Excerpt: ...of Plaintiff's PAGA claim. For the reasons set forth below, the Court orders as follows: 1. The motion to compel individual arbitration is GRANTED. This case is STAYED pending completion of Plaintiff's already-pending arbitration. 2. The request to dismiss the representative portion of Plaintiff's PAGA claim is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE to reconsideration after Plaintiff's arbitration is complete. An arbitration review conference will be held on J...

Excerpt: ...n of arbitration. The Court rules as follows: 1. The request to compel arbitration is GRANTED. Plaintiff is ordered to arbitrate the individual portion of her PAGA claim. 2. The case is STAYED pending completion of arbitration. 3. The request to dismiss the representative portion of Plaintiff's PAGA claims is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE to being renewed when the stay is lifted. An arbitration review conference will take place in Department CX-104 on...

Excerpt: ... Tina Jackson's Motion to Compel Further Responses to Plaintiffs' First Set of Requests for Admission to Defendant Todd Spitzer in his Official Capacity MOTIONS TO COMPEL Plaintiffs have filed two motions to compel further responses from Defendant Todd Spitzer, sued in his official capacity as the Orange County District Attorney. (The Court refers to “OCDA” unless Spitzer's personal identity is relevant.) Because the motions overlap, the Cour...

Excerpt: ... For the reasons set forth below, the motion to compel arbitration is GRANTED, and this case is STAYED pending the completion of arbitration. The request to dismiss the representative portion of Plaintiff's claim is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE to reconsideration upon completion of arbitration. The Court has not considered the unpublished decisions of California Superior Courts cited by Plaintiff. “Even assuming for the sake of argument that [these...

Excerpt: ...5.) The Court has neither read nor considered the two decisions. As Plaintiffs point out in their objection to the RJN, the Court previously rejected a request from Defendant to take judicial notice of an unpublished Court of Appeal decision, so Defendant can hardly plead ignorance of the rule. (See ROA 1278.) Defendant didn't simply fail to heed that prior ruling: one of the decisions in its current RJN, Vazquez v. Warrant Distributing, Inc., is...

Excerpt: ...ontract. This claim is based on the VRE defendants' alleged conduct in inducing defendant Nancy Goetz Tafoya (Tafoya) to breach the residential purchase agreement between plaintiff Medici Partners, LLC (plaintiff) and Tafoya. (See TAC ¶¶ 54-57.) Tafoya has since successfully moved for summary judgment on the third amended complaint, including on plaintiff's claim for breach of contract/the subject residential purchase agreement, and judgment ha...

Excerpt: ...ubmitted no argument on the issue in their briefs on appeal. Accordingly, we deem plaintiffs to have abandoned the issue.”].) As a result, the demurrer is sustained with 15 days leave to amend. MOTION TO STRIKE The arguments in Defendants' motion to strike portions of the FAC also have merit. However, the ruling on the demurrer renders moot most of the motion, except for the following. Gross Negligence and Intentional Conduct In the background ...

Excerpt: ...ld plaintiff in May of 2018, during a breakup argument, that the transmission of the communicable disease to plaintiff was intentional in order to maintain the relationship and control over plaintiff, rendering her “damaged goods”, that he had hidden physical symptoms from plaintiff in order to intentionally give her the disease, and that he had infected at least one other woman with the same disease. (Id. ¶ 12.) While this conduct occurred ...

Excerpt: ...party who might assert a claim to title in the property, including alter egos and those claiming an adverse interest. (Eleanor Licensing LLC v. Classic Recreations LLC (2018) 21 Cal.App.5th 599, 617; see Harbour Vista, LLC v. HSBC Mortgage Services Inc. (2011) 201 Cal.App.4th 1496, 1506 [explaining one purpose of 1980 revision of statutory scheme for quiet title actions was to permit the action to proceed against “any or all adverse claimants,�...

Excerpt: ...e expressly prohibited by statute, a prevailing party is entitled to recover costs as a matter of right. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1032, subd. (b).) Code of Civil Procedure section 1033.5, subdivision (a) specifies cost items that are allowable, including filing and motion fees, deposition costs, and court reporter fees. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1033.5, subd. (a)(3).) Allowable costs “shall be reasonably necessary to the conduct of the litigation rather...

Excerpt: ...rt animal” and that its loss caused her, in addition to economic damages, damages for emotional distress. Other facts are disputed: The plaintiff asserts, for example, that the defendants made no effort to stop the attack despite repeated requests from the plaintiff and that they simply walked away once the cat had escaped. But the court finds those other facts are not relevant. There are only three cases in California that speak to the issue o...

Excerpt: ...of Action for purported Involuntary Dissolution. Initially, the Court notes abuses of the California Rules of Court and other issues requiring a continuance of the matter. First of all, both parties cite to both California and Delaware law interchangeably and/or to support specific arguments without a real analysis as to why either States' law applies to the particular causes of action addressed in the Demurrer. Additionally, the Court notes that...

