Excerpt: ... parties have agreed that the court's rulings on lines 4 and 6 of today's calendar shall act as exemplars for this matter and the parties will use the exemplar rulings in resolving this matter between themselves. 2. MOTION FOR AN ORDER COMPELLING FURTHER RESPONSES TO PLAINTIFF CONSUMER ADVOCACY GROUP, INC.'S REQUESTS FOR ADMISSION, SET ONE, FROM DEFENDANT BURLINGTON COAT FACTORY OF TEXAS, INC. AND REQUEST FOR MONETARY SANCTIONS IN THE AMOUNT OF $...

Excerpt: ...g whether an agreement could be reached to resolve the objections to be raised in the demurrer. Consequently, the hearing on the demurrer is continued to September 11, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. in the Law and Motion Department so that the parties may meet and confer. The demurring party is required to file, no later than 7 days prior to the new hearing date, a code‐compliant declaration stating either (1) the parties have met and conferred and (a) the ...

Excerpt: ...oint venturers, and shareholders owe fiduciary duties, as do corporate officers/directors, to shareholders. See, generally, CACI 4100. The Complaint here alleges, in a conclusory manner, that Micha and Dalit Lewis owed fiduciary duties to Plaintiff as “majority and controlling shareholders, business partners, principals, joint venturers, or corporate officers or directors.” This conclusory allegation, however, does not appear supported by the...

Excerpt: ...imeliness (Code Civ. Proc. § 438(e)) and failure to meet and confer (Code Civ. Proc. § 439(a)). The motion fails on its merits. The Court finds that Defendant / Cross‐ Complainant TORA HOLDINGS, INC.'s First Cause of Action for Breach of NDA and Second Cause of Action for Breach of Settlement Agreement and Release are sufficiently pled. With respect to the First cause of action for breach of the NDA, Plaintiff asserts that it was relieved of ...

Excerpt: ...Cause as to why the Mechanic's Lien filed by Respondent Bakirman Development Group (“Respondent”) should not be stricken and released. Instead of issuing the Order to Show Cause at that time though, the court issued an Order for a hearing on noticed motion. (See court's July 10, 2018 order.) Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 765.010, “[a] person or entity whose property is subject to a lien or encumbrance in violation of this sect...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiffs fail to allege compliance with the Government Claims Act. The court sustained Defendants' prior demurrer to the First Amended Complaint on this ground, and gave Plaintiffs leave to amend. In the Second Amended Complaint, Plaintiffs still fail to complete paragraph 9 of the Second Amended Complaint by alleging that they complied with the Government Claims Act by filing a claim before bringing this action, or that Plaintiffs are excused ...

Excerpt: ... to permit amendment of pleadings. Nestle v. Santa Monica (1972) 6 Cal.3d 920, 939. If discovery and investigation develop factual grounds justifying a timely amendment to a pleading, leave to amend must be liberally granted. Mabie v. Hyatt (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 581, 596. Indeed, a court may properly grant leave to amend “at any stage of proceedings, up to and including trial.” Atkinson v. Elk Corp (2003) 109 Cal.App.4th 739, 761. Plaintiffs'...

Excerpt: ...orth below. As to the Eighth Cause of Action for “Conspiracy to Deny Due Process Rights,” the motion is GRANTED. First, this new cause of action exceeds the scope of the Court's 05‐ 30‐ 18 Order granting leave to amend the Eighth Cause of Action in Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint, which was entitled “Judicial Declaration Concerning Employment of General Manager Maxey”. The prior claim, which was asserted only against the District...

Excerpt: ...circumstances make the imposition of attorney's fees and costs unjust”. . Under the circumstances of this case, the Court is satisfied that Intervenor FRED SLIGHTAM's motion to expunge was brought with substantial justification such that an award of attorney's fees and costs is not warranted. While Intervenor FRED SLIGHTAM's motion to expunge Plaintiffs' lis pendens was ultimately denied (and said denial was upheld on appeal), it appears from t...

