Excerpt: ...ties do not dispute that general jurisdiction does not apply to this defendant. Rather, the only question to be decided is whether the court may exercise specific personal jurisdiction over him. Specific personal jurisdiction may be exercised over a nonresident defendant if he has purposefully availed himself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State and the controversy arises out of or is related to the defendant's contact...

Excerpt: ...ant and cross-complainant Newport Window Maintenance was in charge of providing janitorial services for the office building. Along with Dolphin Partners, plaintiff sued Newport Window was sued for negligence and premises liability. Newport Window cross-complained against South Shore for implied indemnity, comparative contribution, equitable indemnity, and declaratory relief. South Shore had a contract to power wash the walkways and the trash cont...

Excerpt: ...met its initial burden to show that this was a trivial defect. Although there is some dispute as to the exact height of the raised portion of the sidewalk—the defendant's maintenance person says it "was no more than one inch," and there are photographs of the uplift at the time of the accident. The photographs submitted by plaintiff's expert (the ones unadorned by the cross-hatching) do not show an uplift that is close to two inches high. Her e...

Excerpt: ...ivil Code section 1793.2, subdivision (b); Violation of Civil Code section 1793.2; Breach of an Express Written Warranty; Breach of the Implied Warranty of Merchantability; and, Fraud. Evidentiary Objections a. Plaintiffs' evidentiary objections to the Declaration of Sandra Beshai, Nos. 1-5, are OVERRULED. The basis of the objections is that the statements in the declaration are based on lack of foundation and/or personal knowledge, are irrelevan...

Excerpt: ...defect. Although a landowner is not an insurer of a guest's safety, the landowner must exercise ordinary care by making reasonable inspections of the property to ascertain whether there are any dangerous conditions. Where the dangerous condition is caused by a third person, the landowner must have some knowledge, direct or constructive, of the dangerous condition. Here, the defendant never comes out and directly states a lack of knowledge of a da...

Excerpt: ...ase in the cost of litigation. In reviewing a motion brought under this section, the court applies an objective test: Whether the papers filed are frivolous, legally unreasonable, or without any factual foundation. As the Supreme Court teaches, "We measure the truth-finding inquiry's reasonableness under an objective standard and apply this standard both to attorneys and to their clients." (Bockrath v. Aldrich Chemical Co., Inc. (Iggg) 21 Cal.4th...

Excerpt: ...y legally refuse to permit the defense and its experts from entering the property unless they first execute a liability waiver. Plaintiff's counsel does not suggest that a party may require a liability waiver in every case. Counsel argues, and has submitted his own declaration in support thereof, that this particular property is so dangerous that an executed waiver of liability is necessary to protect the plaintiff. Defendant's counsel argues in ...

Excerpt: ... the name as listed in the Doe amendments and the answer— Anderson.) Summary Adjudication of Issues The defendants joined a motion for summary adjudication of issues with the motion for summary judgment motion. This part is denied on procedural grounds. The defendants failed to comply with Rule 3.1350(b) of the California Rules of Court. Summary Judgment 1. Facts This is a dog bite case. Plaintiff was walking through the parking lot at the Full...

Excerpt: ...gaged in the interactive process, which is why there were, among other things, eleven leaves of absences. Whether the employer's engagement with the employee was "reasonable" is a triable issue of material fact. The court notes Disney appears to concede that there were no "actual conversations" between a Case Advocate and the plaintiff, but it argues that there is no requirement that there be direct communications with the employee under the Cali...

Excerpt: ...laintiff's parents, occurred December 8, 2020. Grace Coleman suffered a conviction for felony vehicular manslaughter as a result of the accident and is now serving a lengthy term in state prison. She pled guilty on June 24, 2022. The court has been informed that the parties went to private mediation on August 29, 2022. It was unsuccessful. On September 22, 2022, the court set a 7-10 day jury trial for June 12, 2023. Grace Coleman's deposition was...

Excerpt: ...y, the helicopters located in Alabama were therefore not covered and there was no breach of contract by Hartford. To the extent plaintiff appears to try to pin Aon's alleged negligence on Hartford, the rule is clear: “Unlike an agent, a broker does not act for the insurer, and the insurer is not liable for the broker's acts or omissions.” (Krumme v. Mercury Ins. Co. (2004) 123 Cal.App.4th 924, 929.) Summary Judgment—Aon Risk Defendant Aon R...

Excerpt: ...llowed Payne's financial advice. However, defendants failed to account for the money he invested or to return it in breach of the agreement. Other causes of action were alleged. But the thrust of the complaint was that plaintiff and defendants had an agreement. Defendants filed an answer denying all allegations. The motion for summary judgment claimed defendants had no duty to the plaintiff. They asserted that plaintiff had been the victim of a f...

Excerpt: ...mplaints (internal and external, such as to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission) about alleged wrongful conduct of the cross-complainants. The cross-complaint alleges in essence that the plaintiffs and cross-defendants were terminated because they engaged in various wrongful conduct, such as taking of pages and pages of confidential and proprietary files, including customer information and proprietary financial information. The c...

