Excerpt: ...t have standing to enforce the judgment as evidenced by a number of declarations and other records that were purportedly filed in the underlying action, and that WestLB is the current and only judgment creditor with standing to enforce the judgment. (Id. at pp. 4, 7-9.) All of these arguments fail in the first instance. As an initial matter, a demurrer only tests the sufficiency of a complaint. “A demurrer tests the pleadings alone and not the ...

Excerpt: ...uments are not disclosed. (Rutter Group, Civil Procedure Before Trial, Sections 8:1495.3 and 8:1495.6.) Once a showing of good cause is met, it is then the responding party's burden to justify the objections asserted. (Rutter Group, Civil Procedure Before Trial, Section 8:1496, citing Kirkland v. Superior Court (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th 92, 98.) MP's initial burden of good cause must be supported by admissible evidence, such as declarations. (Calcor ...

Excerpt: ...yer for relief seeks punitive damages as to all causes of action. (See SAC, at p. 19.) The SAC alleges that “DEFENDANTS' conscious disregard of the rights and safety of others, including, but not limited to, Mr. Holcomb, warrants the imposition of punitive damages pursuant to California Civil Code Section 3294. These acts and failures to act by DEFENDANTS constitute fraud, oppression, and/or malice as well as willful and reckless misconduct, co...

Excerpt: ...Exhibit 5 (Promotional Application for Jeremy Hill dated October 20, 2017). California Rules of Court, Rule 2.550(d) states the court may seal records only if it expressly finds facts that establish: (1) There exists an overriding interest that overcomes the right of public access to the record; (2) The overriding interest supports sealing the record; (3) A substantial probability exists that the overriding interest will be prejudiced if the reco...

Excerpt: ...where a party fails to appear at deposition or where a party fails to comply with a court order compelling attendance, testimony, and production at a deposition, respectively. “To justify imposition of such discovery sanctions, the trial court must expressly find that the disobedient party's failure to obey was wilful. [Citation.] The burden of proof is upon the disobedient party to establish the lack of wilfulness of his failure to perform. [C...

Excerpt: ...ly, the Court notes that the parties have satisfied the meet and confer requirement prior to the filing of this Motion. Code of Civil Procedure section 2025.420(a) states that the Court may, for good cause shown, grant a protective order before, after, or during a deposition. Such order may include “any order that justice requires to protect any party, deponent, or other natural person or organization from unwarranted annoyance, embarrassment, ...

Excerpt: ...arge the time for answer or demurrer. Code Civ. Proc. § 473(a)(1). Additionally, any judge, at any time before or after commencement of trial, in the furtherance of justice, and upon such terms as may be proper, may allow the amendment of any pleading or pretrial conference order. Code of Civ. Proc. § 576. A motion to amend a pleading before trial must: (1) include a copy of the proposed amendment or amended pleading; (2) state what allegations...

Excerpt: ... their costs as 3/21 cost of $529.42 paid to One Legal for motion for summary judgment”; that Defendants also joined in the motion for summary judgment filed by co-defendant Experian which is also reflected in Defendants' costs (3/21 costs for joinder); and that Defendants did not file any other motions for summary judgment. As such, it appears the $560.00 is duplicative and not recoverable. In Opposition, Defendants contend that all costs were...

Excerpt: ...ion 474 have not been complied with, the purported defendant has not been named as such in the complaint. A service upon one not named in a complaint does not confer jurisdiction to proceed upon the complaint against him, and a motion to quash is proper.' [Citations.]” (McClatchy v. Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP (2016) 247 Cal.App.4th 368, 375 (“McClatchy”).) “Absent compliance with Code of Civil Procedure section 474, service of sum...

Excerpt: ...Tell me everything you discussed with [trademark attorney] Amanda Dwight” (see Volume II of his deposition transcript, p. 231:3-5) and any appropriate following up questions on the topic; and (2) compelling Mr. Nguyen to appear for an additional seven hours of deposition testimony to cover not only the topic of communications with attorney Dwight, but to cover other topics necessary to Plaintiffs' preparation of trial that were not covered in p...

Excerpt: ... that attorney's fees and costs, which are incurred to enforce that contract, shall be awarded either to one of the parties or to the prevailing party, then the party who is determined to be the party prevailing on the contract, whether he or she is the party specified in the contract or not, shall be entitled to reasonable attorney's fees in addition to other costs….Reasonable attorney's fees shall be fixed by the court, and shall be an elemen...

Excerpt: ...] Here, while Defendant argues some uncertainty exists as to Complaint¶¶4, 17, Defendant has not suggested that this uncertainty is so pervasive as to prevent him from knowing what counts are alleged against him, nor could he make such an argument. It is clear that the gravamen of the Complaint is a failure by Defendant to repay a loan. Any ambiguity in relation to ¶¶14, 17 can be cleared up through discovery. Tentative Ruling: The Demurrer b...

Excerpt: ...des: “If the buyer prevails in an action under this section, the buyer shall be allowed by the court to recover as part of the judgment a sum equal to the aggregate amount of costs and expenses, including attorney's 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.” B. Prevailing Party Plaintiff accepted Defendant's sett...