Excerpt: ...l.'s Motion to Compel Mental Examination of Plaintiff, and for Sanctions. There appears to have been some confusion as to the date of this hearing and, as a result, a late response was filed by Plaintiff. The evidence demonstrates Plaintiff has placed her mental condition at issue/in controversy, thus warranting the requested mental examination. Code Civ. Proc. § 2032.020. Plaintiff has conceded this fact by agreeing to undergo a mental examinat...

Excerpt: ... deny the motion on this ground alone. However, even if the court assumes that service was proper, judgment debtor seeks to vacate renewal of the judgment based on defenses to the original underlying unlawful detainer action. She cites no authority indicating that such defenses would apply in an independent action on the judgment. A motion to vacate a renewal of judgment must go to the renewal itself and not the underlying judgment. If the tentat...

Excerpt: ...s v. Pacific States Auxiliary Corp. (193 5) 4 Cal.2d 103. To gain that possession, the purchaser may bring an unlawful detainer action against any occupant. CCP § 1161a(b)(3). The law is longstanding that the only issues present in an unlawful detainer action are possession and damages for unlawful possession. Old National Financial Services, Inc. v. Seibert (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 460, 464. Here, Plaintiff seeks only possession. The elements to e...

Excerpt: ... Archdiocese of San Francisco (“Defendant”) to Compel Plaintiff to Sign Record Release Authorizations for Production of VA Records is DENIED. Defendant has not provided any authority to support that a motion may be brought to compel a party to sign a record release authorization. Although Defendant cites to Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.010 as authority for this motion, this section addresses production of documents from a party that h...

Excerpt: ...bjected to production of any and all documents from Feldman based on attorney‐ client privilege and/or work product. Feldman also stated that all documents in his possession are protected by the attorneyclient privilege. (See Feldman Decl. ¶ 10.) Thus, the court continued this motion for Feldman to provide Defendant with a privilege log with respect to these documents. (See court's June 25, 2018 Minute Order.) The court further ordered the par...

Excerpt: ...31.320, subd. (a).) In response to Categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, Plaintiff responded that it would produce certain documents, but the motion offers no evidence that Plaintiff has refused to actually produce them. The motion states, “June 20 came and went with no production or any response from plaintiff's counsel. (Nelson Decl. ¶ 10.)” (Moving P&A at 4:22‐23.) Paragraph 10 to the Nelson Declaration states merely that Attorney Nelson did...

Excerpt: ...specific requirements of Code Civ. Proc. § 2031.030, which includes a designation of the land or property to be inspected, tested or sampled by “specifically describing each individual item or by reasonably particularizing each category of item”; and a specification of “any inspection, copying, testing, sampling, or related activity that is being demanded, as well as the manner in which that activity will be performed, and whether that act...

Excerpt: ...performed by the Knight Law Firm (“Knight firm”), and $27,775.00 for work performed by Hackler Daghighian Martino & Novak, P.C. (“HDMN”). In opposition, Defendants FCA US LLC and KTP Cars, Inc. (“Defendants”) object to both the hourly rates and the claimed time spent by the attorneys. Plaintiff provided additional declarations at the prior hearing, and the court continued the motion to consider this evidence and to give Defendants an ...

Excerpt: ...because all asserted claims hinge on a 2006 trust deed signed only by decedent, Plaintiff was required to file the lawsuit within one year of decedent's 2014 death, and thus all claims are now time‐barred. Citing Probate Code § 13550, 13551, and 13554; Code Civ. Proc. § 366.2. The merits of this defense cannot be resolved on Demurrer. A demurrer lies where the dates alleged in the complaint show clearly and affirmatively that the action is ba...

Excerpt: ...is for binding arbitration. When arbitration is pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1280 et seq., the resulting arbitration award is, in substance, binding. Judicial arbitration is nonbinding; a party dissatisfied with the award may reject the award by requesting trial de novo. In contrast, when arbitration is under Section 1280 et seq., such as what the present motion seeks, the arbitration award may be attacked only on limited grounds. ...

Excerpt: ... a claim or issue litigated in the prior proceeding; (2) the prior proceeding resulted in a final judgment on the merits; and (3) the party against whom the doctrine is being asserted was a party or in privity with a party to the prior proceeding. Tobin v. Nationstar Mortgage, Inc. (2016) 2016 WL 1948786, at *5 (citing Boeken v. Phillip Morris USA, Inc. (2010) 48 Cal. 4th 788, 797. Plaintiff filed a prior action, San Mateo County Superior Court C...

