Excerpt: ...il Procedure section 631. Here is no such evidence, because the plaintiffs' motion is not supported by any declaration or any other evidence whatsoever. Although the court takes judicial notice of the documents in the court record, nothing in those documents explains why the plaintiffs failed to deposit their jury fees in a timely fashion. ...

Excerpt: ...e County seeks a continuance in order to take the depositions of Ms. Levy and Mr. Yoder prior to trial. However, it is entirely speculative whether those depositions will be taken. Ms. Levy was served with a subpoena but failed to appear. Whether she will respond to an order compelling her appearance for deposition is speculative. Mr. Yoder has not been located. Whether he will be located and will testify at deposition is similarly speculative. A...

Excerpt: ...ich would be to July 3, 2020. What is the extent of the requested continuance? a. Assuming that the former is the intended continuance, trials in Riverside are called on Fridays, not Tuesdays. b. If the latter is the intended continuance, July 3 is a holiday. 2. The defendants fail to identify the additional discovery needed to meet the alleged new theory, or to explain how long it will take them to complete that discovery. (Trial setting order, ...

Excerpt: ...ing a timely proof of service, and on 10‐8‐19 for the failure to comply with that portion of the Court's order of 6‐24‐19 that directed the plaintiff to file a case management statement within three weeks that described the nature and amount of the damages being sought. The motion thereafter refers to both orders, but is vague as to which order is being challenged. Similarly, the declaration (at ¶ 20) says that the moving party seeks a d...

Excerpt: ...me unspecified date in late November to some unspecified date in early December does not demonstrate good cause for the continuance of a trial in which no testimony is likely until December 10. Moreover, assuming there is a conflict, there is no evidence of reasonable efforts to avoid it. Specifically, there is no evidence of when she was retained, when she was informed of the trial date (set at the TSC on 5‐1‐19), and when she committed to b...

Excerpt: ...Thursday, November 7, 2019. Analysis: Lents seeks a continuance of the trial, currently set for 12‐6‐ 19, for 120 days. The motion fails to demonstrate good cause. Lents argues that the naming of Vive TFP and Canterra Creek as cross‐defendants in the Dunlap cross‐complaint requires a continuance. The Court is not persuaded. Neither Vive nor Canterra are cross‐complainants. Therefore, they are not asserting any claims against Lents. The ...

Excerpt: ... no detailed description of what discovery has been conducted, what discovery still needs to be completed, why it has not been completion earlier, and how long it will take to complete. (Trial Setting Order, § F.4.) In particular, there is no showing that the remaining depositions could not, with reasonable diligence, have been completed prior to now. There is no showing that the depositions that remain to be conducted cannot, with reasonable di...

Excerpt: ... 3.1332(c)(6).) Here, the defendants fail to demonstrate the requisite diligence. The defendants appeared in the case 2.5 years ago, in April of 2017. Apparently, the defendants propounded no discovery in either 2017 or 2018. (Decl. of Mojtehedi, ¶ 2 [discovery in 2017 and 2018 “included various sets of discovery from Plaintiff.”]) On 2‐28‐18, the Court set a trial date of 7‐27‐18. On 6‐15‐18, the defendants applied ex parte for ...

Excerpt: ...al. Any future motion shall either be properly served or shall be accompanied by the defendant's waiver of proper notice. Analysis: Service of the motion is inadequate. The motion was served by email, which required 16 court days and 2 calendar days of notice. (C.C.P. § 1010.6(a)(4)(B).) Plaintiffs only provided 16 court days. In addition, the second motion fails to comply with directives issued by the Court when it denied the first motion. For ...

Excerpt: ...ollowing: 1. On March 4, 2019, at the parties' request, the hearing was continued to allow the parties time to re‐evaluate whether they want to use Controller rather than a cy pres. The next day, March 5, 2019, the parties signed a stipulation (a) reciting that the unclaimed funds would be distributed to the Wage Justice Center as a cy pres, (b) attaching copies of the previous agreement in the form of the July 2018 Amended Stipulation and Adde...

Excerpt: ... made to the agreement. A comparison of the final agreement (exhibit 1) with the redlined version (Exhibit 1A) reveals that the changes, additions, and deletions in the redlined version do not always appear in the final version. Compare, e.g., ¶ 26 in both documents. That lack of consistency is both very serious and very disturbing. The Court must be able to rely on counsel's representations that a redlined document accurately reflects the final...

Excerpt: ...on this motion, the defendants sought leave to respond to the analysis in the Court's tentative ruling. The Court granted the defendants leave to file sur‐reply or other supplemental briefing. Both defendants did so. After reviewing those briefs, the Court's analysis of the situation is not changed. The defendants challenged the original complaint by filing special motions to strike pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16. (Mtns. fil...

Excerpt: ...e PAGA claims, that the plaintiff has failed to do so, and that the defendant is entitled to an order enforcing the agreement by dismissing the complaint. The motion fails. PAGA was amended in 2016 to require that any settlement of any action that includes a PAGA claim must first be approved by the Court. (Lab. Code, § 2699, subd. (l)(2).) Unless and until the Court grants such approval, the agreement is unenforceable. Here, no such approval has...

