Excerpt: ... 2), or (2) establishing that only Plaintiff could have accessed her work email regarding the revised agreements by, for example, demonstrating by way of admissible evidence (rather than “information and belief” or “an understanding”) that after initially signing on at the commencement of her employment using the default password she was required to create a unique password or identifier that only she could use. While the declarations cre...

Excerpt: ...filed on or before August 9, 2019. If a revised settlement and/or proposed Class Notice are submitted, a redlined version showing all changes, deletions, and additions must also be submitted electronically to the Court. Issues: 1. Provide a valuation for each individual cause of action. 2. There still is no mechanism within the stipulation for payment of the $625 (25% of the LWDA amount) to “aggrieved employees” as opposed to class members. T...

Excerpt: ...ed to settle Plaintiff's claims for the amount of $3,501 plus “[t]he amount of reasonable attorneys' fees and costs incurred by Plaintiff” against that Defendant as of the date of the offer. (Emphasis added). While the court, for the reasons set forth below will not consider the merits of the motion, it does note that unlike the situation in Linton vs. County of Contra Costa (2019) 31 Cal. App. 5 th 628 at 635, Defendants' offers to pay reaso...

Excerpt: ...s raised by both the motion and the demurrer. Both motions, therefore, constitute improper filings because they violate this Court's stay which was lifted for the limited purpose of permitting motions that did not implicate class action allegations. Motion for Summary Judgment The Motion for Summary Judgment is denied. Defendant moves for summary judgment of this action comprising a single cause of action, contending that Plaintiff Lily Chiang, w...

Excerpt: ... Paul Martin's settlement of $15,001—a total of $640,001 in approved settlements. This ruling addresses only the proposed settlements by Nico Designs, Inc. (paying $155,000), Bahrami (contributing $5,000 to Nico Design's settlement amount of $155,000), Safarpour (paying nothing) and MPH Construction (paying nothing). “The party seeking a determination of good faith may file a ‘bare bones' motion, stating the grounds on which the determinati...

Excerpt: ..., very minimal, and Trilogy was often dismissed from construction defect suits for waiver of costs or with payment of very little money. But Navigators directed its attorneys to avoid vigorously defending Trilogy and to try to use money Trilogy would have to reimburse to resolve claims. This created circumstances where other law firms Navigators selected were subject to conflicts of interest, often receiving conflicting instructions from their cl...

Excerpt: ...nued, or whether final approval was granted or denied. Absent any such notice, the class members do not have any knowledge as to whether the court granted the preliminarily approved settlement and so whether will ultimately be bound by a judgment. Most parties simply post notice of final approval on the administrator's website, which is sufficient notice if they have been told in the Notice of Preliminary Settlement to consult the website as to t...

Excerpt: ...ow turns to the merits of the demurrer. Farmer (added as a Doe defendant on 1/23/19) demurs to the 4th and 5th c/a of the Second Amended Complaint on the following grounds: (1) defect or misjoinder of parties (CCP § 389); (2) duplicative claims; and (3) failure to state facts/uncertainty. Each of those grounds is addressed below. Defect or Misjoinder of Parties. Farmer demurs on the grounds that OC Investment Pros, LLC is an indispensable party ...

Excerpt: ...998, which Plaintiff did not timely accept. The offers, which are attached to the McLeod Declaration, fail to specify in any respect how the offer may be accepted. Therefore, the cost-shifting provision was not triggered. (CCP § 998(b) [“[t]he written offer shall include … a provision that allows the accepting party to indicate acceptance of the offer by signing a statement that the offer is accepted]; Perez v. Torres (2012) 206 Cal.App.4th ...

Excerpt: ...ts employees for work-related cell phone costs. On 11/7/15, Isabel Garibay (replaced Gama as named plaintiff in the Gama action. The following year, on 3/9/16, Plaintiff Uribe filed a proposed class action in OCSC, alleging that Crown Building Maintenance Co. failed to reimburse its employees for work-related uniform costs. On 11/13/17, Uribe filed a motion for preliminary approval of a settlement. In connection with the motion and the settlement...

Excerpt: ... action. The Suns may not have the court summarily adjudicate whether documents were forged, or whether real property interests are subject to certain liens, both of which constitute the four issues the Suns seek adjudicated. For example, two of the relevant causes of action seek declarations that trust deeds were signed by other parties, yet this motion addresses only if reconveyances were signed by the Suns. In addition, the Separate Statement ...

Excerpt: ...der § 558 is subject to arbitration based on Esparza v. KS Industries, LP (2017) 13 Cal.App.5th 1228, review denied (Nov. 15, 2017). The Court agrees. Although the Fourth District, Division One came to the contrary conclusion in Lawson v. ZB, N.A. (2017) 18 Cal.App.5th 705, review was granted in that matter and so it has no precedential effect. CRC, Rule 8.1115(e). Accordingly, the Court must follow Esparza and Defendant's motion is granted. Dur...

Excerpt: ... Josiah N. Drew because he does not have any relevant personal knowledge about the events at issue in this case, and any second-hand information he has is protected by the attorney-client, attorney work product and/or mediation privileges. Drew is an in-house attorney for defendant and is responsible for managing defense counsel in the defense of this lawsuit. Plaintiff even admits in her opposition that Drew acted as defendant's main point of co...

