Excerpt: ...has established that Plaintiff's counsel Thomas E. Donahue, Esq.'s illness has precluded him from adequately preparing for trial and delayed plaintiff's deposition from taking place. Defendant Gonzalez has established that she needs additional time to prepare for trial. Designation of experts is quickly approaching and neither Plaintiff has been deposed nor experts designated. Defendant Gonzalez's lead trial counsel, Mark Franzen, will be engaged...

Excerpt: ...ive from a judgment, dismissal, order, or other proceeding taken against him or her through his or her mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect. Application for this relief shall be accompanied by a copy of the answer or other pleading proposed to be filed therein, otherwise the application shall not be granted. . . Notwithstanding any other requirements of this section, the court shall, whenever an application for relief is made no ...

Excerpt: ...levant to the claims and defenses presented. (See Supp. Ettinghoff Decl., and Exs. A-D thereto.) And it does not appear that there is any less intrusive means available to Plaintiff to obtain the information requested. In addition, as Plaintiff has limited the requests to bank statements alone, it seems unlikely that SSNs or tax returns would be included in the requested production. Plaintiff also appears to have narrowly tailored the requests, t...

Excerpt: ... that there were none for any years prior to 2014, but agreed to produce those he had for 2014-2016. (Sheetz Decl. Ex. J.) Plaintiff has evidently now produced responsive documents for 2014 and 2016. (Reply p. 8.) It thus appears that the only material still at issue for these requests are the 2015 returns. If Plaintiff has them, they must be produced. If not, Plaintiff's counsel should be prepared to address at the time of the hearing, with spec...

Excerpt: ... of entry of judgment is by mail, the period is extended accordingly. (Kahn v. The Dewey Group (2015) 240 Cal.App.4th 227, 234–235.) Here, the Notice of Entry of Judgment shows service by mail on 1/26/18. The MOC here was thus timely filed on 2/13/18. However, costs here may not be imposed unless the Court finds that Plaintiff's claims were frivolous, unreasonable, objectively without foundation, or brought in bad faith, or that Plaintiff conti...

Excerpt: ...onal addresses for the lienholders is also granted. The moving party assignee Cal-West Equities has established that the original Order for Sale of Dwelling entered on 1/17/18 included estimated amounts owed to Aegis Wholesale Corporation, Discover Bank and The County of Orange Auditor-Controller. Townsend Declaration ¶¶ 3-6. Since then, the moving party has obtained the actual amounts. Originally, Aegis Wholesale Corporation (Mr. Cooper) was e...

Excerpt: ...follows: 1. Defendants misappropriated AGA's trade secrets, and were unjustly enriched in the amount of $1,028,431.00; 2. Defendants negligently interfered with AGA's prospective economic advantage – but caused no economic harm; 3. Johnson breached his duty of loyalty – but caused no economic harm. Judgment was entered thereon, ordering all three defendants to be jointly and severally liable for the whole of the enrichment obtained by defenda...

Excerpt: ...ers by Hamilton and Sundberg (“Individual Defendants”) The demurrers are overruled. According to Defendants, the real contracting party was M2T, and these Defendants were merely the officers/agents of M2T in dealings with plaintiff or Bersiek. However, the pleading expressly alleges that an oral agreement was made with Sundberg and Hamilton, individually. (See FAC ¶¶ 10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and repeated in ¶ 37, 38.) It would be improp...

Excerpt: ...relied upon (see Cal. R. Ct 3.1306(c)) but in any event, according to the argument, there were “fatal” facts in the prior pleading, which were omitted from the amended pleading, which makes the latter pleading a sham. However, the Court is not persuaded that the doctrine of sham pleading is properly applied. The moving brief does not make clear at times where the prior “fatal” facts exist in the record, nor how/ what was “fatal”. For ...

Excerpt: ...ng missing vehicles/parts. Plaintiff filed suit. Defendant denies all wrongdoing, and responded in kind with a counter-suit for defamation, wage/hour violations, and wrongful termination. Before the Court this day is a demurrer to employee's cross-complaint. Three causes of action are at issue herein: defamation, retaliation, and wrongful termination. 1st COA: Defamation This cause of action did not survive the special motion to strike; the demur...

Excerpt: ...ing on the punitive damages motion below, Plaintiff has not satisfied the standards for the punitive damages amendment pursuant to CCP §425.13. Thus, any amended pleading that is filed shall eliminate claims to punitive damages against the Hospital. The Court may, in its discretion, after notice to the adverse party, allow, upon any terms as may be just, an amendment to any pleading. CCP §473(a). Courts have a policy of liberality in allowing a...

Excerpt: ...eir garage in or about 2011. Before the Court this day is a motion for summary judgment brought by defendant Sal's Auto Service (Doe #2). At issue herein is whether there is any evidence that a single repair service (wheel alignment) 14 days pre-incident contributed in any fashion to the accident. The purpose of the law of summary judgment is to provide courts with a mechanism to cut through the parties' pleadings in order to determine whether, d...

