Excerpt: ...se of Action. The Windeler defendants are not named in the Fifth and Seventh Causes of Action. In the ruling on the companion demurrer by defendant Littman Trust, the Court has granted plaintiffs leave to file an amended complaint adding a single cause of action for declaratory relief, as against the Littman Trust and Windeler Development Group. The Windeler defendants shall file an answer that is timely with reference to service of the amended c...

Excerpt: ...n amount some three times the jurisdictional maximum for limited cases. Although the motion is not so styled, the Court treats this as (in part) a motion for relief from a judgment that was beyond the jurisdiction of the court. So considered, the motion is granted, and the judgment entered on July 6, 2017 is vacated. Because the problem is a jurisdictional one, the vacatur applies to both defendants. Relief from the judgment, however, is not reli...

Excerpt: ...2017. Since then, however, defendants have simply refused to participate in this litigation. They refused to participate in court‐ordered mediation, saying that they were considering filing bankruptcy (and asking plaintiff's counsel to stop “harassing” them). They failed to appear at multiple case management conferences. They did not oppose plaintiff's motion to compel various forms of discovery, but have not complied in any way with the Co...

Excerpt: ... case against her former employer, asserting claims of sexual harassment. Defendant cross‐complained, alleging that plaintiff hacked defendant's electronic records and deleted a substantial amount of material, including students' report cards. The latter accusation is the subject of a felony case filed against defendant, which (as far as the Court knows) is still pending. The Court has previously entered a partial stay of some proceedings in th...

Excerpt: ...ons following the school's sexual assault disciplinary process and appeal. The writ is brought on the grounds that the College's administrative procedure violated California and federal law; violated fundamental principles of fairness by prohibiting John from using an attorney as his advisor, in violation of federal law; depriving him of a fair trial; depriving him of his right to confront and cross‐examine his accuser; employing a process that...

Excerpt: ... of action (as permitted), defendants also purport to seek summary adjudication of numerous sub‐issues contained within those causes of action, such as specific paragraphs of the SAC requesting particular items of damages, or “all claims and/or damages” arising from particular alleged defects. None of that is procedurally permissible as a subject for summary adjudication. As Plaintiff points out, items (d)‐(aa) do not dispose of an entire...

Excerpt: ...se of Action. The Windeler defendants are not named in the Fifth and Seventh Causes of Action. In the ruling on the companion demurrer by defendant Littman Trust, the Court has granted plaintiffs leave to file an amended complaint adding a single cause of action for declaratory relief, as against the Littman Trust and Windeler Development Group. The Windeler defendants shall file an answer that is timely with reference to service of the amended c...

Excerpt: ...he declarations filed by counsel for this and other defendants, plaintiff's counsel has simply failed and refused to engage in the meet‐andconfer required by statute. Plaintiff's response essentially concedes demurrability on at least some points but requests leave to amend. That, counsel needs to realize, is what meet‐andconfer is intended to address. If there are any future requests for leave to amend, plaintiff's CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COUR...

Excerpt: ...ctual allegations. The closest it comes to alleging any facts is that Ecker “made [unspecified] false statements against of the plaintiff Anas Ali [which plaintiff identifies as his true name], referenced by citation number 34‐269551”, and that Ecker “failed to provide prima facie evidence supporting his false documents that plaintiff was/is ‘BLACK' and ‘DRIVING' referenced on citation number 34‐269551.” The FAC does not provide a...

Excerpt: ...rning her mental disability. But her claim itself centers directly on the alleged existence and results of that CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 12 HEARING DATE: 01/19/18 ‐ 5 ‐ disability; without the disability she has no claim. Plaintiff has thus directly put her own mental state at issue, alleging (among other things) that she lacked capacity to agree to and sign an alleged quitclaim deed in 1999. She cannot exp...

Excerpt: ...ere all served on April 7, 2017. Each defendant responded to each discovery request with a blanket paragraph of rote objections, each substantially identical to the objections made to the hundreds of other discovery requests cumulatively made to the responding defendant and all the other defendants. On the face of these “responses”, there was no pretense of any good‐faith attempt to respond, nor to provide objections actually CONTRA COSTA S...