Excerpt: ...peting requests have been made. The timeline of this Motion, as relevant to the issue of sanctions, is as follows: Per Counsel for Plaintiff, Supplemental Responses were served on November 1, 2021. (¶8 of Arnold Declaration and Exhibit E to Notice of Lodgment). A review of the Exhibit demonstrates these responses were served electronically. (Id.). Applying the 45-day deadline included in C.C.P. §2031.310(c), along with the two court-day extensi...

Excerpt: ...ainant Mohsen Ahmadi, and against Mohsen Ahmadi's Second Amended Cross-Complaint for Cancellation of Trust Deed. The Motion is DENIED in its entirety. In order to move for summary adjudication, the moving party must specify in its notice of motion and motion the claim, causes of action, or issues it is moving on. (California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1350 (b).) A notice of motion must state the “grounds upon which it will be made.” (Homestead Sa...

Excerpt: ...er possession and is thus able to comply with the Court's Order.” (1/10/22 OSC re: Contempt, Attchd. Avetoom Affdt. ¶¶ 27-30.) The record discloses that this is false. On 11/30/20—i.e., more than a year before Avetoom sought the presently pending OSC re: contempt, filed the charging affidavit in support of this OSC, and obtained the OSC—Fridman filed a document titled in part, “notice of compliance,” within which she repeatedly explai...

Excerpt: ...ists, but the method is not defined within the statute or contract, courts will weight various factors to reach a “reasonable” amount to award as fees – commonly referred to as the lodestar. PLCM Group, Inc. v. Drexler (2000) 22 Cal.4th 1084, 1095. Courts begin with an independent review of the evidence to determine the reasonableness of the hours actually spent litigating the matter and to assess whether there was padding, over-staffing, d...

Excerpt: ...ration is improper, as a demurrer only addresses defects appearing on the face of the pleading, or from matters outside the pleading of which judicial notice has been properly requested. (Blank v. Kirwan (1985) 39 Cal.3d 311, 318.) Accordingly, there is no need to consider RP's declaration, nor moving party's (MP's) evidentiary objections thereto. Meet and confer: The moving papers each include a declaration by MP attorney attesting to a telephon...

Excerpt: ...l OVERRULED. Defendants' objections to plaintiffs' evidence (ROA No. 86) are SUSTAINED as to objection Nos. 3-5, 7-9, 13-15 (i.e., all three objections that are numbered “15”), 18, 19, 21, 22, 36, 37, and 39, and otherwise OVERRULED Analysis: Plaintiffs James Nassios (Nassios) and J. Nass Real Estate Development Group LLC's (collectively, plaintiffs) complaint does not properly allege a “real property” claim. (See Code Civ. Proc., §§ 40...

Excerpt: ...r, defendants) demur to “amended” second amended complaint (ASAC). First cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED): The ASAC fails to state facts sufficient to constitute this cause of action. (See Hughes v. Pair (2009) 46 Cal.4th 1035, 1050-1051 [elements]; see also Pitman v. City of Oakland (1988) 197 Cal.App.3d 1037, 1047 [emotional distress must be pled with specificity].) The court further notes that contrar...

Excerpt: ...ge and failure to abate regarding the same. Plaintiff alleged that she suffered bed bug bites for months despite notifying Defendants' agents including Melody Xicotencatl, Sebastian Krol, Abrahan Salazar and Jamie Sheets during her exposure period and bedbugs were not abated. (paragraph 102). For a demurrer, the Court must accept the allegations as true. The conclusory language of paragraph 99 does not mandate the sustaining of the demurrer. Plai...

Excerpt: ... statements "I neglected to articulate the third-party privacy objection in the accompanying written responses" lack foundation. (Opp at p. 3, FN 1.) RPs also argue in the Opp that “there is no admissible evidence it took Defendants 61.6 hours to prepare responses and produce documents” (Opp at 4:4-5), although there is no specific evidentiary objection to this statement in MP attorney's declaration. MP attorney has firsthand knowledge of the...

Excerpt: ...ith respect to this cause of action. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (p)(2) [burden]; Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 826, 850-851 [same].) Defendant's own evidence raises multiple triable issues of material fact with respect to this claim. (See Swanson v. Morongo Unified School Dist. (2014) 232 Cal.App.4th 954, 971-972 (Swanson) [interactive process, continuing duty to engage in the process in good faith]; Scotch v. Art ...

Excerpt: ... required or permitted by law, (2) made in a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding, (3) by litigants or other participants authorized by law, (4) to achieve the objects of the litigation, and (5) have some connection or logical relation to the action. [Action Apt. Ass'n, Inc. v. City of Santa Monica (2007) 41 C4th 1232, 1241, 63 CR3d 398, 406] At minimum the alleged statements were made in connection with plaintiff's claims against his ex-employe...

Excerpt: ...ith on the grounds: (1) BOLTABOUT failed to provide any evidence to support a determination that the settlement amount it entered into is in good faith; (2) the proposed settlement is not a rough approximation of BOLTABOUT's potential liability and is grossly disproportional to Plaintiff's allegations of $3M in damages; (3) BOLTABOUT's waiver and release of liability is not enforceable and cannot form the basis of its allegations concerning non-l...