Excerpt: ...ion to compel arbitration. The Court issued a ruling on that motion on 9/11/18. On 10/10/18, after the ruling was issued, Plaintiffs named SCI as a doe defendant. SCI now brings a motion to compel arbitration of Plaintiff's 1st -9th causes of action against SCI. (The Court notes that before this motion was filed, Plaintiff agreed to submit the 5th-9th causes of action against SCI to arbitration, so the only causes of action at issue are the 1st-4...

Excerpt: ..., 24, and 31-36. Plaintiffs South Coast Shipyard, Inc. is a business located in Newport Beach which performs repairs and maintenance on large boats and ships. Plaintiff Peter Stewart is the president of South Coast Shipyard, Inc. Plaintiffs allege they suffered damage to their property as a result of development of NPB Marina LLC on a neighboring property. Defendants Clauss Construction and Patrick Michael Clauss (collectively “Clauss” or Def...

Excerpt: ...ed by section 425.16. [Citation.] If the defendant makes the required showing, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to demonstrate the merit of the claim by establishing a probability of success.” Baral v. Schnitt (2016) 1 Cal.5th 376, 384. Step 1: Does the alleged misconduct arise from protected activity? Defendant has the burden in step one and must show that the plaintiff's claim arises from protected activity, i.e. that the conduct underlying...

Excerpt: ...plemental materials shall be filed on or before April 12, 2019. If a revised settlement and/or proposed Class Notice are submitted, a redlined version showing all changes, deletions, and additions must also be submitted electronically to the Court. Issues: 1. The Court requires all parties to identify any pending actions of which they are aware that potentially overlap with the claims in this action or which might be impacted by the release inclu...

Excerpt: ...ith Defendant. Defendant responded with boilerplate objections. On July 29, 2018, after a meet and confer process and two informal discovery conferences, the Court ordered Defendant to provide “contact information for homecare caregivers through a Belaire-Westnotice process.” The order specified that it was without prejudice to Plaintiff's renewal of her motion to compel contact information for employees other than homecare caregivers. Defend...

Excerpt: ...tion of causes of action as against each of the four causes of action alleged by Plaintiff Jannette Campos in the Fifth Amended Complaint: (1) Intentional Misrepresentation; (2) Negligent Misrepresentation; (3) Unfair Competition (§ 17200); and (4) Wrongful Foreclosure. The motion is unopposed. A defendant moving for summary judgment may prevail on the motion by affirmatively negating at least one of plaintiff's essential elements. CCP §437c; A...

Excerpt: ...he action.” However, as the earlier denial was without prejudice, this Court considers it may hear this subsequent petition. Petitioners' first request for consolidation was denied because Stevens v. Suncrest, the case it sought to coordinate, had settled and the parties were seeking preliminary approval of that settlement. Now, two years later, not only has the settlement been preliminarily approved but it has also been finally approved and ju...

Excerpt: ... the Court received any notice of a stay in this matter. Accordingly, the Court proceeds to rule on the motions which are before it. Garibay's Motion for Stay Invoking the rule of exclusive concurrent jurisdiction, Intervenor Isabel Garibay moves to stay this action pending resolution of Gama v. Able Services, et al., Case No. RG15773582, currently pending in Alameda Superior Court. In connection with her motion, Garibay requests that the Court t...

Excerpt: ...e lawsuit. Thus, the court's discretion will usually be exercised liberally to permit amendment of the pleadings. Nestle v. Santa Monica (1972) 6 Cal. 3d 920, 939. Denial of leave to amend is rarely justified. Howard v. County of San Diego (2010) 184 Cal.App.4th 1422, 1428 (“the policy favoring amendments is so strong that it is a rare case in which denial of leave to amend can be justified”). Plaintiff sued on behalf of “job coaches.” On...

Excerpt: ... lead counsel is denied. The Court finds that both firms are competent and experienced and either could have been appointed as lead counsel. Given the apparently equal competence of the two firms in this case, the Court exercises its discretion and appoints the firm that filed the first complaint as lead counsel in this matter. As lead counsel, Lawyers for Justice, PC will be required to:  oversee case management;  sign and file all pleadin...

Excerpt: ...he GSINDA Policy, is such coverage subject to a $1 million self- insured retention that applies at GSINDA's layer of coverage after exhaustion of the limits underlying GSINDA's policy? If so, does that self-insured retention apply to losses falling within Insuring Agreement B (excess)?” This case relates to various layers of insurance obtained by Defendant Lennar for its operations during the years 2004 to 2009. The first layer of insurance was...

Excerpt: ...er to the 9th cause of action is overruled on each of the stated grounds. A. Standing Defendants argue that Plaintiffs lack standing to bring the 1st-8th causes of action because they do not allege any direct injury or interest. Plaintiffs argue that they have taxpayer standing to pursue all the claims alleged in the First Amended Complaint (“FAC”). Plaintiffs' 1st, 4th and 7th causes of action assert claims under §42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on...