Excerpt: ...bitration under CCP §1281 et seq, the moving party has the burden of demonstrating (1) an arbitration agreement covering the controversy, (2) a demand for arbitration consistent therewith, and (3) a refusal by the other party to arbitrate. Mansouri v. Superior Court (2010) 181 Cal.App.4 th 633, 640; Brodke v. Alphatec Spine Inc. (2008) 160 Cal.App.4 th1569, 1575. The burden rests with the party seeking to compel arbitration to establish these th...

Excerpt: ...rmative Defense, which is a requirement of C.C.P. § 437c(f)(1). If that were the case, then Ortho would not later argue in its Motion that all of the elements of the Affirmative Defense have been met. See, Motion, pg. 5-6. Additionally, if Ortho actually believed that its Affirmative Defense had no merit, then it could simply withdraw the defense, not assert it, stipulate with plaintiff, or propose a Motion in Limine at time of trial. Instead Or...

Excerpt: ... occurred. It appears to the Court that this was somewhat under the control of counsel versus an unforeseen or unavoidable emergency-type of situation that traditionally justifies a continuance of trial. (See CRC 3.1332(a) (“To ensure the prompt disposition of civil cases, the dates assigned for a trial are firm. All parties and their counsel must regard the date set for trial as certain.”); Lazarus v. Titmus (1998) 64 Cal.App.4th 1242, 1250�...

Excerpt: ... and acts of malfeasance involving missing vehicles/parts. Plaintiff filed suit. Defendant denies all wrongdoing, and responded in kind with a counter-suit for defamation, wage/hour violations, and wrongful termination. Before the Court this day is a special motion to strike brought by plaintiff dealership and cross-defendant general manager, directed at defendant's cause of action for defamation. Analyzing a special motion to strike under CCP §...

Excerpt: ...ention that it was not dealing with a situation involving litigation and a formal judgment which were involved here. Probate Code § 1000 says “Except to the extent that this code provides applicable rules, the rules of practice applicable to civil actions, including discovery proceedings and proceedings under … the Code of Civil Procedure,apply to, and constitute the rules of practice in, proceedings under this code. . . .” The Law Revisio...

Excerpt: ...�� This is true where the plaintiff voluntarily dismisses or where the trial court orders an involuntary dismissal . . . Defendant is entitled to costs regardless of whether the dismissal is with or without prejudice”) (internal cites omitted); Mon Chong Loong Trading Corp. v. Superior Court (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 87, 94 (“voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit is always conditioned ‘upon payment of the costs; even if the dismissal is without pre...

Excerpt: ...llegations that an officer, director or managing agent committed, ratified, or authorized an act of fraud, oppression or malice. Motion to Strike: Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure Section 436 the court may strike out “any irrelevant, false, or improper matter inserted in any pleading.” A motion to strike may be used to strike punitive damages allegations in a complaint lacking factual foundation. Turman v. Turning Point of Central Calif., ...

Excerpt: ...al distress) and 4 th (abuse of process) causes of action. At issue is whether defendants' reporting of plaintiffs' alleged embezzlement is protected activity subject to anti-SLAPP protection. Relevant Background Between 2012 and 2015, Sterling Plumbing began suffering significant financial setbacks. By some accounts, this was the byproduct of a downturn in the economy, coupled with Sterling's ill-advised decision to venture into government-spons...

Excerpt: ... case is that the Court, in rendering its Minute Order of February 22, 2018 did not know, consider or address the fact that the “Court failed to serve its Notice of Case Assignment to Plaintiff. Specifically: (1) The Court's E-file Clerk(s) failed to include the Notice of Case Assignment to Plaintiff's counsel via the completion of the Court's processing of Plaintiffs e-filing of the lawsuit documents on November 15, 2018. (2) The Court clerk(s...

Excerpt: ...ke loose and lodged in the portal between the maxilla and sinus cavity. Plaintiff alleges that as a result of the botched extraction, and subsequent remedial procedure, she suffers ongoing physical symptoms. Before the Court this day is a motion to quash summons by specially-appearing defendant Dentsply Sirona. This entity is alleged to have had some role in the design, manufacture or distribution of the surgical bur used by Bijal which broke (id...

Excerpt: ...9. The court will complete the information noting the trial date is presently scheduled for May 14, 2018, at 9:00 am in Department C20. It appears there is no timely written opposition in response to this matter. The Motion is granted. However, the withdrawal will not be effective until Gordon & Rees LLP causes a copy of the signed Order to be served upon the Client, and a proof of service is filed with the Court demonstrating the service. Gordon...

Excerpt: ...Defendant's entire Verified Answer to Plaintiffs First Amended Verified Complaint is DENIED AS MOOT. The policy favoring leave to amend is so strong that it is an abuse of discretion to deny an amendment unless the adverse party can show meaningful prejudice, such as the running of the statute of limitations, trial delay, the loss of critical evidence, or added preparation costs. Atkinson v. Elk Corp. (2003) 109 Cal.App.4th 739, 761. There are no...

Excerpt: ...urt to determine the proper trustee of the Sacher Family Trust as between plaintiff Fred Sacher and his alleged successor Alexander (Ted) Alvarez, and by defendant Kenneth Sacher, as competing alleged trustee. The determination of the probate court will apparently determine the proper plaintiff for this case; vested with standing to pursue the present action for the trust. In the Answer to the Complaint filed here, Defendant Kenneth Sacher is ass...