Excerpt: ...On March 23, the Court issued a Tentative Ruling indicating an intention to sustain the Demurrer, which at that time appeared to be unopposed, for the reasons argued in Defendant's moving papers. On March 21, Plaintiff filed a late Opposition brief. Defendant then requested a continuance of the March 24 hearing to allow Defendant time to file a Reply brief. Accordingly, at the March 24 hearing, rather than adopt its Tentative Ruling, the Court co...

Excerpt: ...t Defendants did not give Plaintiff Gloria Rodriguez a thirty-day notice before the locks were changed and she was refused reentry to a residence located at 237 Poplar Avenue in Redwood City (the "Property"). By this Motion, Defendants contend that the action has no merit because Plaintiff cannot establish that Defendants were landlords nor establish that she was entitled to a thirty day notice. A. Legal Standard on Summary Judgment "A party may ...

Excerpt: ...the Third Cause of Action ("intentional infliction of emotional distress"), the demurrer is SUSTAINED with leave to amend. Code Civ. Proc. Sect. 430.10(e). Plaintiff's Complaint alleges that Defendant is guilty of "extreme and outrageous" conduct because Defendant had "actual and constructive knowledge" of a bed bug problem in its hotel, yet failed to disclose the problem to Plaintiffs, which resulted in Plaintiffs' allegedly sustaining personal ...

Excerpt: ...edia Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal.4th 449,457, fn. 9. Defendant's Request for Judicial Notice in support of the Reply is DENIED. General Demurrer for Failure to Comply with Tort Claims Act Defendant's unopposed General Demurrer to the entire Complaint for failure to comply with tort claims requirements is SUSTAINED without leave to amend pursuant to Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. S 430.10(e). Plaintiff's Complaint fails to comply with the requir...

Excerpt: ...hilip Morris Inc. (1975) 54 Cal.App.3d 7, 18.) The demurrer admits the truth of all material facts properly pleaded (i.e., all ultimate facts alleged, but not contentions, deductions or conclusions of fact or law). (Aubry v. Tri-City Hosp. Dist. (1992) 2 Cal.4th 962, 966-957.) A. First Through Fourth Causes of Action (Negligence) The Demurrers to the first, second, third, and fourth causes of achon are OVERRULED. The ground for each demurrer is t...

Excerpt: ...ivil Procedure section 435.16 (Anti-SLAPP) as follows: BURDEN OF PROOF ON A SLAPP MOTION "Enacted by the Legislature in 1992, the ant-SLAPP statute is designed to protect defendants from meritless lawsuits that might chill the exercise of their rights to speak and petition on matters of public concern." Wilson v. Cable News Network, Inc. (2019) 7 Cal.5th 871, 883—884 (citations omitted). In Bonni v. St. Joseph Health System (2021) 11 Cal.5th 99...

Excerpt: ...s set forth below. Request for Judicial Notice. Defendant/cross-complainant Milana Ostroy's 3-16-23 and 3-17-23 Requests for Judicial Notce are GRANTED. Evid. Code Sect. 452(d). Milana's Ostoy"s Opposition. Plaintiff Yelnin correctly notes that Milana Ostroy filed her 3-16-23 Opposition brief one day late. Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure Section the Opposition was due March 15. In its discretion, however, the Court has considered Ostroy's Opp...

Excerpt: ...s: The Court finds that since no opposition has been filed for this properly served motion, all procedural objections to the motion, if any, have been waived. a. Form Interrogatory No. 6.7 This form interrogatory asks for information regarding any health care provider that advised future treatment is needed for Plaintiff's injuries, including the name and address, the complaints for which treatment was advised, and the nature, duration and estima...

Excerpt: ...iffs were contesting the hearing. However, Plaintiffs' counsel appeared by Zoom and, despite repeated efforts by the Court to have Plaintiffs' counsel make an appearance when the case was called, Plaintiffs' counsel never was able to obtain an audio connection to address the Court (the Court could see Plaintiffs' counsel on the screen). Therefore, with defense counsel's agreement, the Court continued the motion to March 28, 2023 for argument. Pla...

Excerpt: ...earned wages (second), (3) failure to prov-de accurate wage statements (sixth cause of action), and (4) unfair competition as derivative of the first, second and sixth causes of action (eighth cause of action) for the following class certified and defined as: All California owner-operator franchisee cleaners who signed a franchise agreement that did not include any arbitration agreement with Vanguard Cleaning Systems, Inc., or its regional franch...

Excerpt: ... to Evid. Code, S 452(d). The Court additionally takes judicial notice of the pleadings filed in related Case No. 1. Defendant Sarah Hillhouse's Demurrer to the 13th COA for Civil Embezzlement is OVERRULED The Court analyzed a demurrer to a similar COA in Plaintiff's Crosscomplaint in a related action, Case No. 22-CL_J-WCb40, and overruled the demurrer to that COA because the Court found that under a broad, liberal reading of the pleading, the Cr...

Excerpt: ... Dizitser") and Michelle Dizitser ("M. Dizitser") Crosscomplaint is GRANTED. The undisputed material facts show that the Cross-complaint has no merit and Cross-defendants AVJOG and Chadha are entitled to judgment in their favor. A. First Cause of Acton (Wrongful Eviction) 1. Issue 1: The Dizitsers Were Neither Parties to nor ThirdParty Beneficiaries of the Lease between AVJOG and MxM It is undisputed that the Dizitsers were not parties to the Lea...

