Excerpt: ...the party has shown that one or more elements of the cause of action, even if not separately pleaded, cannot be established, or that there is a complete defense to the cause of action. Once the defendant or cross-defendant has met that burden, the burden shifts to the plaintiff or cross-complainant to show that a triable issue of one or more material facts exists as to the cause of action or a defense thereto. The plaintiff or crosscomplainant sh...

Excerpt: ...nd thereto, and for $1,280.88 in sanctions on each such motion, against Gill and Kaur, respectively; b) Motions 3-5 (ROAS 62, 82 and 50): Plaintiff moves to compel responses without objections to Requests for Production, Set One, as directed to Defendant Mickle & Lucky Estates, LLC (here, "Owner"), Kaur and Gill, for failure to respond thereto, and for $1,280.88 in sanctions on each such motion, against Owner, Kaur, and Gill, respectively; c) Mot...

Excerpt: ... it will not be automatically allowed; there must then be a "careful balancing" of the "compelling public need" for discovery against the "fundamental right of privacy."' " (Bd. of Trustees v. Superior Court (1981) 119 Cal. App. 3d 515, at 525.) "The party asserting a privacy right must establish [1] a legally protected privacy interest, [2] an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the given circumstances, and [3] a threatened intrusio...

Excerpt: ..., Mr. Xu challenges service of the Summons. "When a defendant challenges the court's personal jurisdiction on the ground of improper service of process 'the burden is on the plaintiff to prove the existence of jurisdiction by proving, inter alia, the facts requisite to an effective service.'" (Summers v. McClanahan (2W5) 140 Cal.App.4th 403, 413.) The plaintiffs have submitted evidence show-ng Mr. Xu was served by substitute service. under Code o...

Excerpt: ... truth of contentions, deductions, or conclusions of fact or law. (alankv. Kirwan (1985) 39 Cal.3d 311, 318.) Cause of Acton 1: Breach of Contract To allege a claim for breach of contract plaintiff must plead: (1) the existence of a contract; (2) the plaintiff's performance or excuse for nonperformance; (3) the defendant's breach; (4) resulting damages to the plaintiff. (Oasis West Realty, LLC v. Goldman, (2011) 51 Cal. 4th 811, 821.) Defendant a...

Excerpt: ...plaint; the request for entry of default. „ and a copy of the judgment." Code Civ. Proc., S 670, subd. (a). Ajudgment, void on its face, is not governed by Code of Civil Procedure S 473. [Citation.] Such a judgment may vacated upon motion or may be set aside by the court on own motion. Montgomery v. Norman (1953) 120 Cal.App.2d 855. A trial court has the inherent power to set aside a judgment void on its face at any time. Connelly v. Castillo (...

Excerpt: ... is a substantial probability they will prevail on the claim for punitive damages. (Civ. Code S 3295(c); Jabro v. Superior Ct. (2W2) 95 Cal. App. 4th 754, 757 ("Jabro").) "[B]efore a court may enter an order permitting discovery of a defendant's financial condition, it must (1) weigh the evidence submitted in favor of and in opposition to motion for discovery, and (2) make a finding that it is very likely the plaintiff will prevail on his claim f...

Excerpt: ...ne any of the following: ... "(4) Reported a work-related ... injury „ except in cases where the employee alleges they have been retaliated against because they have filed or made known their intention to file a workers' compensation claim pursuant to Section 132a, which is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. Plaintiff alleges that he injured his head and neck while entering a car, and as a result of rep...

Excerpt: ...n, Set One ("Motion 3" below). Plaintiffs' motions are procedurally deficient. First, they improperly purport to compel responses to three different discovery devices in the motion. Inexplicably, Plaintiff attempts to remedy the problem not by separating the motons but in filing the same moton three times. For each, Plaintiffs failed to submit a declaration evidencing meet and confer efforts as required by C.C.P. SS 2016.040, 2031.310(b)(2), and ...

Excerpt: ...wed "only to issues related to the new Cause of Action." The new cause of action which plaintiffs sought to add was for "Violation of Labor Code 5970, Soliciting Employment Through Misrepresentation." CCP 5599 did not extend the discovery cut-off because that section only applies "unless ordered otherwise by a court" and in this instance, the Court made a specific order as to the limited scope of additional discovery that would be allowed. With r...

Excerpt: ...ween the parties that covers the controversy or claims at issue. (Roes v. SFBSC Management, LLC (9th Cir. 2016) 656 Fed.Appx. 828, 829; Knutson v. Sirius XM Radio Inc. (9th Cir. 2014) 771 F.3d 559, 565.) In determining the validity or "the rights of parties to enforce an arbitration agreement within the FAA's scope, courts apply state contract law while giving due regard to the federal policy favoring arbitration." (Pinnacle Museum Tower Assn. v....

Excerpt: ...rent hearing was set as a motion to compel further responses to RFAs, the Court will consider the RFAs at this time. The next procedural problem is that Plaintiff failed to concurrently file a declaration with the motion evidencing meet and confer efforts as required by CCP S Plaintiff attempted to remedy the problem by filing three Notces of Errata attaching the full motions with the declarations on the last court day before the hearing. Further...

Excerpt: ...t recovery of punitive damages." (Carter v. Prime Healthcare Paradise Valley LLC (2011) 198 Cal.App.4th 396, 405) "The plaintiff must also allege (and ultimately prove by clear and convincing evidence) that the neglect caused the elder or dependent adult to suffer physical harm, pain or mental suffering. (Citations omitted) Finally, the facts constituting the neglect and establishing the causal link between the neglect and the injury "must be ple...

