Excerpt: ...IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN MATEO JEFFREY SANTELLICES; Plaintiff, v. APTTUS CORPORATION; PROJECT EVEREST PARENT, LLC; PARENT EVEREST HOLDINGS, LLC; and DOES 1 through 25, Defendants. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Case No.: 19‐CIV‐00821 Assigned For All Purposes to Hon. Danny Y. Chou ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS FOR FORUM NON CONVENIENS Defendants Apttus Corporation (Apttus), Project Everest Parent, LLC, and Parent Everest Holdin...

Excerpt: ... AMEND, and SUSTAINED IN PART WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND. 1. Plaintiff's Causes of Action Against Apttus a. First Cause of Action for Breach of Contract The demurrer to Plaintiff's first cause of action for breach of contract against Apttus is OVERRULED. A demurrer to only a portion of a cause of action is “procedurally improper.” (PH II, Inc. v. Superior Court (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 1680, 1682.) Apttus only argues that the conversion of Plaintiff...

Excerpt: ...ubdivision (b)(1). (Id., ¶ 8.) Plaintiff served Defendant with a 3‐day notice to quit that expired on December 7, 2020. (Compl., ex. 2.) The notice alleges that Defendant repeatedly harassed and disturbed neighbors, including Plaintiff's daughter, and states, in pertinent part, that: “This harassing and disturbing behavior, besides being a violation of your written rental agreement's rules and regulations, constitutes the maintenance of a nu...

Excerpt: ...n August 29, 2017, causing injury. Defendant contends the statute of limitations for any cause of action against Ms. Person has run, as Plaintiff did not name Ms. Person as a Defendant within two years of the date of injury, and the amendment does not relate back to the original filing because Plaintiff was not genuinely ignorant of Ms. Person's identity. As noted by Defendant, Plaintiff spoke with Ms. Person and took pictures of Ms. Person's dri...

Excerpt: ...ULED. Defendant's objection to evidence are OVERRULED. Plaintiffs' counsel, three different firms, seek their attorneys' fees of $304,274.25, which amount includes a .5 multiplier pursuant to the Song‐Beverly Act, Civil Code § 1794(d). The case settled for $170,000 after Defendant's failed to repair the car that Plaintiffs had purchased for $33,000. Plaintiffs have submitted declarations from counsel, verified billing statements, a National Co...

Excerpt: ...e Court finds that the same result is obtained under both California and Delaware law. Accordingly, the Court does not engage in a conflict of law analysis. The Court notes though that even if substantive Delaware law applies, California procedural law, including whether the pleadings are sufficient, are determined under California law. 3 Witkin, Cal. Proc. 5th Actions § 46 (2020) citing Restatement 2d, Conflict of Laws §§ 127, 128. Failure to...

Excerpt: ...ants) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. “A cause of action against a person arising from any act of that person in furtherance of the person's right of petition or free speech under the United States Constitution or the California Constitution in connection with a public issue shall be subject to a special motion to strike, unless the court determines that the plaintiff has established that there is a probability that the plaintiff will pr...

Excerpt: ... party to judgment on the cause of action. (Code Civ. Proc., sect. 437c, subd. (p)(1).) Once the plaintiff has met that burden, the burden shifts to the defendant to show that a triable issue on one or more material facts exists as to the cause of action or a defense thereto. (Ibid.) The defendant shall not rely upon the allegations or denials of its pleadings to show a triable issue; defendant must set forth the specific facts showing that a tri...

Excerpt: ...plained below, entry of judgment finding Defendant Raymond Wilson guilty of unlawful detainer in this action is currently barred by the COVID‐19 Tenant Relief Act of 2020 (Tenant Relief Act). Plaintiff filed this unlawful detainer action on January 31, 2020. (Compl. for Unlawful Detainer, filed 1/31/20.) In the Complaint, Plaintiff alleged, among other things, that: (1) Defendant agreed to pay Plaintiff $2,325.00 per month as rental for certain...

Excerpt: ...or Fraudulent Concealment, the Second Cause of Action for Fraudulent Misrepresentation, and Third Cause of Action for Fraudulent Inducement (collectively fraud claims) is SUSTAINED WITH LEAVE TO AMEND Defendants' demurrer to the fraud claims is sustained with leave to amend because they are not pled with sufficient particularity and because Plaintiffs failed to plead a duty to disclose on the part of Defendants. Fraud claims must be pled with suf...

Excerpt: ...er, the Court construes the complaint's allegations liberally with a view to attaining substantial justice among the parties. Code of Civil Procedure section 452. All material facts are treated as true. Apple v. Superior Court (2017) 18 Cal.App.5th 222, 240. The Demurrer to the First Cause of Action for Fraud is OVERRULED. Defendants challenge the specificity of the allegations, that there are no actionable allegations, and no damages pled. The C...

Excerpt: ...c. (“Sedgwick”) and Plaintiff‐in‐Intervention Guadalupe Campillo‐Cortes (“Campillo”) are DENIED. Sedgwick's request for joinder is GRANTED. A. The Peculiar Risk Doctrine Applies Only to Hazardous Activities Under the peculiar risk doctrine, a property owner who hires an independent contractor to do “inherently dangerous work” can be held directly liable for damages when that independent contractor causes injury to others by negl...