Excerpt: ...is expected to explain, at the 8‐2‐17 hearing, why granting leave to amend as to Fidelity would not be futile. First, as to all asserted claims, the FAC is uncertain by failing to specifically identify what conduct defendant Fidelity, as distinct from the other named defendants, purportedly engaged in. Code Civ. Proc. Sect. 430.10(f); Moore v. Regents of Univ. of Cal. (1990) 51 Cal.3d 120, 125. As set forth in Code Civ. Proc. Sect. 425.10(a),...

Excerpt: ...fraud. Further, it does not allege facts that can reasonably support a finding of malice or oppression, as defined by Civ. Code § 3294. The allegations lump defendants together, without specifying what acts/conduct Fidelity allegedly engaged in that constitutes fraud, oppression, and/or malice. Further, the allegations of wrongdoing appear directed at the lender and/or servicer of the loan. There is no allegation Fidelity was the lender or servi...

Excerpt: ...0, 2018, no declaration had been filed. Consequently, the demurrer is stricken. If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court, pursuant to Rule 3.1308(a)(1), adopted by Local Rule 3.10, effective immediately, and no formal order pursuant to Rule 3.1312 or any other notice is required as the tentative ruling affords sufficient notice to the parties. ...

Excerpt: ...pursuant to Rule 3.1312 or any other notice is required as the tentative ruling affords sufficient notice to the parties. ...

Excerpt: ...�Application”), or whether Mr. Carroll intended for this hearing to be treated as the Order to Show Cause re: Contempt hearing. On the same day Mr. Carroll filed the Application, he also filed an Order to Show Cause re: Contempt purporting to give Ms. Carter notice of this hearing as a contempt hearing. No Order to Show Cause re: Contempt was ever signed by the court. Thus, to the extent that Mr. Carroll intended this hearing as a contempt hear...

Excerpt: ...d the omission, but expressly directed Defendant BSI, “In the future, Defendant must comply with the meet and confer requirement prior to filing a motion to strike. (See Code of Civ. Proc. 435.5.)” (Minute Order, April 11, 2018 (last paragraph). Instead of meeting and conferring in person or by telephone, Defendant BSI merely sent a letter. The supporting declaration does not indicate any attempt to meet in person or by phone, as specified by...

Excerpt: ...ndants concede they have no breach of fiduciary duty claim against Plaintiff and do not intend to assert one, appears outside the scope of permissible discovery as to this responding party. Code Civ. Proc. § 2017.010. Plaintiff's request for monetary sanctions is DENIED. If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court, pursuant to Rule 3.1308(a)(1), adopted by Local Rule 3.10, effective immediately, and no formal o...

Excerpt: ...is interrogatory, limited to prior incidents (dating back three years before Plaintiff's alleged incident) in the women's department of the Macy's in question. “PREMISES” is defined in the interrogatories to mean the entire Macy's store, which is overbroad given that the alleged incident occurred in the women's department, which itself is sizeable. Defendant's relevance argument lacks merit. Evid. Code § 210 (broadly defining relevant eviden...

Excerpt: ...the order to arbitration or until such earlier time as the court specifies. (C.C.P. sec. 1281.4.) The court previously ordered that the parties submit Plaintiff's non‐PAGA claims to arbitration after Defendant Binary Capital Management, LLC (“Binary”) moved to compel arbitration. (See Baker Decl., Exhs. 2, 3.) Plaintiff then proceeded to pay AAA's arbitration filing fee. (Baker Decl., paras. 5, 6, and Exhs. 5, 6.) Binary apparently became i...

Excerpt: ...ers, Inv. v. Municipal Court (1978) 21 Cal.3d 724. Therefore, on the court's own motion, the complaint is stricken with 30 days' leave to file an amended pleading if plaintiff retains an attorney. The demurrer is moot. If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court, pursuant to Rule 3.1308(a)(1), adopted by Local Rule 3.10, effective immediately, and no formal order pursuant to Rule 3.1312 or any other notice is re...