Excerpt: ... will appear and discuss what arrangements have been worked out as to this matter. B) Demurrer Defendant Jason Krieck's (Krieck) Demurrer to plaintiffs John Pressney and Pamela Pressney"s (Plaintiffs together) Fourth Amended Complaint (FAC) is OVERRULED. Krieck demurs to causes of action (COA) No. 3 for Elder Abuse, and No. 4 for Unfair Business Practices. Although Krieck made general arguments as to why the FAC does not state facts sufficient to...

Excerpt: ...d 2 are MOOT, except for the issue of sanctions. Motion 3 is DENIED. Motions 1 and 2: Motions to Compel Answers to Discovery Plaintiff seeks to compel 1st Pass' responses to its first set of Requests for Production of Documents and Special Interrogatories. In the Oppositions, 1st Pass contends it provided full and complete responses to the subject discovery after the motions were filed. The Oppositions show initial responses were served on August...

Excerpt: ...State Auto. Ass'n (1993) 19 Cal.App.4th 761, 774-776, Bender v. County of Los Angeles (2013) 217 Cal.App.4th 968, 989, and Jones v. Dumrichob (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 1258, 1266 [mere statements in MPAs and declaration of counsel insufficient to rebut prima facie showing].) As such, Plaintiff's assertion that the entire Memorandum of Costs is defective because it does not include any affdavits or receipts fails as there is no such requirement in the...

Excerpt: ...Consulting, Behrooz Entezam aka Bruce Entezam and Behzad Entezam, aka Ben Entezam (collectively "Green" or "RP") is SUSTAINED in part and OVERRULED in part. RP objects to the demurrer on the ground that it was filed six days late. RP argues that it only granted a one week extension to "answer" and not to file a demurrer. Based on the Court's review of the correspondence and declarations, there appears to have been some confusion on the use of the...

Excerpt: ...88-89; Jarrow Formulas, Inc. v. LaMarche (2003) 31 C4th 728, 733.) "Only a cause of action that satisfies both prongs of the anti-SLAPP statute-i.e., that arises from protected speech or petitioning and lacks even minimal merit-is a SLAPP, subject to being stricken under the statute." (Navellier, supra, 29 Cal. 4th at 89.) "As used in this section, "act in furtherance of a person's right of petition or free s#ech under the United States or Califo...

Excerpt: ...ion under Section 2016.040. [9] The court, for cause shown, may make any order that justice requires to protect any party, deponent, or other natural person or organization from unwarranted annoyance, embarrassment, or oppression, or undue burden and expense. This protective order may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following directions: [9] (1) That the deposition not be taken at all." (Code Civ. Proc., S 2025.420, subds. (a),...

Excerpt: ...nintelligible" (Code Civ. Proc., 5430.10, subd. (f)), "[a] demurrer for uncertainty is strictly construed, even where a complaint is in some respects uncertain, because ambiguities can be clarified under modern discovery procedures." (Khoury v. Maly's of California, Inc. (1993) 14 Cal.App.4th 612, 616.) Additionally, "[d]emurrers for uncertainty are disfawred, and are granted only if the pleading is so incomprehensible that a defendant cannot rea...

Excerpt: ...e Court, but the Court does not assume the truth of contentions, deductions, or conclusions of fact or law. (Blank v. Kirwan (1985) 39 Cal.3d 311, 318.) Defendant's argument is based on the 2022 Release, signed between the parties to settle a dispute about the profit-sharing clause in the original employment agreement. While the General Release signed in 2020 specifically excluded issues related to the profit-sharing clause, the 2022 Release cove...

Excerpt: ...was not served with a summons in the manner prescribed by statute is wid." (Dill v. Berquist Constr. Co. (1994) 24 Cal. App. 4th 1426, 1444 ("Dill").) "A motion to vacate a judgment on the ground that it is void is timely if made within a reasonable time (8 Witkin, Cal.Procedure, supra, Attack on Judgment in Trial Court, S 186, pp. 587—588), which has been determined to be any time within two years of the entry of the judgment. (Dill, supra, 24...

Excerpt: ...e Constitution. (Cal. Const., art. l, S 1.)" (Williams v. Superior Court (2017) 3 Cal. 5th 531, 552 ("Williams").) "unless otherwise limited by order of the court . any party may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, that is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action ... if the matter either is itself admissible in evidence or appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Discov...

Excerpt: ... Civil Procedure sections 2030.290(c) and 2031.300(c) provide that if a party fails to obey an order compelling discovery responses, the court may make those orders that are just, including the imposition of an issue sanction, an evidence sanction, or a terminating sanction, and/or monetary sanctions. "Discovery sanctions are intended to remedy discovery abuse, not to punish the offending party. Accordingly, sanctons should be tailored to serve t...

Excerpt: ... demurred to all ten affrmative defenses. Code Civ. Proc. S 430.30 lists three grounds for demurrer to answer: (1) the answer does not state facts sufficient to constitute a defense; (2) the answer is "uncertain," which includes ambiguous, and unintelligible; and (3) when the answer pleads a contract, it cannot be ascertained whether the alleged contract is written or oral. Each ground must be in a separate paragraph and state whether it is direc...