Excerpt: ...otions. However, the Court will not consult multiple declarations from the same declarant. If the plaintiff wishes to rely upon selections from multiple declarations from the same declarant, a new declaration shall be filed to consolidate the relevant parts of those prior declarations. If the sixth motion is filed but denied, then the Court will require that any future motion comply with Code of Civil Procedure section 1008. Analysis: The motion ...

Excerpt: ...7 court days' notice when 18 were required. By specifying 2‐21‐ 19 as the last day in which to answer, the Court did not shorten notice for any response to the FAC other than an answer. However, the Court may strike portions of a pleading “at any time in its discretion and upon terms it deems proper.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 436, subd. (a).) The merits having been fully briefed, the Court exercises its discretion in this instance. To qualify...

Excerpt: ... questions listed below. An future motion shall either pertain to a new settlement or shall be based on new law or other new facts, as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 1008. Analysis: The motion still fails to comply with the Court's CMO. For instance: The CMO requires an explanation of how counsel arrived at the agreed‐upon amount of the PAGA penalties. (§ E.4.e.) That was noted in the ruling denying the second motion, but is still...

Excerpt: ...ttlement is not enough when the action being settled is a representative action the settlement of which requires court approval. Any information that the court relies upon when deciding whether to approve the settlement should be in the publicly accessible record. The defendant's reliance upon Volkswagen of America, Inc. v. Superior Court (2006) 139 Cal.App.4th 1481 is misplaced, because the settlements there were not of class or other representa...

Excerpt: ...e the amendment is not shown to be necessary. Bogh claims that the amendment is necessary to allege additional affirmative defenses. Affirmative defenses are factual contentions on which the defendant bears the burden of proof at trial. (Harris v. City of Santa Monica (2013) 56 Cal.4th 203, 239.) Bogh has not presented any authority for the proposition that it bears the burden of proof on any of the proposed “defenses.” Nor has Bogh stated th...

Excerpt: ....: There is no description of the range of potential recoveries by class members.  3.k.ii.: There is no declaration from a declarant with personal knowledge.  4.c.: The motion asserts that the class period is 3/24/13 to 6/1/18. The notice is consistent on page 1, but pages 3 and 4 of the notice state the class period is 3/24/16 to 6/1/18. This inconsistency must be resolved. 2. The Court will not approve the class definition as currently dr...

Excerpt: ...e a PAGA case is not enforceable until it has been approved by the Court. Here, the Court has never approved the settlement agreement, and indeed has not yet been asked to do so. Therefore, there is no enforceable agreement. In the absence of such an agreement, the motion to enforce cannot be granted. This problem was discussed with counsel at the status conference on January 24, 2019. At that time, defense counsel acknowledged that PAGA settleme...

Excerpt: ... amount to the administrator. Although the settlement agreement was amended in November of 2018, the amended agreement inexplicably continues to provide for the gross settlement to be paid in two installments, in May and July of 2018. (¶ 9.) Since those dates are months in the past, and already were when the agreement was amended, there is no term describing when the defendant will fund the settlement. The Court will not approve an agreement tha...

Excerpt: ...ly with the Court's CMO#2, which shall be issued forthwith. Analysis: The motion fails to comply with the current CMO, filed 6‐29‐17. For instance:  E(1)(a)‐(b) – Counsel's declaration does not set forth his estimate of the total amount that would be awarded if the action were successful at trial and does not set forth his estimate of the total amount the class could reasonably expect to be awarded at trial, taking into account the lik...

Excerpt: ...ed as to the eighth cause of action, without leave to amend. Any amended complaint shall be filed and served no later than February 25, 2019. A case management conference shall be conducted on April 8, 2019, at 8:30 A.M. in this department. Analysis: The first cause of action is sufficiently pled in ¶¶ 53 and 54. The second cause of action is sufficiently pled in ¶¶ 62‐65. The third cause of action is sufficiently pled in ¶¶ 72‐74. The ...

Excerpt: ...2 of 3 The plaintiff shall provide a revised proposed order in the form filed 1‐11‐19, but modified (a) to correct the date of the hearing and (b) to change ¶ 2 to read: “The Court hereby enjoins KPM Enterprises, Inc., and Mary Katherine Maes Moody from operating any business at 27629 Commerce Center Drive in Temecula, California, that provides dog daycare, dog boarding, or dog spa services, or associated retail products, other than a Dogt...

Excerpt: ... further motion shall fully comply with the Court's CMO and with the ruling by which the first motion was denied. Analysis: The motion is denied because the plaintiff has failed to comply with the Court's CMO. In particular, it appears that the plaintiff failed to fully comply with the following sections of the CMO, because the plaintiff:  Has failed to address the PAGA claim when responding to H.3.a.iii.;  Has failed to comply with H.3.k.,...