Excerpt: ...) Defendant's Motion to Compel Documents Responsive to Defendant's requests for production of documents (set one and two), is GRANTED. Plaintiff is to produce all responsive documents, to the extent any exist, as to these requests. Alternatively, as Defendant proposed, Plaintiff may instead provide a signed verification that the documents provided by CrossDefendant Nordeman are the only documents that exist responsive to Defendant's requests. (3)...

Excerpt: ...August 31, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. in the Law and Motion Department so that the parties may meet and confer. Defendant is required to file, no later than 7 days prior to the new hearing date, a code‐compliant declaration stating either (1) the parties have met and conferred in person or by telephone and (a) the parties have resolved the objections raised in the motion, which shall be taken off calendar or (b) the parties did not reach an agreement re...

Excerpt: ...tion of plaintiff's total recovery nor defendant's proportionate share of that liability. If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court, pursuant to Rule 3.1308(a)(1), adopted by Local Rule 3.10, effective immediately, and no formal order pursuant to Rule 3.1312 or any other notice is required as the tentative ruling affords sufficient notice to the parties. ...

Excerpt: ...version for the Court's signature. Defendant correctly notes that cases should normally be prosecuted under the parties' true names. Code Civ. Proc. § 367. However, this rule is not absolute. Courts have authority to permit the use of pseudonyms in various circumstances, such as where doing so is necessary to protect against harassment, injury, embarrassment, and social stigmatization. See, e.g., Does I thru XXIII v. Advanced Textile Corp. (9th ...

Excerpt: ...ntially completed on September 19, 2007. (5th Am. Complaint ¶ 51.) Therefore, the deadline was September 18, 2017. Plaintiff named the AC&H for the first time in the Third Amended Complaint, which was filed October 24, 2017, one month after the 10‐year deadline. Plaintiff contends that AC&H was timely named in June 22, 2017, when Plaintiff substituted AC&H for Doe 16. The argument lacks merit. “Even if a plaintiff meets the other requirement...

Excerpt: ... the subject property. Thus, the two year statute of limitations under Code of Civil Procedure section 339(1) does not apply to Defendant. Although section 339(1) “generally” applies to claim for professional negligence (Thomson v. Canyon (2011) 198 Cal. App. 4th 594, 606), the limitations periods of sections 337.1 and 337.15 are specific to claim for design defects in the construction of real property. Sections 337.1 and 337.15 apply to a cl...

Excerpt: ...t the scope of these requests to information pertaining to conduct similar to the allegations in Plaintiff's Complaint. Plaintiff also agreed to limit the timeframe from January 1, 2010 to the present. (Decl. Loh ¶ 7, Exhibit 3.)  GRANTED as to Request for Production (Set One), Request No. 18 and Request for Production (Set Two), Request No. 57. Defendant iPASS, INC. is ordered to serve full and complete, verified responses to the foregoing d...

Excerpt: ...LEAVE TO AMEND. Plaintiff has not established that he is entitled to recover punitive damages. (See Gov. Code § 818 [“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a public entity is not liable for damages awarded under Section 3294 of the Civil Code or other damages imposed primarily for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant.”.) The motion to strike the relief sought in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of the Relief Sought & Compensa...

Excerpt: ...for “Wrongful Trustee Sale,” the claim lacks merit for multiple reasons, first because Eagle Vista played no part in the trustee's sale. Plaintiff contends the banking entities that foreclosed upon and sold Plaintiff's home, whom Plaintiff has dismissed from the case with prejudice, lacked the authority to foreclose and failed to comply with various statutory requirements pertaining to a non‐judicial foreclosure sale. This argument/cause of...

Excerpt: ...les of Court, Rule 2.112, including by separately listing each cause of action, its nature, and the defendant to whom it is directed. The demurrer based on failure to comply with the claims presentation requirement in the Government Claims Act (Gov. Code §§ 900, et seq.), is SUSTAINED WITH LEAVE TO AMEND for Plaintiff to allege facts to support such compliance. Although Plaintiff generally alleges he complied with the claims presentation requir...