Excerpt: ...plaint. (See California Arbitration Act (“CAA”), codified in the Code Civ. Proc. Sect. 1281, et seq., and the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 United States Code Sect. 1, et seq.) Plaintiff argues that the arbitration agreement is void because he did not sign an arbitration agreement. (Opp. at 3:9‐15.) The arbitration agreement provided by Defendant, which reflects Plaintiff's signatures, is authenticated by Fatima Parayno, Defendant'...

Excerpt: ...ance with CCP § 2030.300(c). The parties' disagreement centers around the question of whether Plaintiff's responses to Defendant's special interrogatories, served on August 10, 2020, were properly verified with Plaintiff's electronic signature. According to Plaintiff's declaration, he completed his review of the discovery responses on August 10 and directed his attorney to electronically sign Plaintiff's name on the verifications. Makada Decl., ...

Excerpt: ...rd Motor Company does not challenge Plaintiffs' right to costs, but in this motion challenges certain of those costs. Defendant has made ruling on this motion more difficult because of its failure to comply with California Rule of Court 3.1700(b)(2). Thus this Court's ruling does not correspond to the line item on the Cost Memorandum. After viewing the totality of the record and weighing all the factors, this Court exercises its discretion and ru...

Excerpt: ... mail and electronic mail, respectively, to Consumer First Legal at 416 Hillview Drive in Milpitas, CA and to [email protected]. The email address is identified in the parties' stipulation as the address where Defendant may be notified of default. However, no appearance has been entered on behalf of Defendant in this action, and there is no indication in the record that the physical or email address to which the papers were served belong to Defend...

Excerpt: ...ek to invalidate the settlement agreement. “'Ordinarily where the rights involved in litigation arise upon a contract, courts refuse to adjudicate the rights of some of the parties to the contract if the others are not before it.'” Deltakeeper v. Oakdale Irrigation Dist., 94 Cal. App. 4th 1092, 1106 (2001) (quoting Nat'l Licorice Co. v. N.L.R.B., 309 U.S. 350, 363 (1940)). “Such a judgment or decree would be futile if rendered, since the co...

Excerpt: ...fendant Agrawal, whereby Agrawal would take over Plaintiff's lease with EJC (FAC, ¶¶ 13‐15); JLL knew of this contract prior to charging Plaintiff with an improperly calculated Additional Rent (Id., ¶¶ 21‐22); JLL charged Plaintiff an incorrect amount for Additional Rent and failed to correct it, despite Plaintiff informing JLL that curing the Additional Rent issue was “paramount” to it being able to complete the sale of its business ...

Excerpt: ...ency Regulation, through August 31, 2020, unless further extended by the County before that date (“Termination Date”), no Landlord shall endeavor to evict a tenant . . . for a no‐fault termination of tenancy as defined herein unless necessary for the health and safety of the Tenant, other residents of the building at which the Tenant resides, the Landlord, or the Landlord's Family. Endeavors to evict that are prohibited by this Emergency Re...

Excerpt: ...ndants' conversion/theft of Plaintiffs' corporate assets (i.e., Defendants' alleged theft of funds from Plaintiffs' corporate bank accounts). Defendants contend the dispute centers on Plaintiffs' violation of labor and employment laws (i.e., alleged failure to pay its Californiabased employees' wages). In 2018, shortly after filing the Complaint in this case, Plaintiffs filed their first application for a writ of attachment, seeking to attach pro...

Excerpt: ...lace of business in Los Angeles, (2) the parties' Subcontract was to be performed in Los Angeles County, and (3) Joel Parker executed the parties' Subcontract and Personal Guarantee in Los Angeles. (MPA, p.1.) Plaintiff contends that venue is proper in San Mateo County pursuant to the following provision in the parties' Subcontract: “SUBCONTRACTOR agrees that this Agreement is to be executed in San Mateo County, California and that venue for an...

Excerpt: ...r hearing,” “that the plaintiff resides out of the state . . . and that there is a reasonable possibility that the moving defendant will obtain judgment in the action . . . .” Here, Plaintiff concedes that he resides out‐of‐state. (Compl., ¶ 7.) Plaintiff's ownership of real property and bank accounts does not fulfill the “reside” requirement of Code of Civil Procedure section 1030. There is also a reasonable possibility of Defenda...

Excerpt: ...ust (Plaintiffs) unopposed Motion for Judgment Pursuant to Stipulation and Order, is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. (Code Civ. Proc. Sec. 664.6; see also Stip. & Order filed 11‐ 19‐20.) Plaintiffs' motion for entry of judgment for possession is GRANTED. Because Defendant is not a “tenant” as defined by the COVID‐19 Tenant Relief Act of 2020 (Tenant Relief Act) (Code Civ. Proc., § 1179.02, subd. (h)) and because this action does no...

Excerpt: ...endant's Demurrer to the First Cause of Action for Breach of Contract is SUSTAINED WITH LEAVE TO AMEND. The elements of a claim for breach of contract are: (1) existence of the contract, (2) plaintiff's performance or excuse for nonperformance of the contract, (3) defendant's breach, and (4) plaintiff's damages as a result of the breach. (Miles v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. (2015) 236 Cal.App.4th 394, 402.) If the action is based on a writt...

Excerpt: ...intiff does not allege the existence of any contract between Plaintiff and Hollyvale. Plaintiff has only alleged a contractual relationship with the parties to the loan and the deed of trust. Hollyvale, however, is not a party to either of those contacts. Plaintiff argues that Hollyvale is a necessary party because the Complaint seeks equitable relief that would require Hollyvale to reconvey the property to Plaintiff. But the fact that Plaintiff ...