Excerpt: ...spose of all causes of action. Defendants' Alternative Motion for Summary Adjudication of Plaintiffs' Complaint is GRANTED-IN-PART and DENIED-IN-PART. Specifically, Defendants' Motion for Summary Adjudication is GRANTED as to Issues 4, 6, 12, 14, 16, and DENIED as to Issues 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10a, 10b, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 18. Defendants' Objections 1. Opposing Declaration of Randy Dizitser (Exhibit 3 to the Compendium of Evidence in Opposition ...

Excerpt: ...ng reviewed BG's moving papers and supporting evidence, the Court finds good cause to sign an expungement order (assuming it is in proper form), conditioned on BG giving an undertaking. (See id., S 405.33.) Further, BG's October 5, 2022 Request for Judicial Notice is GRANTED as to Exh. 1 (Evid. Code, S 452(c)), and GRANTED as to Exhs. 2-3 (ld., S 452(d)). Factual and Procedural Background. Plaintiffs allege that the subject residential real prope...

Excerpt: ... Defendants committed financial elder abuse and breached their duties as fiduciaries when they pressured her into selling her house without attempting to solicit bids from other buyers via a multiple listing service ("MLS"). Here, Defendants move to strike all requests for punitive damages from the Complaint. As a preliminary matter, Defendants failed to meet and confer as required by Code of Civil Procedure secton 435.5. This statute requires a ...

Excerpt: ...NG: Plaintiffs serra Falk Goldman's and George G.'s unopposed Motion to Seal, filed 2-24-23, which seeks an Order sealing certain documents filed in support of, and in opposition to, defendant Cirrus' Motion for Review of the Discovery Referee's Pre- Trial Order ISA, is GRANTED. CRC 2.550(d); 2.551. Plaintiffs seek an order sealing the confidential versions of the documents listed below, which were filed/lodged with the Court on Feb. 14, 2023 and...

Excerpt: ...he Court's January 11, 2023 Order compelling Plaintiff to serve responses to Defendant's Form Interrogatories, Set One, Special Interrogatories, Set One and Request for Production of Documents, Set One, as well as Plaintiff's failure to submit any Case Management Statements ahead of scheduled case management conferences. According to the declaration of Defendant's counsel, "Plaintiff has not served verified discovery responses pursuant to the Cou...

Excerpt: ... order. Plaintiff's Request for Judicial Notice is GRANTED. Plaintiff's Complaint alleges, inter alia, Defendants committed financial elder abuse and breached their duties as fiduciaries when they pressured her into selling her house without attempting to solicit bids from other buyers via a multiple listing service ("MLS"). Here, Defendants demur to each of the two causes of action in the Complaint pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 430...

Excerpt: ...de that the parties agreed to permit discovery on issues pertaining to enforceability of the Arbitration Agreement. The discovery at issue falls into nine general categories: formation of the arbitration agreement, presentation of arbitration agreements to residents, withdrawal of arbitration agreements, arbitration costs, conduct of arbitration, ownership of arbitration entities, motions to compel arbitration, initiation of arbitration, and the ...

Excerpt: ... cautioned regarding signing declarations under oath absent personal knowledge of the facts stated therein. The 1-5-23 Karen Evans declaration does not appear to be based on personal knowledge. If counsel did not participate in the alleged phone call, then she should not be stating, under penalty of perjury, based on alleged personal knowledge, that the phone call took place. Nonetheless, the Court deems the meet and confer to have been sufficien...

Excerpt: ...erver and Defendants have filed a reply. The Court GRANTS the motion. FACTS On February 6, 2023, Plaintiff filed three proofs of service showing person service by a registered process server on each of the three defendants on January 28, 2023 at 10:08 a.m. In support of the moving papers, Defendants each filed a declaration stating that they were not personally served. Pauli and Paleste Tau declare that they were home that day, but were never ser...

Excerpt: ...23 for ease of tracking: The Court rules on Defendants' Motion in Limine No. 13 to Exclude Permanent Nuisance Damages as follows: The Court GRANTS the unopposed Requests for Judicial Notice. The Court takes judicial notce of these documents' existence, the date and nature of the acts and pleadings, but not necessarily for the truth of facts asserted within the documents. Julian Volunteer Fire Co. Assn. v. Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection Dist. (20...

Excerpt: ...urthouse. Department 4 is located at the Central Courthouse, 800 North Humboldt St., Courtroom G, San Mateo, CA 94401. Plaintiffs, however, noticed the hearing for Redwood City. OBJECTION TO SEPARATE STATEMENT Defendants object to Plaintiffs' separate statement of Undisputed Material Facts ("SSUMF") for failure to comply with California Rules of Court 3.1350(b),(h). Plaintiffs' Notice of Motion indicates that summary judgment/adjudicaton is sough...

Excerpt: ... whether a settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate. (Moniz v. Adecco USA, Inc. (2021) 72 Cal.App.5th 56, 75—77.) After conducting this independent review of this proposed settlement, the Court DENIES WITHOUT PREJUDICE Plaintiff Y. Thomas' Motion for (1) Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement Agreement; (2) Approval of Notice to Class Members and Related Materials; (3) Approval of Settlement Administrator; and (4) Setting Hearing fo...

Excerpt: ...epartment's ("Defendant") Motion to Compel Plaintiff Joseph Echema's ("Plaintiff") Responses to Set No. 1 of Defendant's Requests for Production of Documents, Form Interrogatories, and Special Interrogatories and to Impose Sanctions is DENIED for the reasons set forth below. A. Defendant's Request for Order Compelling Further Responses Is untimely On March 26, 2021, Plaintiff served verified responses to Defendant's First Set of Requests for Prod...