Excerpt: ...compel arbitration is based on the sales agreement signed by the plaintiffs when they purchased the vehicle from a dealership in Tustin. That sales agreement contains a common arbitration provision. It is undisputed that neither Nissan North America nor the Nissan dealer that performed the repairs were signatories to the sales agreement. One California case, Felisi/da v. FCA US, LLC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486, has held that a non-signatory, third-...

Excerpt: ...e of Georgia, due to the Covid-lg pandemic. Georgia declared that business of plastic surgery was non- essential. The defendant argued—and proved—it could not make the monthly payments because it did not have any business income due to being closed. Moreover, the defendant was clear that it was prepared, and able, to continue making monthly payments once Georgia let it reopen. The court rendered judgment for the defendant. In its minute order...

Excerpt: ...strike the Complaint is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. The motion to strike the prayer for punitive damages is GRANTED. The plaintiff has not alleged sufficient facts to support the conclusory allegations that Seki's conduct was malicious, fraudulent, or oppressive within the meaning of Civil Code section 3294. The motion to strike is otherwise DENIED. The court does not find that any of the other challenged portions of the Complaint to be i...

Excerpt: ... of attorney fees. The prevailing party in a Lemon Law case such as this one is entitled to an award of attorney fees "based on actual time expended, determined by the court to have been reasonably incurred by the buyer in connection with the commencement and prosecution of such action." (Civ. Code, S 1794, subd. The court finds as a matter of law that plaintiff was the prevailing party. The fact that the vehicle was purchased "used," and there i...

Excerpt: ...LC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486. There, the appellate court found the arbitration provision was enforceable by the non-signatory manufacturer. Federal cases such as Ngo v. BMW (9th Cir. 2022) 23 F.4th 942 have found the reasoning in Felisilda unpersuasive. As this court has noted before in various other Lemon Law cases, if it were writing on a clean slate, it would deny the motion because it believes the federal cases are far better reasoned, and ri...

Excerpt: ...g tolled the statute of limitations for civil causes of action 180 days from April 6, 2020, until October 1, 2020. Thus, the statute of limitations did not expire in January 2021 as defendant asserts but would have expired six months later. The filing of the complaint on March g, 2021, was thus not time- barred. The defendant seeks summary adjudication as to the breach of contract claim in the First Cause of Action involving the Palmdale Project....

Excerpt: ...ney Parks and Resorts U.S., Inc. In Futrell v. Payday California, Inc., (2010) 190 Cal.App.4th 1419, the Court of Appeal held: "The task of preparing payroll, whether done by an internal division or department of an employer, or by an outside vendor of an employer, does not make Payday an employer for purposes of liability for wages under the Labor Code wage statutes. The preparation of payroll is largely a ministerial task, albeit a complex task...

Excerpt: ...iled non-opposition to both motions. The Request for an Evidentiary Hearing Defendants MemorialCare Medical Foundation, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Orange Coast, LLC, and Beach Surgical Holdings, LLC, filed a request to hold an evidentiary hearing as permitted under Rosenthal v. Great Western Financial Securities Corp. (1996) 14 Cal.4th 394. Defendant MemorialCare Medical Group also seeks an evidentiary hearing, but it is not a party to eithe...

Excerpt: ...r was filed July 19, 2022, denying the allegations in the complaint and asserting various affirmative defenses. The parties filed Case Management Conference Statements in mid-September 2022, and on September 26, 2022, the court issued a Case Management Order that scheduled trial in this matter for March 13, 2023. At the defendant's request, this was set as a one-day jury trial. (No jury fees have been posted by either side, and the court intends ...

Excerpt: ...e parties vacated. Irving now asks the court to reconsider that order primarily on the ground it has new evidence. The motion is DENIED for the reasons given below. The Motion is Deemed Timely The court deems the motion for reconsideration, brought pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1008, timely under the peculiar facts of this case. Section 1008 states that a motion for reconsideration must be filed within 10 days of the Notice of Rulin...

Excerpt: ...by the defendant. Thus, the court concludes that the better course is deny the current motions as moot and address any perceived deficiencies via new motions to compel further responses. Accordingly, the motions are DENIED as MOOT. Sanctions The plaintiff has requested sanctions of $5,900 against the defendant and her attorney. This request is beyond the pale. These were two very simple discovery motions to compel responses to two sets of discove...

Excerpt: ...with Larschan, Jr., as Successor Trustee. The lease was first entered into in 2011. The plaintiffs' claims for mold and water intrusion began in 2016, before the death of Larschan, Sr. It is alleged that they have continued through 2021 during the tenure of Larschan, Jr., as the Successor Trustee. Four attempts were made to state a cause of action against Phillip Larschan, Jr., in his individual capacity. (Claims against him solely in his represe...