Excerpt: ... demurrer, and shall submit that proposed judgment to the Court after submitting it to plaintiff's counsel for approval as to form. The basis for this ruling is as follows. A. Preliminary Matters. Plaintiff's attorney (Ms. Yee) filed a supplemental declaration in opposition to the demurrer on September 8, 2020. Defendant's objections to that supplemental declaration were filed on September 16, 2020. The objections are overruled. However, the Cour...

Excerpt: ...er, the Defendant admits that he purchased an automobile but that he and his wife divorced and the wife was awarded the car in the divorce proceedings. This response to the complaint did not and does not relieve the Defendant in this case from liability for the debt created by his purchase of the automobile. A debtor is jointly and severally liable for any loan he has entered with other borrowers/debtors. In such a circumstance, one debtor cannot...

Excerpt: ... a complaint." (Redfearn v. Trader Joe's Co. (2018) 20 Cal. App. 5th 989, 996.) The Court must determine "whether the complaint alleges facts sufficient to state a cause of action or discloses a complete defense." (Id.) The Court assumes "the truth of the properly pleaded factual allegations, facts that reasonably can be inferred from those expressly pleaded and matters of which judicial notice has been taken." (Id.) "As a general rule in testing...

Excerpt: ...f's petition pertains to the application of California Insurance Code (hereafter “Ins. Code”) section 2071. That section provides that certain contractual provisions are mandatorily incorporated into any home insurance contract and sets forth the obligations of the parties “in case loss occurs.” When a loss occurs, the insured is required by the contract to do a number of things including the following: 1. Give written notice to this comp...

Excerpt: ...For the following reasons, the motion is granted. Request for Judicial Notice Defendant requests judicial notice of several Contra Costa County Recorder documents as well as pleadings and orders in other federal and state actions. The Request is opposed. The Request is granted. (Evid. Code §§ 452, 453.) The Court notes that certified copies of recorded documents are self‐authenticating. (Evid. Code §§ 1530, 1600; see also Fontenot v. Wells ...

Excerpt: ... the agreement, the defendants were required to repair the roof. However, the roof began to leak after the sale was completed. Plaintiffs sued the Sciarronis for breach of contract and sued the Sciarronis and their agent for the sale, Swepston, for misrepresentation. The Sciarronis filed a cross‐ complaint against Swepston. Swepston filed a cross‐complaint against the Sciarronis and Plaintiffs' agent/broker for the sale, David Anton and W.P.M...

Excerpt: ...g reasons, the Demurrer is sustained, without leave to amend. Request for Judicial Notice Defendant requests judicial notice of several Contra Costa County Recorder documents as well as pleadings and orders in other federal and state actions. The Request is opposed. The Request is granted. Evid. Code §§ 452, 453. “[A] court may take judicial notice of the fact of a document's recordation, the date the document was recorded and executed, the p...

Excerpt: ...nt. The trial started on September 17, 2019 when counsel made their opening statements following jury selection. (See CCP § 998 (b)(3).) The jury returned a verdict for the Plaintiff in the total amount of $6,338.59. Final judgment was entered in that amount on December 31, 2019. The Judgment indicated that the amount awarded would be subject to an award for allowable costs and amounts that might be awarded pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure se...

Excerpt: ...udgment should be vacated. This court finds one of those reasons permits the requested relief including granting a dismissal of the case. . Defendant asserts that notwithstanding that the motion to vacate is several years after judgment was entered, the motion to set aside is timely under CCP § 1788.61. The complaint in this case was filed in November 2013 and concerned a claim for a debt in the amount of $3409.03. The complaint states that the ...

Excerpt: ...velers') filed this action in May 2019 for subrogation. The action arises out of a fire at a construction site in Antioch at a property ICON alleges was owned by LIH Casa Blanca Antioch L.P. ("LIH"). Silver Platinum Realty Management Inc. ("Silver"), named as a cross‐defendant in the cross‐ complaint filed by ALCO General Contractors and who has also filed its own cross‐complaint, managed the property for LIH. ICON's proposed FACC adds a se...

Excerpt: ...o any benefit from it. Furthermore, the terms of the agreement do not purport to provide for or even imply the benefit he seeks, that is, a dismissal of the remaining consolidated case in which he is the Defendant. Background Defendant, Bryan Hogge, a real estate broker, owned residential real estate in Byron, California subject to a deed of trust held by Christopher Derek McMullen (“McMullen” or “Plaintiff”). Hogge sought to secure buyer...

Excerpt: ...needed to be filed within one year of the alleged unlawful practice. (Morgan v. Regents of University of California (2000) 88 Cal.App.4th 52, 63; Government Code § 12960(d) (2019).) Previously, the Court found that Plaintiff filed her DFEH claim on June 27, 2018, and received a right‐to‐ sue letter on the same date. Thus, the Court found that plaintiff's FEHA claims needed to have some actionable conduct after June 27, 2017 in order to be ti...

Excerpt: ...o families, the Murphys and the Verlanders, established a winery, DuMOL, in 1997 and ran it through a corporation, DuMOL, Inc., and a limited liability company, DuMOL Wine Company. In March 2012, they retained a broker, Wood‐Warren, to market it for sale. The corporation and the LLC signed an agreement with Wood (the “Engagement Agreement”), obligating themselves to pay a commission of 2.5%. When no sale was completed after several years, t...

Excerpt: ...uary 14, 2020 the Defendant filed with the court its counsel's declaration on Form CIV‐141 in support of an automatic extension for filing Defendant's demurrer. See Code of Civil Procedure (hereafter “CCP”) section 430.41(a)(2). On January 22, 2020, no answer by the Defendant was on file and the clerk entered a default at the request of the plaintiff notwithstanding the automatic extension form previously filed by Defendant. On that same da...

Excerpt: ... with opposing counsel, Noel Obiora, on June 12, 2020. The parties were unable to resolve Defendants' objections. Summary of the Court's Tentative Ruling on the Demurrer Defendants demur to all causes of action in the Second Amended Complaint (SAC) on the ground the claims are time barred. Defendant also demurs to the breach of contract cause of action (#2) on ground it fails to state a cause of action because Plaintiff failed to prove the writte...

Excerpt: ...ailed to file an answer by the response deadline (September 23, 2019. Plaintiff filed a request for entry of his default the next day on September 24, 2019, and the clerk entered Banga's default that same date. Banga filed a motion to set aside his default on October 2, 2019. Banga's motion is supported by a declaration attesting that he contacted counsel for Plaintiff on September 12, 2019, and explained that his younger brother had passed away ...

Excerpt: ...tion brought by Richard Stritt. It appears that Plaintiffs may also be seeking to amend the complaint to clean up a few other specific allegations. However, it does not appear that these additional allegations are needed unless the Court permits the new punitive damages allegations. If Plaintiffs are seeking to make other amendments they failed to comply with all requirements set out in California Rules of Court (hereafter “CRC”), Rule 3.1324...

Excerpt: ...uly 11, 2018 neither counsel nor their clients appeared at the scheduled CMC and order to show cause (OSC) was issued to both directing them to appear in court on August 15, 2018. On August 9, 2018 Defendant's counsel filed a response to the OSC issued on July 11. In that response, attorney Roth did not explain his absence on July 11 but did indicate that his client would be filing for bankruptcy and had hired another lawyer to perform that task....

Excerpt: ...in an automobile accident. The trial started on September 17, 2019 when counsel made their opening statements following jury selection. (See CCP § 998 (b)(3).) The jury returned a verdict for the Plaintiff in the total amount of $6,338.59. Final judgment was entered in that amount on December 31, 2019. The Judgment indicated that the amount awarded would be subject to an award for allowable costs and amounts that might be awarded pursuant to Cod...

Excerpt: ...al property. Defendants Gershon Luria and Irit Sanger, husband and wife, own the remaining undivided 50% tenancy‐in‐common interest in the property. Defendant Mutual of Omaha Bank, CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 23 HEARING DATE: 07/06/20 ‐ 2 ‐ a lending institution, has a beneficial interest in the property by virtue of assignment of rights under a Deed of Trust, originally given in favor of Bank of Internet ...

Excerpt: ... court for an order compelling arbitration of the dispute as permitted by the contract between the parties. The Defendant has opposed the motion claiming that the Plaintiff's conduct should be deemed a waiver of her right to have the matter arbitrated. For the reasons stated below, the court determines that the Defendants have failed to satisfy their heavy burden to show a waiver has occurred and grants the motion to compel arbitration. Relevant ...

Excerpt: ...rkers' compensation insurance premiums assessed by SCIF. Plaintiff Northern California Collection Services (hereafter “NCCS”) asserts that it is suing on the debt created by the unpaid premiums by virtue of the assignment of the debt from the SCIF. On May 18, 2020 this court previously scheduled the hearings on all motions pending at that time for June 22, 2020. The court's rulings on those three motions are set forth below. Line #9 – Defen...

Excerpt: ...ntiff filed a motion for summary judgment or in the alternative, a motion for summary adjudication (hereafter “the MSJ”). On June 1, 2020 Defendant Fackler filed his responsive pleadings that included his opposition to the Plaintiff's motion and multiple objections to statements contained in the Declaration of Plaintiff's witness (Becker) which had been submitted in support of the motion for summary judgment. The court has examined the entire...

Excerpt: ...ourt's order overruling the demurrer to plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint. Defendants did not waive their right to Answer or to allege Affirmative Defenses solely by filing the Answer a few days late. (See Goddard v. Pollock (1974) 37 Cal.App.3d 137, 141 (pleading filed late but before entry of default is not a nullity).) Plaintiff has benefitted from the court's and the law's preference for deciding cases on their merits. That policy preferen...

Excerpt: ....4. The Court accepted this offer and sustained the demurrer to these claims without leave to amend. The Court also found that Plaintiff's negligence claim was barred by failing to timely file the claim after receiving a denial of the tort claim. The demurrer to the negligence claim was sustained without leave to amend. As to Plaintiff's other FEHA claims, the Court found that Plaintiff filed her DFEH claim on June 27, 2018, and received a right�...