...atus quo until a judgment is entered. See Lenard v. Edmonds (1957) 151 Cal.App.2d 764, 769. In determining whether to issue a preliminary injunction, a court considers two factors: (1) the likelihood that the plaintiff will prevail on the merits of its case at trial, and (2) the interim harm that the plaintiff is likely to sustain if the injunction is denied as compared to the harm that the defendant is likely to suffer if the court grants a prel...

Excerpt: ...nt a government claim asserting facts that support a negligent hiring, training, and supervision cause of action; 2) uncertainty; and 3) failure to allege facts establishing a cause of action. (Notice at p. 3.) However, Defendants withdrew their government claim argument because defense counsel inadvertently failed to file the requests for judicial notice and exhibits that would have provided the factual basis for such an argument. (Reply at pp. ...

Excerpt: ...f leave to amend. Its order further stated that any amended complaint “shall be filed and served on or before December 29, 2017.” (See Ex. A to Wagster Decl.) CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 39 HEARING DATE: 03/19/18 ‐ 3 ‐ Plaintiff filed his First Amended Complaint on December 29, 2017, but failed to serve it on the two moving defendants by December 29, 2017. Plaintiff did not serve it on these defendants unt...

Excerpt: ... relevant time, Romdhane was negotiating with State Farm, who advised him that while it represented Bravos, it could not accept service on his behalf. State Farm specifically requested that it be notified when the cross‐complaint was served, or before seeking entry of a default. Eventually, Romdhane obtained an order permitting service by publication. On October 13, 2017, however, Romdhane managed to personally serve Bravos, according to a proo...

Excerpt: ...blish that he is “a person who generally understands the system's operation and possesses sufficient knowledge and skill to properly use the system and explain the resultant data …” (People v. Lugashi (1988) 205 Cal.App.3d 632, 640.) Mr. LaMunyon identifies himself as an “Associate” who has “access to certain of Chase's records,” but he does not explain the duties of an Associate within plaintiff's organization. Mr. LaMunyon doe...

Excerpt: ...fendant's employee, Nancy Pfeiffer Hazen, to advise Plaintiff that she should have had a higher amount of underinsured motorist coverage. Plaintiff's husband was killed in a bicycle‐vehicle collision in which the motorist at fault had only $100,000 in liability coverage. Because Plaintiff's policy had only $100,000 for uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, Plaintiff received nothing on her underinsured coverage after the tortfeasor's carrie...

Excerpt: ...ts held title of the property, but the Plaintiffs were given exclusive possession of the property. (Comp. Ex. A; Pet. Ex. A.) Both of Alison's parents passed away by 2015 and Alison's brother, Defendant Russell Manaday, received the parents' interest in the real property. (Comp. ¶¶9; Pet. ¶¶2‐3.) Recently, the parties have been involved in a dispute regarding the property where it seems that both parties have made some claim to the property...

Excerpt: ...9 HEARING DATE: 03/05/18 ‐ 3 ‐ “Partition is a remedy much favored by the law.” (LEG Investments v. Boxler (2010) 183 Cal.App.4th 484, 493.) “If the court finds that the plaintiff is entitled to partition, it shall make an interlocutory judgment that determines the interests of the parties in the property and orders the partition of the property and, unless it is to be later determined, the manner of partition.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 8...

Excerpt: ...on that ground. On Sladek's demurrer to the First Amended Complaint, the court granted leave to amend these causes of action. The court found that Plaintiff's lack of diligence most likely prevented delayed discovery beyond 2013 for Plaintiff's claims for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of good faith and negligent misrepresentation. Plaintiff's personal realtor, Jim Calhoun, had informed Plaintiff “sometime” in 2013 that she was not o...

Excerpt: ...s monetary and terminating sanctions. That section provides that every pleading submitted to the court certifies “to the best of the person's knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances, all of the following conditions are met: (1) It is not being presented primarily for an improper purpose…(2) The claims …are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument [for a change in the law]...

Excerpt: ...motion followed. In response to the motion, plaintiff has filed proposed responses, which his counsel states already have been served, and are attached to his supporting declaration as Exhibit B. Those responses are not verified, are dated October 27, 2017, and have no proof of service. They also contain objections, but in each case also provide an answer. All answers, however, either deny the statement or state that plaintiff lacks sufficient in...

Excerpt: ...R COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 39 HEARING DATE: 03/05/18 ‐ 14 ‐ the trustee, which ultimately resulted in a judgment over $800,000, plus prejudgment interest of $225,000, and attorney fees of $440,000. The current application relates to the expenses of enforcing the judgment and defending the trustee's appeal. (The trial court judgment, issued by a private judge, was affirmed, with one exception.) The order is sought primarily pursu...

Excerpt: ... outset, plaintiff argues that defendant failed to meet and confer as required by Code of Civil Procedure § 433.5(a)(2). This motion, however, was filed before that section came into effect. Moreover, defendant's counsel recounts that she offered to discuss the issues in the motion to strike after the fact. This is a medical malpractice action. Much of the verified complaint is taken up in alleging the history of defendant's treatment, not of pl...

Excerpt: ... recounts the procedural history of this case and Waraich, to the extent relevant to the disposition of this motion. This case was filed in May 2015. In September 2015 the Court (Judge Spanos) denied the petition to compel arbitration brought by Fry's. Fry's appealed that ruling, and it was affirmed by the First District Court of Appeal. The remittitur was issued on January 19, 2018. The instant motion followed on January 31, 2018. Waraich was a ...

Excerpt: ...ific, the building owner, and Schindler, the company contracted to maintain the elevator at the time of the accident (and now). Sierra Pacific and Schindler in turn cross‐complained against Otis, the company that performed a modernization of the elevator in 2005‐06 and then held the maintenance contract until late 2012. A threecornered jury trial resulted in a substantial recovery for Zapotoczny as against both Sierra Pacific and Schindler, e...

Excerpt: ... want to heed the Court's comments on the need for her to decide what her case really is (see line 1). 9. TIME: 9:00 CASE#: MSC17‐00140 CASE NAME: MARY STORELLI VS. ROSE SATORI HEARING ON MOTION FOR SUMMARY ADJUDICATION FILED BY ROSE SATORI * TENTATIVE RULING: * Defendant's motion for summary adjudication is denied. The motion would not dispose of an entire cause of action, but only one branch of a cause of action. It is therefore impermissible...

Excerpt: ...ntained provisions for plaintiff to collect attorney fees incurred in enforcing the notes. As plaintiff acknowledges, these are the kind of fee clauses rendered bilateral under § 1717. Plaintiff argues that that statute does not apply here (at least not fully), because some of its pleaded causes of action were on purportedly non‐contractual theories such as open book, misrepresentation, and estoppel. At base, however, all of plaintiff's pleade...

Excerpt: ...gn the 1999 deed, or that she did not. Defendant's effort to knock out plaintiff's duress theory is being rejected today for procedural reasons (line 9). But the briefing on that motion is nevertheless revealing: Facing a limitations attack on her claim of having been coerced into signing a deed 19 years ago, plaintiff seeks to rescue that claim from limitations by giving it away substantively – attesting that she actually didn't sign the deed ...