Excerpt: ...ubstantive allegation is that Old South performed services for which it received payment from Crosscomplainants. The allegations, if proven, could support a jury's finding that Old South was a party to the implied‐in‐fact contract with Cross‐complainants. Demurrer to the fourth cause of action (unfair business practice) is overruled. A corporate plaintiff may not bring a representative suit under the Unfair Competition Law. (Linear Technolo...

Excerpt: ...mplaint (TAC). On 2‐8‐18, when Defendants filed the motion, the operative Complaint was Plaintiff Ryce's First Amended Complaint (FAC), filed 3‐17‐17. Thereafter, on 3‐18‐18, Plaintiff filed a Second Amended Complaint (SAC), and then on 6‐13‐18, filed a Third Amended Complaint (TAC), which currently serves as the operative pleading. Defendants have filed a Demurrer to the TAC, which is set for a hearing on 8‐21‐18. The TAC sup...

Excerpt: ...Environmental Services, Inc., Langan Engineering Environmental Surveying and Landscape Architecture DPC dba Langan Engineering Environmental Surveying and Landscape Architecture, Treadwell & Rollo, Inc. and T&R Consolidated, Inc. (collectively “Defendants”) to the First Amended Complaint of Plaintiff KB Home South Bay, Inc. (“Plaintiff”) is ruled on as follows: Demurrer to the Fourteenth Cause of Action for Successor‐in‐Interest Corpo...

Excerpt: ...fs to file the motion. (Minutes, January 10, 2018.) No trial date was pending, and Plaintiffs' motion was for the purpose of setting a trial date. Therefore, the motion also was not filed for the purpose of delay. The grounds for the motion to reset trial date were not asserted in bad faith or frivolously. At the time of the motion, this case had not been included in the coordinated action, and no trial date was set in this Court. Presently, the ...

Excerpt: ...��76, 82, 93‐94, 99, 105‐106, 111‐112, 117‐118, 129‐130, 135, 147‐148 and for sanctions is GRANTED‐IN‐PART and DENIED‐IN‐PART. The 27 interrogatories at issue are sufficiently relevant to the asserted claims. Although not the primary basis of its Opposition papers, the County argues the 27 disputed interrogatories here have only marginal relevance to “whether Mr. Sedillo was having improper relationships with his clients.”...

Excerpt: ... that dismissal should be vacated under Code of Civil Procedure section 473. (See Declaration of Dubowski, para. 11.) Therefore, the ground for this motion is that dismissal was entered by “mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.” (Code of Civ. Proc. §473, subd. (b).) The motion shows no “mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.” The parties stipulated in writing to entry of dismissal, and the Court entered t...

Excerpt: ...such as oversight, inadvertence, neglect, mistake or other cause, are insufficient grounds to deny the motion unless accompanied by bad faith.” (Silver Organizations Ltd. v. Frank (1990) 217 Cal. App. 3d 94, 99 [permitting crosscomplaint on “eve of trial”].) The provision for allowing of compulsory cross‐complaints “shall be liberally construed to avoid forfeiture of causes of action.” (CCP § 426.50.) A “strong showing of bad faith...

Excerpt: ...e time for service is increased by “two court days.” (Code of Civ. Proc. § 437c, subd. (a)(2).) The 75th calendar day before the July 6, 2018 hearing date was April 22, 2018, a Sunday. Adding “two court days” extends the service deadline to Thursday, April 19, 2018. Defendant served this motion on Friday, April 20, 2018, one day too late. “The statutory language regarding minimum notice is mandatory, not directive.” (Urshan v. Musici...

Excerpt: ...onic service. If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court, pursuant to Rule 3.1308(a)(1), adopted by Local Rule 3.10, effective immediately, and no formal order pursuant to Rule 3.1312 or any other notice is required as the tentative ruling affords sufficient notice to the parties. ...

Excerpt: ...o less restrictive means to protect the privacy interest. Absent sealing, the private information would be publicly available. If the tentative ruling is uncontested, it shall become the order of the Court, pursuant to Rule 3.1308(a)(1), adopted by Local Rule 3.10, effective immediately, and no formal order pursuant to Rule 3.1312 or any other notice is required as the tentative ruling affords sufficient notice to the parties. ...