Excerpt: ...have been the subject of discovery, and were the subject of a prior motion under CCP §3295. While Defendants could have challenged the complaint by demurrer or motion to strike, it filed an answer, and later filed an amended answer, neither of which mentions CCP §425.14. Indeed, when Plaintiff sought an order permitting financial discovery for purposes of punitive damages in July of 2021, Defendants likewise failed to cite the statute. The Cour...

Excerpt: ...rocess,” such as “[f]ailing to respond or to submit to an authorized method of discovery” or “[d]isobeying a court order to provide discovery.” (C.C.P. §§ 2023.010; 2023.030.) C.C.P. § 2031.310(i) provides that if a party fails to obey an order compelling further responses to request for production of documents, the court may make those orders that are just, including the imposition of an issue sanction, an evidence sanction, or a te...

Excerpt: ... to add a claim for punitive damages. “(a)(1) The court may, in furtherance of justice, and on any terms as may be proper, allow a party to amend any pleading or proceeding by adding or striking out the name of any party, or by correcting a mistake in the name of a party, or a mistake in any other respect; and may, upon like terms, enlarge the time for answer or demurrer. The court may likewise, in its discretion, after notice to the adverse pa...

Excerpt: ... there is no ground for general demurrer.” (Roman v. County of Los Angeles (2000) 85 al.App.4th 315, 324-325.) 1st cause of action for quiet title “The Legislature has not established a specific statute of limitations for actions to quiet title. [Citation.] Therefore, courts refer to the underlying theory of relief to determine the applicable period of limitations. [Citation.] An inquiry into the underlying theory requires the court to identi...

Excerpt: ...inion. The plaintiff filed this action in January 2015. The matter was tried to a jury in August 2017. Frost was awarded nothing. Her appeal from the judgment was dismissed when she failed to file a brief. Frost now claims, in essence, that she lost at trial because the defendant lied, and an important document was concealed from her and not introduced into evidence. It is unclear who actually concealed the document, but her suggestion is that it...

Excerpt: ...aller fonts, which make the papers in violation of the Rules of Court. The court elects to overlook these procedural irregularities in order to address the merits. She also procedural irregularities with plaintiffs' evidentiary objections, as noted below. Plaintiffs' Request for Continuance The summary judgment motion was filed with an initial hearing date of May 12, 2022. It has been continued several times pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure se...

Excerpt: ...is when plaintiff began to sustain damages and therefore this action is time-barred. The plaintiff alleges it sought to purchase an insurance policy to protect it from lawsuits brought after the sale of the business for products it had manufactured prior to the sale of the business. It is alleged that an accident occurred in 2017 involving a product it had manufactured and that an action for personal injury damages was filed in Utah. It turned th...

Excerpt: ...urther order of the court. On June 23, 2022, the parties met with the arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association at an Arbitration Management Conference. On July 18, 2022, the arbitrator sent notice that the employer would be billed $66,000 for its arbitration services. On July 27, 2022, defendant employer advised the arbitrator that it would not pay the arbitration fees as it found them “commercially unreasonable.” It also expresse...

Excerpt: ..., and the residence of the buyer (now and at the time the subject vehicle was purchased) are all apparently located in Shasta County. The plaintiff pled venue as follows: He alleged he is a “resident of California,” without identifying his county of residence. He alleged he purchased a vehicle manufactured by FCA US, without identifying where he purchased it, and he alleged that FCA has its principal place of business in Michigan. He also all...

Excerpt: ...r has ever been, filed. Defendants were served by substituted service on April 10, 2022. Declarations attached to each proof of service shows mailing was made April 11, 2022. Substituted service was therefore complete on April 21, 2022. Thirty days from April 21 is May 21, 2022. However, May 21 fell on a Saturday. Because this motion had to be filed within 30 days, the last day to file must be advanced to the last court day, which was Friday, May...

Excerpt: ...e motion is whether a vehicle manufacturer may enforce an arbitration provision in a sales agreement between a buyer and the dealer in a “Lemon Law” case brought pursuant to statute. The leading case in state court is Felisilda v. FCA US, LLC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486. It held that a manufacturer may enforce the arbitration provision (if the language includes third parties within its terms), even though the manufacturer is not party to the ag...

