Excerpt: ...he allegations of the SAC, Plaintiff is the owner and voting member of fifty percent of Casa Alondra Mobile Home Park, LLC (the “LLC” of “CAMPH”) and brings the instant action in both a derivative and representative capacity on behalf of the LLC and in his own right as an intended beneficiary. (SAC, ¶ 1.) On June 9, 2014, Defendants undertook to provide legal services for the LLC and its three named members until they were discharged on ...

Excerpt: ...and exchanged confidential communications” subject to an oral joint defense agreement as part of a regulatory action, and that oral agreement was breached by the Lunardis and GCI, resulting in damage to Swallow. (See FAXC, ¶¶ 33, 82‐84.) In response to discovery seeking persons with knowledge of the alleged breach, Swallow identified his attorney, Allen Ruby. (See Harrington decl. in opposition to motion to quash, ¶ 2.) On February 21, 201...

Excerpt: ...tively, “Defendants”) arises from the fact Defendants own, manage, or allow to continue, a marijuana business. According to the allegations of the Complaint, Coachella is a marijuana distribution business that has operated at 2142 The Alameda in San Jose, California (“the Property”) since May 2017. The other defendants are all in some way related to the ownership or operation of Coachella. Foxx and Nemcov are owners, operators, or manager...

Excerpt: ... statement which was contained in Plaintiff's moving papers. “The objections made assumed that Dr. Lowenberg performed surgery on April 29, 2013 when it has been clearly demonstrated that this was impossible unless Dr. Lowenberg was insane or under the influence or attempting to commit a criminal assault”. (Motion 4:1‐ 3) The Court admonishes Plaintiffs' counsel that these sort of statements are unprofessional, disrespectful, and very inapp...

Excerpt: ...s motion for summary adjudication is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The motion is GRANTED as to the second, third and fourth causes of action and DENIED as to the first cause of action. With respect to the first for breach of contract, the Court finds that triable issues of material fact exist regarding the terms of the agreement between the parties, including whether the provisions alleged to have been incorporated by reference in PRT's pur...

Excerpt: ...ential Care Facility.2 There was a water tower on the property that supplied well water to the facility. Plaintiff leased space on the water tower to Defendants for the purpose of affixing telecommunications equipment and infrastructure. Plaintiff alleges Defendants unplugged a heating coil on the water tower thereby causing the pipes to freeze. As a result, Plaintiff suffered $3,000,000 in damages and had to shut down the nursing home. Plaintiff...

Excerpt: ...ome in Discovery Bay, California.1 When the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded the following year, Miley could not sell his home to pay back the loan. Miley resigned from Ross's construction company in 2009 and has not made any loan payments since. Ross seeks to recover the principal amount of $600,000 as well as $336,023.98 in interest. In the second amended complaint (“SAC”), Ross asserts causes of action against Miley for: (1) breach of ora...

Excerpt: ...�), Acuity Ventures II, LLC (“Ventures II”), Eric Hardgrave (“Hardgrave”), and Larry Hootnick (“Hootnick”).1 Plaintiffs allege AMC, a general partner of the Partnership, as well as Ventures I and Ventures II were formed for the purpose of early‐stage investment in technology companies. They claim Hardgrave defrauded them into investing in these venture funds and that he and Hootnick thereafter mismanaged the funds throughout their o...

Excerpt: ...8, at 11:00 a.m. in Department 5 (Complex Civil Litigation), the Honorable Thomas E. Kuhnle presiding. The Court now issues its tentative ruling as follows: I. INTRODUCTION This action arises out of alleged trade secret misappropriation. The First Amended Complaint, filed on January 19, 2018, sets forth the following causes of action: (1) breach of contract; (2) breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing; (3) unfair business practices;...

Excerpt: ... now issues its tentative ruling. In the Complaint, filed March 14, 2018, Plaintiff alleges that Crowdstar Inc.'s directors, controlling shareholders, and their representatives breached their fiduciary duties in various ways. Plaintiff alleges six causes of action: (1) Breach of fiduciary duty; (2) Aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty; (3) Intentional interference with contract; (4) Intentional interference with prospective economic advan...

Excerpt: ...p Subscriptions with Apple, and Apple both delivers and charges subscribers for associated content. (TAC, ¶ 21.) However, Apple does so without complying with various provisions of Business & Professions Code sections 17600‐ 17604, which govern automatic renewal and continuous service offers to consumers in California (the “Automatic Renewal Law” or “ARL”). In order to make purchases from Apple's online store, consumers are first requi...