Excerpt: ...e to strike the Answer on account of these deficiencies. At this time, there is an Answer on file, and it contains denials and affirmative allegations sufficient to defeat the present motion. If the Answer should be stricken, plaintiff should move to strike it. If it is not stricken, however, it defeats the present motion. Among other advantages, that order of procedure would create an opportunity for plaintiff's counsel to meet and confer with d...

Excerpt: ...irst Amended Complaint, even though some of them are deleted altogether due to the Court's prior demurrer ruling.) Defendants District, Yurkovich, and Perry demur to what are labeled as the sixth and seventh causes of action. The demurrer is sustained. Leave to amend is allowed, one final time, as to the seventh cause of action. Leave to amend is denied as to the sixth cause of action. Any amended complaint (which, to avoid hopeless confusion, wi...

Excerpt: ...ence of an actual attorney‐client relationship (such as in an initial engagement interview in which the attorney declines the representation), Steele quite rightly informed plaintiff right from the start that Steele would not be acting as plaintiff's attorney. Any unreasonable belief to the contrary on plaintiff's part would not establish a basis for privilege. The motion, however, appears to be either moot or premature or both. Steele advises ...

Excerpt: ...hpoint Security Services, Inc. (Northpoint) to provide security services there. A perpetrator thereafter entered the Superfoot store brandishing a weapon, and grabbed Jason while demanding the cashier CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 12 HEARING DATE: 01/12/18 ‐ 3 ‐ hand over the cash in the register. Huajin Li ran towards his son upon seeing that he was held hostage. The perpetrator shot Huajin Li, killing him. Pla...

Excerpt: ...auses of action for (1) general negligence; (2) trespass; (3) conversion; (4) loss of use; (5) fraud; and (6) civil conspiracy. Defendants demur pursuant to Code of Civ. Proc. § 430.10(e) on the grounds that Mr. Harmen lacks standing and has failed to state facts sufficient to state his causes of action. For the following reasons, the Demurrer is sustained, without leave to amend. Request for Judicial Notice Defendants request judicial notice of...

Excerpt: ...ion; (4) fraudulent misrepresentation; (5) negligence; (6) violations of Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.; and (7) quiet title (Code Civ. Proc. § 760.020). Only the quiet title claim is pleaded against Breckenridge. Breckenridge demurs pursuant to Code Civ. Proc. § 430.010(e) on the ground that it is a bona fide purchaser for value of the subject property at a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, and as a consequence the sale is invulnerable to Plai...

Excerpt: ...s for the exercise of jurisdiction. [Citation.]” (Shisler v. Sanfer Sports Cars, Inc. (2006) 146 Cal.App.4th 1254, 1259; see also Ziller Electronics Lab Gmbh v. Superior Court (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 1222, 1232‐33.) A court may exercise two types of personal jurisdiction over a defendant: general jurisdiction and specific jurisdiction. Each is considered below. General Jurisdiction “General jurisdiction exists when a defendant is domiciled in...

Excerpt: ...er's order, because defendant failed to file the bond required by statute. Section 98.2(c) “establishes a one‐way fee‐shifting scheme, whereby unsuccessful appellants [employers] pay attorney fees while successful appellants may not obtain such fees.” Sonic Calabasas v Moreno (2011) 59 Cal.4th 1109, 1129. The purpose is to discourage unmeritorious appeals from administrative wage claim determinations, and to encourage prompt payment there...

Excerpt: ...acts to constitute a cause of action, the court follows the same rules it does on a demurrer. It considers only the material alleged on the face of the challenged pleading and matters of which it can take judicial notice. (Ibid.; Code of Civil Procedure § 438(d); see Evans v. California Trailer Court, Inc. (1994) 28 Cal.App.4th 540, 548.) Here, on its face, the complaint states a cause of action that defendant breached his agreement to sell the ...

Excerpt: ...ior representation of Pearl on related subject matter. 6. TIME: 9:00 CASE#: MSC16‐ 01082 CASE NAME: TROMBADORE GONDEN LAW GROUP VS. SMITH HEARING ON MOTION TO VACATE DEFAULT JUDGMENT FILED BY ROBERT WILLIAM SMITH, MARC PEARL * TENTATIVE RULING: * Marc Pearl's motion to vacate default judgment is granted. The default entered on March 21, 2017 and the default judgment entered on September 1, 2017 are ordered vacated. Pearl shall file and serve th...