Excerpt: ... 2018. If he does not do so, the third cause of action will be deemed abandoned and crossdefendants must file and serve answers to the FAXC by August 27. The FAXC's first cause of action is for fraud; the second, for fraudulent concealment; and the third, for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The FAXC is lengthy, containing a detailed narrative of Romero's side of the story on this home‐remodeling contractor dispute. His actual CONT...

Excerpt: ...TE: 06/22/18 ‐ 2 ‐ (2) for defendants to cure the existing default on the mortgage (which defendants were supposed to pay, but on which plaintiff was the obligor); and (3) for defendants, if possible, to arrange to refinance the house or assume the mortgage, so as to relieve plaintiff of any debt obligation as to the property. If defendants did not cure the mortgage default, or if they did not or could not arrange to get plaintiff off the loa...

Excerpt: ...Dolores Street Community Services (together, “Wells”) when deciding Lillian Larios's motion and the evidence submitted by Larios when deciding Wells' motion. This appears to have been the intent of the defendants – Larios referenced evidence submitted by Wells in her motion, and Wells filed a joinder to Larios' motion. However, this intent was not clearly stated in the notice of motions and the Court wants to avoid any prejudice to Plaintif...

Excerpt: ...of the Order After Hearing hereon. HOLA Preemption Wells first argues that the entire FAC is preempted by the federal Home Owners Loan Act (HOLA), 12 USC §§ 1461 et seq., and its implementing regulation, 12 CFR § 560.2. See generally, e.g., Lopez v. World S&L (2003) 105 Cal.App.4th 729. Such preemption is limited to federal savings banks, which Wells admittedly is not. Wells Fargo nevertheless argues that HOLA preemption applies here because t...

Excerpt: ...30 days after service of the Order After Hearing hereon. If he elects not to do so, the case will be dismissed. Defendants' attorney, Thomas Crowell, submitted a declaration showing compliance with the meet and confer requirements in Code of Civil Procedure § 430.41. Plaintiff submitted a declaration stating that he does not recall Crowell calling him on April 11, 2018 to discuss the FAC. The Court accepts Crowell's statement that he discussed t...

Excerpt: ...arge voting structure impermissibly dilutes the votes of racial minorities, namely Latinos and blacks. The result of the District's at‐large voting system is that it deprives racial minorities of the opportunity to elect the trustees that comprise the District's five‐member Board. The District's Board governs five cities – Richmond, San Pablo, Hercules, El Cerrito, and Pinole – and eight unincorporated areas. The totality of the circumsta...

Excerpt: ...e argument for its relevance, and the Court assumes that the interrogatory responses might be helpful to plaintiff on the summary judgment motion. What plaintiff does not do, however, is to demonstrate any plausible excuse for not having sought this discovery more timely. As Jacobs points out, this is an unusual case in that his summary judgment motion has been in plaintiff's hands since last September. Plaintiff responded to it fully in January ...

Excerpt: ...kground On Monday, January 25, 2016, plaintiff was walking west, on the north sidewalk of Olympic Boulevard in Walnut Creek, California, just west of South Main Street. (Undisputed Material Fact (“UMF”) Nos. 2, 3.) As she was approaching the scene of the accident, she noticed a metal pole bent at an angle in her path of travel, approximately 50 feet in front of her. (UMF No. 3; see Ex. 5 to O'Donnell Decl. filed 6/8/18.) She believed she coul...

Excerpt: ... of the Court's prior grant of leave to amend. (The Court notes with disapproval that neither side has filed and served an Order After Hearing concerning either of those rulings.) In the meantime, however, the principal statute underlying plaintiffs' claims (Civil Code § 2923.6) ceased to be in force, having reached its sunset date without re‐enactment (at least not under the same section number). At a CMC in January the Court directed the att...

Excerpt: ...act nothing of the kind was attached or otherwise filed. Defendant does belatedly provide the proof of service now, however, as well as a declaration stating that a notice of motion bearing the date and time was served. In any event, it is apparent that plaintiff has been able to ascertain the date and respond to the motion. Plaintiff has also belatedly served discovery responses, none of which includes any objections. That moots the motion. Defe...

Excerpt: ...ill resend (and revise) the mailing, using both reported addresses for Ms. Toy. She is admonished, however, that if she wants to receive the court's mailings, she must see to it that she updates her address in the court's files. For the same reason, the Court is concerned to ensure that the 1390 Market address is a valid address for service of any papers on Ms. Toy. If that is not confirmed, then the present motions would have to be denied for la...

Excerpt: ... the other case were not pending. In this case, Uecker (as liquidating trustee) is suing defendants Ng and Wild Game to collect on a note and guaranty made by defendants in favor of Horwitz. Defendants are defending the case on the theory that the purported note and guaranty were sham transactions intended to conceal Horwitz's alleged equity participation in Wild Game by falsely depicting Horwitz's involvement as a debt. The Court of Appeal has h...