Excerpt: ...TATIVE RULING RE: DEMURRER TO PLAINTIFF'S AMENDED STOCKHOLDER DERIVATIVE COMPLAINT; MOTION TO SEAL PLAINTIFF'S FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT; MOTION TO SEAL EXHIBITS 25‐26, 28‐33, 36‐37, AND 39 TO DEFENDANTS' REPLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF DEMURRER TO FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT The above‐entitled action comes on for hearing before the Honorable Thomas E. Kuhnle on July 20, 2018, at 9:00 a.m. in Department 5. The Court now issues its tentative ruli...

Excerpt: ...that order. Plaintiffs now move for final approval of the settlement and approval of their attorney fees, costs, and enhancement awards. Their motion is unopposed. I. Legal Standard for Approving a Derivative Settlement “A court reviewing a settlement agreement considers whether the proposed settlement is fair and reasonable in light of all relevant factors. [Citations.] A court reviews the settlement of a derivative suit as a means of protecti...

Excerpt: ... Background According to the operative Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), defendant advertised its Apple TV 2.0 and 3.0 products as having “HD” or high definition capabilities, when in fact the devices' performance did not meet the industry‐accepted definition of HD, developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (“ATSC”). Specifically, Apple did not disclose that Apple TV 2.0 “only supported the H.264 codec with a Main Pro...

Excerpt: ...quently filed doe amendments naming, among others, defendant Cushman & Wakefield of California, Inc. (“CWCI”), who was the property manager at the campus. CWCI filed a cross‐complaint asserting causes of action against cross‐defendants DoorKing, Inc. (“DoorKing”), Nortek Security & Control (“Nortek”), and Able Engineering Services, Inc. (“Able”) for equitable indemnity, contribution, declaratory relief, and negligence. CWCI ad...

Excerpt: ... ¶9.) At the time of said breach, defendant Chea owed the sum of $9,996.55 demand for which was made on September 10, 2015 and remains unpaid. (Complaint, ¶10.) Plaintiff Retirement Security Investment Group LLC (“RSIG”) acquired a debt portfolio from Cherrywood Enterprises, LLC consisting of personal loan debt. (Complaint, ¶6.) Plaintiff RSIG is a third party debt buyer and the holder of that certain debt portfolio defined as the Cash Cal...

Excerpt: ...Realty Investments, Inc., dba Insight Realty Company (“Insight”) and its manager and co‐founder Vincent Woo (“Woo”) (collectively “Defendants”) arises from Defendants' purported scheme to destroy Plaintiffs' business. According to the allegations of the First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), Plaintiffs were in negotiations to purchase real property in downtown Mountain View from Kent Yu (“Yu Transaction”). (FAC at ¶ 14.) Plaintif...

Excerpt: ...ages. The Cross‐ Complaint was deemed filed as of January 23, 2018 by order of the Court (Hon. Pierce). The only copy of the Cross‐Complaint existing in the Court's file is a copy of the then proposed cross‐complaint attached as exhibit A to the November 27, 2017 declaration of Blue Shield counsel Craig Rutenberg in support of the motion for leave to file a cross‐complaint. The Cross‐Complaint states five causes of action: 1) Breach of ...

Excerpt: ...to the Shadafni Action, defendants Sharon Ajlouni and Karen Ajlouni (collectively, “Ajlounis”) filed a lawsuit against Hawari, Searles and SCI in Santa Clara County Superior Court, case number 1‐13‐CV‐242018 (“Ajlouni Action”). (Complaint, ¶¶6 – 8.) Defendant Michael Prozan (“Prozan”), a California licensed attorney, represented Shadafni and the Ajlounis in their respective actions against Hawari and others. (Complaint, ¶¶...

Excerpt: ...d that Defendant had a 50% ownership interest, Katherine Lee had a 10% interest, Jannelle Yoon had a 15% interest, Peter Lee had a 10% interest and Plaintiff had a 10% interest. (See complaint, ¶ 9.) The agreement also prohibited the transfer or disposition of any interest of the subject property without written consent of all parties. (See complaint, ¶ 10.) In early 2016, Defendant informed his other siblings that he had sold the subject prope...