Excerpt: ... scope and extent of August's representation based on the limited information/evidence that was provided by the parties. (See ROA 41.) However, the court notes that attorney Kenneth August has attached a declaration to his recently-filed Response to Motion in which he affirmatively states that he “and his firm were retained for the sole and specific purpose of providing advice and counsel to Danny Ryan related to the transaction at issue in thi...

Excerpt: ... civil action, and without advising him first of his Fifth Amendment rights. When the court became aware of this, it sealed the reporter's transcript. That sealing order remains in effect pursuant to the express terms of the sealing order. 2. Defendant Santa Ana Unified School District filed a motion for summary judgment which is scheduled to be heard January 19, 2023. 3. The plaintiff moved to strike the summary judgment motion—which is the mo...

Excerpt: ... city limits. The City filed this action to enforce the ordinance. Following a hearing, the court granted a preliminary injunction. The order, among other things, prohibits anyone from entering the space pending further order of the court. Forest Ridge is the landlord of the property. It states it wants to enter the premises in order to remove the current unpermitted tenant improvements and prepare the space for a future rental. It states that th...

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: ... 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: ... also provides that the motion may be made before entry of judgment, and that after judgment has been entered, the public entity may only seek its fees and costs through a malicious prosecution action. On June 7, 2022, the court ordered summary judgment in favor of the County and against the plaintiff. A formal judgment has not yet been entered. Thus, the motion for attorney fees and costs is timely. The defendant's request for judicial notice of...

Excerpt: ...he stock of plaintiff's construction business, a sale that is at the heart of this dispute. The plaintiff asserts August was, among other things, his personal attorney at all relevant times. The defendants contend in response that they are not seeking the plaintiff's personal files, but only those attorney-client files that belong to the business defendant, the business they bought. The subpoena tries to maintain this distinction. Although hearsa...

Excerpt: ... over because there is no way to tell if these documents really are privileged. The plaintiff does not offer any concrete evidence suggesting why she is not convinced of their provenance. Rather, she just says the communications “line up” with other documents and from the timeline it looks suspicious. It would be one thing if she had some specific evidence. But a blanket claim that she does not know if they are or not covered by the attorney-...

Excerpt: ...ommunity for similar work.” (PLCM Group v. Drexler (2000) 22 Cal.4th 1084, 1095.) The trial court is given broad discretion in valuing the professional services rendered in a particular case. “In making its calculation, the court may rely on its own knowledge and familiarity with the legal market, as well as the experience, skill, and reputation of the attorney requesting fees . . . the difficulty or complexity of the litigation to which the ...

Excerpt: ... irrespective of whether the proposed amended complaint was originally submitted to the court more than 20 days after the demurrer was sustained. Moreover, any motion to strike the amended complaint on this ground had to have been filed before the amended complaint was submitted to the court. The plaintiff was previously directed by the court to reduce the length of the complaint. His latest iteration of an amended complaint attempts to do this. ...

Excerpt: ...mplaint that made certain minor corrections, including the addition of a part of a sentence to these particular causes of action. But those changes did not change the substance or character of the causes of action. These were but minor corrections. Generally, the filing of an amended complaint re-opens a defendant's right to demurrer to any cause of action, even one as to which the court overruled a demurrer. But here, the Complaint was corrected...

Excerpt: ...vities that morning and had not done anything to protect other patients from that behavior, and (b) the hospital was understaffed and had not properly trained its staff (among other things) and thus was ill-equipped to prevent the assault from happening. The two prime cases cited by the parties—Samantha B. v. Aurora Vista Del Mar, LLC (2022) 77 Cal.App.5th 85 [sexual assault by employee], and Worsham v. O'Connor Hospital (2014) 226 Cal.App.4th ...

Excerpt: ...vide responses without objection within 21 days of this order.” A fair reading of the minute order suggests that this extension-of-time modification was likely intended to relate to the concurrent motion to compel answers to Form Interrogatories (Set Two). However, the modification is not clear and does not state that it applies only to the one discovery motion and not the other. The court assumes that the Temporary Judge who handled the law an...

Excerpt: ... fails to demonstrate a basis on which to assert specific jurisdiction. Brown denies he was a party to any agreement that is the subject of this action, and he does not have any relationship with the other defendant. (See Decl. Brown, paras. 14 and 16.) The plaintiff alleges that Brown purposefully availed himself of the benefits of this forum because he “created a continuing contractual obligation between himself and UFSF, a California Limited...