Excerpt: ... serve the amended cross‐complaint on or before July 15, 2018. This case arises out of a disagreement over the purchase of a residence in Richmond. The cross‐complaint alleges that cross‐complainant Kingsway located a short‐sale property, available for purchase at $200,000 below market value. Kingsway and Gardner reached agreement in November 2016 to work together to buy the property and resell it. Their written agreements called for Gard...

Excerpt: ...the case in Lines 10‐12). In that case she obtained an attachment as to one of Ng's assets, namely a note and deed of trust executed in Ng's favor by the Kellys, the defendants in this case. (Ms. Kelly is Ng's daughter; Mr. Kelly, his son‐in‐law.) In this action, plaintiff seeks to enforce the Kelly note in her capacity as a judgment creditor or potential judgment creditor of Ng. The timing of all this is complicated by the course of plaint...

Excerpt: ...y 15, 2018. This dispute has been running in various courts for some time. Plaintiff first filed a small‐ claims case in this Court in 2016, alleging (in less detail) her difficulties in working with Seterus. She also filed a case in federal court for violation of a parallel federal statute, and the small‐claims case was removed to federal court under supplemental jurisdiction. In August 2017 the federal court granted summary judgment against...

Excerpt: ...f this ruling, the Case Management Conference now set for June19 is premature. The CMC is continued to October 31, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. This case arises out of plaintiff's claim that defendants rented her an uninhabitable premises, 1300 Roosevelt Ave., #420, Richmond, California. Defendants move for judgment on the pleadings as to the Fourth Cause of Action, Negligence, and Fifth Cause of Action, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, arguing...

Excerpt: ... might be (at least part of) Bidsmart's response. There is nothing in the declaration identifying what that page is, though, let alone authenticating it under oath as accurate and complete. On the contrary, the page is presented simply as part of a meet‐andconfer letter. Without more, the Court has no way of reliably knowing what responses Bidsmart made or didn't make, let alone judging whether they are appropriate or not. The Court also notes ...

Excerpt: ... claim for punitive damages from Plaintiff's complaint. Following that Order, on February 28, 2018, Plaintiff filed a first amended complaint (“FAC”) that, by comparison to the original complaint, substantially increases the factual allegations supporting a prayer for punitive damages in this case. Plaintiff's FAC alleges that Plaintiff, then a 5th or 6th grade student at the School, was subjected to disability discrimination after he slipped...

Excerpt: ... motion was not filed until May 2. Plaintiffs' reply asserts that the 30‐day deadline in the Local Rule is “intended as a deadline for a party to raise objection to the facilitator's recommendation, not the filing of a motion to compel after participation in the program.” The plain language of the Rule is contrary; it states that the 30‐day deadline is for filing and service of “a formal Discovery Motion”. That means either a motion t...

Excerpt: ...o sanctions are awarded. In the event that defendant has served responses prior to the hearing, no matters will be deemed admitted, but sanctions are awarded to Plaintiff in the amount of $1,000. The Court has read defendant's opposition brief, laying out in general terms the reasons why defendant thinks plaintiff should not be suing her. None of that is before the Court on this motion, however, and none of it bears on the present motion. This mo...

Excerpt: ...er, never filed the settlement agreement itself, or any § 664.6 judgment thereon. Nor did the Notice inform the Court of any of the terms of the settlement, beyond reporting that the date by which a final dismissal of the case would be filed was March 15, 2017. In particular, there is nothing by which the Court reserved jurisdiction to enforce the settlement. Because March 15 came and went with no dismissal filed, the Court sent an OSC why the c...

Excerpt: ...AC until their reply. As best the Court can tell, defendants seek to strike the FAC because it is a sham pleading – by which defendants apparently mean nothing more than that the FAC is defective for the reasons argued in their demurrer. The Court rules on the demurrer in Line 20. The motion to strike adds nothing. CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 12 HEARING DATE: 06/15/18 ‐ 34 ‐ 22. TIME: 9:00 CASE#: MSC17‐015...

Excerpt: ...2 ‐ Code of Civil Procedure § 436(b) permits the court to grant, or deny, a motion to strike if the challenged pleading is not in conformity with an order of the court. However, It is the policy of the law to favor, wherever possible, a hearing on the merits, and appellate courts are much more disposed to affirm an order where the result is to compel a trial upon the merits than they are when the judgment by default is allowed to stand and it ...

Excerpt: ...denied in all other respects. The Court starts with the observation that this motion represents a failure to meet and confer. There is no formal requirement to do so in this setting, but prudent counsel on both sides would have given it more of a try before proceeding with motion practice. Probably the parties would have had to litigate at least the § 998 issue (absent a compromise of the issue, which was certainly a possibility). But a couple o...

Excerpt: ...on or before July 15, 2018. Background This case arises out of a failed transaction for Thomas and Hilary Holden to sell 783 Los Palos Manor in Lafayette, California to cross‐defendant William Wahl. The Holdens alleged that the sale fell through after two checks (one for $50,000 and the other for $10,000) that Wahl placed as a deposit into an escrow administered by Fidelity were dishonored for insufficient funds. The CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT...