Excerpt: ...and fair dealing, and (7) promissory estoppel against Defendants. CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 09 HEARING DATE: 02/28/18 ‐ 6 ‐ The Demurrer is sustained, with leave to amend. Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”) § 411.35 requires a party bringing a complaint arising out of professional negligence against an engineer to file and serve a certificate of merit on or before the date the complaint or cross‐complain...

Excerpt: ... interest supporting the request and the substantial probability of prejudice without the sealing, and 2. A substantial probability that the interest will be prejudiced without the sealing. Moreover, Defendant has failed to show that less restrictive means would be ineffective. ...

Excerpt: ...alleges that Defendant has a Maintenance, Operations and Transportation Department, which is overseen by an assistant superintendent, and that this department is located in San Ramon while Defendant's headquarters are in located in Danville. (FAC ¶8.) In addition, the department has four divisions, including one for transportation, and each division is headed by a director. (FAC ¶8.) The transportation division has 70 school buses, 15 vans, and...

Excerpt: ...extent that the motion may be treated as a motion to reconsider under Code of Civil Procedure section 1008, it is untimely. 2. TIME: 9:00 CASE#: MSC16‐01293 CASE NAME: SCHORNO VS. GANN‐DESIMONE HEARING ON MOTION FOR REQUESTING CHANGE OF CCC JUDGE, VENUE OR DISMISSAL / FILED BY NANCY S. GANN‐DESIMONE * TENTATIVE RULING: * Defendant's motion Requesting Change of CCC Judge, or Change of Venue, or Dismissal of Case” is denied. To the extent t...

Excerpt: ...e had not carried its burden on the element of causation sufficient to warrant a grant of summary judgment. The Court's prior tentative ruling focused on the fact that both the pedestrian and the driver had stated that there were no obstructions to their views. At argument, however, plaintiff persuasively pointed out that the evidence on which the Court relied concerned visibility to the crosswalk itself, but did not address the issue of whether ...

Excerpt: ... the trial court must determine whether the parties entered into a valid and binding settlement of all or part of the case. In making this determination, trial judges, in the sound exercise of their discretion, may receive oral testimony or may determine the motion upon declarations alone. Corkland v. Boscoe (1984) 156 Cal.App.3d 989. A court's power to make factual determinations under Code of Civil Procedure § 664.6 (entry of judgment pursuant...

Excerpt: ...c Redacted Version”. A great deal of it – whole pages at a time – is simply blacked out. Moreover, from what can be read in the moving papers, it appears that Jacobs bases his motion principally on the declaration of his expert, Dr. Bickler. But the Bickler declaration has not been filed at all – not even in a “public redacted version”. It just plain isn't there. It's not in the court file, and there is no indication in the computer t...

Excerpt: ...nal service was required. (Id., subd. (d).) Plaintiff attempted to serve defendant with a statement of damages on October 2, 2017. (Dudensing Dec., Exh. “F”.) However, this attempted service was made at a Green Street address in San Francisco, and defendant alleges that he has at all pertinent times resided at a Taraval Street address. (Byrd Dec., ¶ 1.) Further, plaintiff took defendant's default only three days later, on October 5, 2017, an...

Excerpt: ...m, for documents relating to two other identified potential buyers of the property, and the reasons why those sales did not go through. Plaintiffs reason that there may be relevant information in the documents concerning knowledge or disclosure of the alleged problems with the property. Plaintiffs acknowledge that they did not serve any Notice to Consumer on the putative buyers under Code of Civil Procedure § 1985.3. They state conclusorily that...

Excerpt: ... District, after counsels met and conferred pursuant to CCP § 430.41, only the first cause of action for Dangerous Condition of Public Property is subject to the demurrer. Standard of Review The role of demurrer is to test the legal sufficiency of the allegations in the complaint. It raises issues of law, not fact. (Lewis v. Safeway, Inc. (2015) 235 CA4th 385, 388.) “In passing upon the sufficiency of a pleading, its allegations must be libera...

Excerpt: ...ovision in the Isadore contract did not apply to Constanza. In order to be entitled to an award of fees, the party claiming a right to such an award must “establish that the opposing party actually would have been entitled to receive them if he or she had been the prevailing party.” Leach v. Home Savings & Loan (1986) 185 Cal.App.3d 1295, 1307. See also Blickman Turkus, LP v. MF Downtown Sunnyvale, LLC. (2008) 162 Cal. App. 4th 858. ...

Excerpt: ...Bulleri”) and defendant Dominator, Inc. (“Dominator”) entered into a contract whereby Dominator was to restore the Polara. Needless to say, a dispute arose, the details of which it is not necessary to recount here. Vencill Mediation and Decision Following protracted litigation, the parties mediated this matter before William C. Vencill. The parties had stipulated that Mr. Vencill's determination would be a final resolution of this dispute; ...

Excerpt: ...nguage. Further, the opposing parties have not demonstrated prejudice. Travelers filed and served a notice of lien almost 11 months ago, on March 30, 2017. The need to litigate or compromise this lien was obvious long before plaintiff and defendants entered into their settlement agreement. Also, the opposing parties do not explain why litigating the lien in a separate action would somehow be more efficient than litigating the lien in this action....

Excerpt: ...e, or neglect” caused him to fail to respond to the Order to Show Cause that resulted in the dismissal of the case. Indeed, the declaration neither uses the words “mistake,” “inadvertence,” “surprise” or “neglect;” nor does it express any thoughts that could be construed as any of those things. ...

Excerpt: .... Next came Phase 2 ‐‐ collection of the judgment ‐‐ with Plaintiffs propounding Post Judgment Interrogatories, separate Sets #1 to each of the three judgment debtors, and Request for Production of Documents, Sets #1 on 2/25/16, which were never responded to. Thereafter, Plaintiffs obtained Orders of Examination on 8/5/16 for appearance of Sharon Hinchman and Henry Amado on 9/8/16, but since there had been no effective service, the hearin...

Excerpt: ...tate a cause of action, and has again failed to do so. The demurrer as to the only remaining cause of action, negligence, is sustained without leave to amend. ...

Excerpt: ...n affirmative defense in the Answer to the Complaint. The issue of whether there is an entitlement to precondemnation damages is an issue to be determined by the court before the jury determines the issue of compensation. Therefore, the appropriate procedure is to bifurcate the trial. (City of Ripon v. Sweetin (2002) 100 Cal.App.4th 887, 897‐898; see also City of Perris v. Stamper (2016) 1 Cal.5th 576, 594.) If the parties accept this ruling, t...

Excerpt: ... Ins. Co. (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 968, 994. For purposes of a demurrer, all properly pleaded facts are admitted as true. Aubry v. Tri‐City Hospital Dist. (1992) 2 Cal.4th 962, 967. “If the complaint states a cause of action under any theory, regardless of the title under which the factual basis for relief is stated, that aspect of the complaint is good against a demurrer.” (Quelimane Co. v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. (1998) 19 Cal.4th 26, 38...

Excerpt: ...motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction, once defendants have made a general appearance. Defendants were served with process, and with the moving papers, through corporate agents for service on January 9 and 10, 2018. This gave defendants only four days more than the bare minimum of 16 court days' notice. As a practical matter, defendants have likely not had adequate time to retain counsel and prepare timely opposition papers. Second, the C...

Excerpt: ...y relief and the second cause of action to set aside the default judgment due to extrinsic fraud is granted. This court has previously examined the issue of the propriety of substitute service on Plaintiff in the early stages of this case, on demurrer. The court was restrained by the demurrer rules, which compelled this court to accept all allegations in the complaint as true. See Blank v. Kirwan (1985) 39 Cal.3d 311, 318. The complaint alleged t...

Excerpt: ..., responses were due on 12/22/17 and less than a week later, the Motion was filed. Responses with objection were served on 1/3/18, and without objection on 1/18/18, followed by verifications on 1/25/18. Discovery disputes where further responses are requested are required by Local Rule 3.300 to be submitted to a Discovery Facilitator. Rather than require Defendants to comply with that Local Rule, file another motion, and participate in the Discov...

Excerpt: ...; (3) negligent failure to fulfill promise; (4) fraud; (5) negligent CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 39 HEARING DATE: 02/05/18 ‐ 10 ‐ misrepresentation in loan modification; (6) violation of Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.; (7) quiet title; (8) declaratory relief; and (9) injunctive relief. Defendant demurs pursuant to Code Civ. Proc. § 430.10(e) through (g) on several grounds. The Court notes that many of the...

Excerpt: ...ty was valued at $2.8 million, that the property was to be an investment property, sold quickly, that Longmire would not reside there, and that Longmire's income was $21,000 per month or more. (Complaint ¶ 10.) These misrepresentations allegedly induced Plaintiff to loan Longmire and Roesner $1.85 million. (¶ 13.) The loan went into default, and Plaintiff acquired the property at a nonjudicial foreclosure sale. (¶ 15.) Plaintiff seeks damages ...

Excerpt: ... sanctions, it was improper and frivolous. (Defendant had previously sought reconsideration of one of the sanction awards, which was denied.) Moreover, although the ostensible basis of the motion to release lien was that the property was not owned by Defendant, but by Star Wars Revocable Living Trust, no evidence was submitted showing that the trust actually owns the property. Finally, if a sale of the property was recorded before the abstract of...

Excerpt: ...dismissal of co‐defendant Special Default Services, Inc., which has filed a declaration of non‐monetary status. A. Procedural Problems. 1. The Moving Papers. There are several procedural problems with the moving papers filed on November 13, 2017. These include the following. First, defendant Trinity refers to evidence that has not been supplied to the Court. The separate statement refers to a “Declaration of Johnelle Gomez,” and various e...