Excerpt: ...ue Pursuant To Code Of Civil Procedure. Defendants Dignity Health, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group, Sheila Northcutt, P.T., and Lorraine Sunday, M.D.'s motion to change venue pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 397 is granted. While this Court's February 20, 2018 Order denied a previous motion to transfer venue under Code of Civil Procedure Section 395 because venue is proper in San Francisco County, that order specifically preserv...

Excerpt: ...d County of San Francisco's motion for summary judgment is granted. The City is entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's Fourth Amended Complaint and the City's Cross-Complaint. The July 16, 2014 settlement agreement between the parties is not a "regulatory contract," as the City never made a specific promise to accord plaintiff any sort of particular regulatory treatment. Plaintiff's argument that the City unconditiona...

Excerpt: ... granted in the total amount of $16,613.70. The award is made pursuant to Civil Code section 1717 and Section 9.400 of the Laws of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States. By amendment dated July 3, 2018, Respondent BPOE amended Section 9.400 to provide in pertinent part as follows: "In any action brought by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States of America against any Member, Lodge or State ...

Excerpt: ... denied without prejudice. As a threshold matter, Plaintiff incorrectly contends that PAGA requires judicial approval only of the penalties that are sought as part of a proposed settlement, but "does not require that a court approve any other elements of the proposed settlement, including the Plaintiff's individual settlement and the attorneys' fees and costs." (Mot. at 8.) Plaintiff mistakenly relies upon a prior version of Labor...

Excerpt: ...otion to Set Aside Dismissal. However, Plaintiff failed to file a memorandum of points and authorities at that time, and at the February 7, 2019 hearing, the Court continued the motion to March 12, 2019. Plaintiff served notice of the new hearing date to Defendant. On March 12, 2019, one week before the continued hearing, Plaintiff filed its memorandum of points and authorities. The motion is now before the Court. Plaintiff asserts that it reache...

Excerpt: ... judgement pursuant to CCP § 473.5(a) is granted. Since any doubts as to the application of section 437 are resolved in favor of the party seeking relief, the court finds that defendant has shown it did not receive actual notice in time to defend and that lack of notice was not due to defendant's avoidance of service or excusable neglect. The declaration of Mr. Jiang states that no papers were received by Wuxi until the local court served pr...

Excerpt: ...gers 355 LLC dba Brass Tacks' motion for summary judgment is granted. Defendants' moving papers showed that Mr. Conway did not make any slanderous publication about Plaintiff Paul O'Grady drugging a female patron's drink at the Brass Tacks bar. Mr. Conway's Declaration, Kimberly Keating's deposition testimony, and Ryan Gilbert's Declaration included with the moving papers establish that Mr. Conway did not make the alle...

Excerpt: ...amended verified petition for writ of mandate for violation of Gov't Code § 3304(b) is sustained without leave to amend. (See Code Civ. Proc. § 430.10(e).) For purposes of this demurrer, the court will assume that the Chief's decision to file a disciplinary complaint against officer Kempinski is "punitive action" within the meaning of Gov't Code § 3304(b). (See Morgado v. CCSF (2017) 13 Cal.App.5th 1, 8.) Nevertheless, the ...

Excerpt: ...eciding this case. The demurrer of defendant City and County of San Francisco (erroneously sued as Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital) is sustained with 20 days' leave to amend. Plaintiff has leave to name the City as the proper party to this case rather than the hospital. (S.F. Charter Article 1, § 1.101; Article IV, § 4.110; S.F. Health Code, § 111.) The court rejects the City's remaining arguments. The City has failed to show...

Excerpt: ...; of the Superior Court. Plaintiff fails to show that the "Central District" is San Mateo County. The fact that the contract specified San Mateo as the place of performance is distinct from the meaning of the venue selection clause. In addition, this "wrong court" motion is untimely and plaintiff waived the venue issue. Plaintiff chose San Francisco venue when it filed this action on March 29, 2018, and defendants did not move to ...

Excerpt: ...e No. CGC‐17‐557537 is granted. The cases are consolidated for all purposes with CGC‐ 17‐557537 as the lead case. The consolidated action is stayed pending the conclusion of the federal action between the parties in the Southern Disctrict of California, Case No. 3:16‐CV‐00704‐L‐JLB (S.D.Cal. filed March 23, 2016). Currently there are three pending actions between the parties dealing in whole or in part with the issues of the prese...

Excerpt: ...o comply with the meet and confer requirements of CCP 430.41. The demurrer to the attorney malpractice (negligence) cause of action is overruled. Uchiyama cites the wrong statute of limitations as CCP 340.6 applies to the claim. Lopez sufficiently alleges discovery of the wrongdoing to render the cross‐complaint timely. (Amended Cross‐Complaint, 9‐11; see, e.g., Favila v. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP (2010) 188 Cal.App.4th 189, 223‐225 [whe...