Excerpt: ...ke shall be entitled to recover his or her attorney's fees and costs.” “[A]ny SLAPP defendant who brings a successful motion to strike is entitled to mandatory attorney fees.” (Ketchum v. Moses (2001) 24 Cal.4th 1122, 1131.) However, “when a defendant cannot in any realistic sense be said to have been successful, fees need not be awarded. (Moran v. Endres, (2006)135 Cal. App. 4th 952, 956.) In Mann v. Quality Old Time Service, Inc. (2006)...

Excerpt: ...made after the time limited by this code.” Code of Civil Procedure section 576 provides, “Any judge, at any time before or after commencement of trial, in the furtherance of justice, and upon such terms as may be proper, may allow the amendment of any pleading or pretrial conference order.” “It is well established that ‘California courts “have a policy of great liberality in allowing amendments at any stage of the proceeding so as to ...

Excerpt: ...as a substantial interest in the action as a whole. [¶] (2)The health of the party is such that a preference is necessary to prevent prejudicing the party's interest in the litigation.” Section 36.5 states: “An affidavit submitted in support of a motion for preference under subdivision (a) of Section 36 may be signed by the attorney for the party seeking preference based upon information and belief as to the medical diagnosis and prognosis o...

Excerpt: ... to evidence the requisite elements of their claim,” without specifying any issue to be decided. That is insufficient to put the opposing party on notice of the precise issue to be resolved. The second paragraph is specific: It says the two procedures—LASIK and PRK— are not “substantially different” and therefore the consent plaintiff gave for the one procedure constitutes consent for the other. However, the points and authorities raise...

Excerpt: ...onal Bank; (6) Citibank N.A.; (7) J.P. Morgan Chase; and (8) Bank of America (“Subpoenas”). In the alternative, Defendants seek a protective order denying the production of business records requested by Plaintiff in the Subpoenas. Defendants also will move and hereby do move this Court for an order compelling Plaintiff and its counsel of record, BROWN & CHARBONNEAU, LLP, to pay sanctions, jointly and severally, to Defendants in the amount of ...

Excerpt: ...(b). Defendants' Objections Nos. 1 and 2 to the Declaration of Cristina Flores, RN, BSN, Ph.D. are SUSTAINED and No. 3 is OVERRULED. The court refers the objections as Nos. 1-3 even though the Defendants failed to number them consecutively in compliance with the California Rules of Court, rule 3.1354(b). Code of Civil Procedure section 437c, subdivision (p)(2) provides, “A defendant . . . has met his or her burden of showing that a cause of act...

Excerpt: ...oceeding if it is contended that the action has no merit or that there is no defense to the action or proceeding.” (Code Civ. Proc. § 437c(a)(1).) “A party may move for summary adjudication as to one or more causes of action within an action, one or more affirmative defenses, one or more claims for damages, or one or more issues of duty, if the party contends that the cause of action has no merit, that there is no affirmative defense to the ...

Excerpt: ...d set of form and special interrogatories, motion to compel production of documents, and motion to deem facts admitted. Defendant contends that Plaintiff has failed to engage in or prosecute this lawsuit and has demonstrated his unwillingness to participate in this lawsuit, warranting the issuance of terminating sanctions by dismissing this action; that if the Court declines to issue terminating sanctions, the Court should impose issue sanctions ...

Excerpt: ...judicial notice of: (1) Plaintiff's Complaint in this action; and (2) a February 11, 2016 Notice of Entry of Dismissal and Proof of Service filed in the matter of Felisilda v. FCA US LLC, Case No. 34-2015-00183668, Sacramento Superior Court. Plaintiff requests judicial notice of the February 12, 2022 Ninth Circuit Opinion in the matter of Ngo v. BMW of North America, LLC (9th Cir. 2022) 23 F.4th 942. The Requests for Judicial Notice are GRANTED. ...

Excerpt: ...fornia Gas Company: Alex Taylor, Rick Hartley, “Anthony,” and Southern California Gas Company's Persons Most Qualified re: direction, approval, oversight, decision making, and knowledge to subsequently install the protective yellow “T- Bars” at the fall location on both sides of the dangerous low-lying gas pipe riser and trip hazard, on which plaintiff tripped and fell and to reset the discovery schedule as necessary; and 4. Awarding disc...

Excerpt: ...urt rule, or an order of the court.” The grounds for a motion to strike must “appear on the face of the challenged pleading or from any matter of which the court is required to take judicial notice.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 437.) Motions to strike are used to challenge defects in the pleadings not subject to demurrer. (Ferraro v. Kamerlingh (2008) 161 Cal.App.4th 509, 529 [recognizing that an objection that the complaint failed to state facts ...

Excerpt: ... in their context, and assume their truth. [Citations.] In ruling on a motion to strike, courts do not read allegations in isolation. [Citations.]” (Clauson v. Superior Court (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 1253, 1255.) “Further, even though certain language pleads ultimate facts or conclusions of law, such language when read in context with the facts alleged as to defendants' conduct may adequately plead the evil motive requisite to recovery of puniti...

Excerpt: ... BALC challenges the second and third causes of action alleged in the FACC on the grounds that the causes of action are precluded by the express terms of the financing agreement. In the FACC, Vivera alleges it entered into two separate contracts. First, the FACC alleges that “Vivera and Oracle entered into a written Subscription Services Agreement (“Service Agreement”) whereby Oracle promised and agreed to deliver and install its licensed a...