Excerpt: ...undisputed evidence shows that defendant Hamner entered into the promissory notes and failed to make payment by the date of maturity. (Undisputed Facts 1‐8.) Defendant Hamner's fraud defense fails. First, the defense is not pleaded in his answer. "[A] defect in the answer may entitle the moving party plaintiff to a summary judgment if the only matter in dispute is a defense that has not been intelligibly asserted in the answer." (FP...

Excerpt: ...oncerning a living trust is the county where the principal place of administration of the trust is located. (Prob. Code § 17005(a)(1).) Plaintiff has failed to provide a declaration that establishes the principal place of administration of the trust, defined as "the usual place where the day‐to‐day activity of the trust is carried on by the trustee or its representative who is primarily responsible for the administration of the trust....

Excerpt: ...s denied. Contrary to Defendants' contention, Plaintiffs James Austin and Raymond Schreiber's causes of action accrued, not when the Owner Move‐In Notice was provided to Plaintiffs, but upon discovery by Plaintiffs that Ms. Mwangi had ceased occupying the unit. Plaintiffs properly pled delayed discovery by showing that they were ignorant of the facts that suggested the eviction was noticed in bad faith until June 2016, when they learned...

Excerpt: ... and Nadine Robbins‐Laurent's motion to compel arbitration is granted and the action is stayed pending the conclusion of arbitration proceedings of all causes of action stated in plaintiff Derrick Sutherland's complaint. Defendants have met their burden to show the existence of an agreement to arbitrate between Mr. Sutherland and BAART Programs, Inc. Plaintiff's arguments that although he signed the arbitration agreement, he did not...

Excerpt: ... § 425.16(f) provides that "[t]he special motion may be filed within 60 days of the service of the complaint¿." The California Supreme Court has interpreted this provision to mean that "a defendant must move to strike a cause of action within 60 days of service of the earliest complaint that contains that cause of action." (Newport Harbor Ventures, LLC v. Morris Cerullo World Evangelism (2018) 4 Cal.5th 637, 640.) In this case, ...

Excerpt: ...ve damages allegations].) In order to state a prima facie claim for punitive damages, a complaint must set forth the elements stated in the general punitive damages statute, Civil Code section 3294, including allegations that the defendant has been guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice. (Civ. Code § 3294(a).) "Malice" is defined as conduct "intended by the defendant to cause injury to plaintiff, or despicable conduct that is carried...

Excerpt: ...to the motion will be asked to sign a stipulation agreeing that the motion may be heard by the Pro Tem Judge. If all parties to the motion sign the stipulation, the hearing will proceed before the Judge Pro Tem who will decide the motion with the same authority as a Superior Court Judge. If a party appears by telephone, the stipulation may be signed via fax or consent to sign given by email. If not all parties to the motion sign the stipulation, ...

Excerpt: ...judication originally came on for hearing on February 19, 2019. The motion seeks summary adjudication against defendant Ultratick, Inc. and does not seek relief against its manager Sean Sharma. The court tentatively took the motion off calendar because plaintiff filed a notice of settlement on January 14, 2019. Plaintiff and defendant's former counsel appeared at the hearing and explained that Mr. Sharma suddenly passed away before the settle...

Excerpt: ...ivil Procedure § 397(c) on the ground of inconvenience of witnesses and promotion of the interests of justice is denied. Defendant has not shown that the interests of justice will be served because of its delay in bringing the motion and the resulting prejudice to plaintiff from a likely further continuance of the trial date. Defendant filed its motion more than a year after it filed its answer, after the parties had already engaged in significa...

Excerpt: ...le issue of material fact regarding whether the City had actual and/or constructive notice of the bolts prior to the accident. (Peterson Dec., 3‐5; Mathias Depo., 12:16‐21; 13:22‐14:5.) On summary judgment, "[t]he evidence of the moving party should be strictly construed, and that of the opponent liberally construed, and any doubts as to the propriety of granting the motion should be resolved in favor of the party opposing the motion.&#...

Excerpt: ...I) and its attorney, David J. Cook, are denied. Because a self‐ represented litigant does not "incur" attorneys' fees, he or she may not recover an award of attorneys' fees as sanctions. (Musaelian v. Adams (2009) 45 Cal.4th 512, 520.) Further, Mr. Smith cannot recover expenses other than attorneys' fees as sanctions either, as "[a] party who acts on his or her own behalf does not thereby generate an expense that the par...

Excerpt: ...rly situated plaintiffs. Further, the settlement agreement provides that no portion of the settlement payments is to be paid to the LWDA, to similarly situated current and former employees, or to the PAGA representatives. Under the circumstances, is court approval of the settlement either authorized or appropriate under PAGA? 2. Should the settlement agreement be amended to expressly exclude from the definition of released Claims any representati...

Excerpt: ...the Court's February 20, 2019 Order re Stewart Title of California Inc.'s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, which stated in pertinent part, "Motion is granted without leave to amend as to causes of action for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence. No opposition filed. Motion is GRANTED with leave to amend to allege a breach of contract cause of action only against the moving defendant. No other amendments allowed. . . . All amen...