Excerpt: ... Both motions are GRANTED. The Court finds the objections asserted are not supported, and that the responses are not responsive and do not comply with the requirements of Code of Civil Procedure §§2031.210‐2031.250. The moving papers establish good cause for production of the requested documents under §2031.310(b). Verified further responses which comply with §§2031.210‐2031.250 must be served by Arriaga (Line 4) and by Arriaga & Associa...

Excerpt: ...entered into an agreement with after the merger with Aemetis was terminated. As alleged in the third amended complaint (“TAC”), Edeniq was formed in 2008 and is the inventor and exclusive licensor of valuable technology that converts corn fiber into cellulosic ethanol. (TAC, ¶ 8.) This technology would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) but Edeniq was consistently unab...

Excerpt: ...es I”), Acuity Ventures II, LLC (“Ventures II”), Eric Hardgrave (“Hardgrave”), and Larry Hootnick (“Hootnick”).2 Plaintiffs allege the Management Company, a general partner of the Partnership, as well as Ventures I and Ventures II were formed for the purpose of early‐stage investment in technology companies. They claim Hardgrave defrauded them into investing in these venture funds and that he and Hootnick thereafter mismanaged the...

Excerpt: ...he purchase of a home. According to the allegations of the FAC, Plaintiff has difficulty understanding and managing his own financial affairs and therefore his son and daughter‐in‐law, Defendants, offered to help him purchase a home. (FAC, ¶ 1.) On March 24, 2011, Plaintiff and Defendants purchased a residential property (the “Property”) located in Gilroy. (Id., ¶ 2.) When the Property was purchased, title was taken by the parties as jo...

Excerpt: ...Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) of plaintiffs Julio Mendoza (“Mendoza”) and Charise Cass (“Cass”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”). Factual and Procedural Background This action arises out of the nonjudicial foreclosure sale of real property located at 21435 Madrone Drive, Los Gatos, CA 95033 (“Property”). Plaintiffs originally acquired the Property when they were married. (SAC at ¶¶ 1 and 7.) They allege that the Property is, ...

Excerpt: ...ted on Mr. Usher's hand using a “MANOS device” “for a carpal tunnel repair.” (Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) at pp. 4, 6.) Plaintiffs allege Dr. Yeh did not adequately disclose information about the MANOS device or his experience and skill using it. (SAC at pp. 6‐7.) Additionally, during the surgery, Dr. Yeh severed Mr. Usher's median nerve. (SAC at p. 4.) Subsequently, Mr. Usher told Dr. Yeh he had been experiencing “more pain ...

Excerpt: ...n Santa Clara County Superior Court, case number 1‐11‐CV‐193356 (“Underlying Action”). (Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), ¶6.) Deer Crest owned a condominium project in Utah. (Id.) Pursuant to a July 1, 2005 construction contract between Deer Crest and Silver Creek Development Group, LLC (“Silver Creek”), Silver Creek agreed to perform certain construction of the condominium project. (Id.) Granum Partners executed a written gua...

Excerpt: ...�FAC”), Plaintiff purchased an automobile with financing from Patelco and insurance from FLIA. At the time of purchase, FLIA provided assurances that it would pay for repairs falling within the scope of the insurance. Subsequently, the vehicle needed repairs and Plaintiff contacted FLIA to determine which repair shop would be covered by his insurance. FLIA stated Plaintiff could take the vehicle to a servicer of his choice and it would cover th...

Excerpt: ...95.18. On Grimley's claim form, he indicated that he was filing his claim “[i]n response to a judicial petition for forfeiture” and not “[i]n response to notice of administrative proceedings.” (Claim at p. 1.) But Grimley's claim form was the first paper filed in this proceeding; there was no pending petition.2 In November 2017, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office (the “DA”) filed a petition for forfeiture pursuant to He...

Excerpt: ... Shulmans are the current owners of 95 Mount Vernon Lane in Atherton (“Replacement Residence”). (Id.) Defendant RFBPO LLC (“LLC”) purchased the Original Residence on October 8, 2013 for $14 million dollars. (FAC, ¶¶4 and 9.) Defendant Santa Clara County Assessor's Office assessed the Original Residence value at $4.86 million dollars. (FAC, ¶4.) LLC is controlled and/or owned by Mark Zuckerberg (“Zuckerberg”), founder of Facebook. (...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiff's summons and complaint is DENIED. “A defendant is under no duty to respond in any way to a defectively served summons. It makes no difference that defendant had actual knowledge of the action. Such knowledge does not dispense with statutory requirements for service of summons.” (Weil & Brown et al., CAL. PRAC. GUIDE: CIV. PROC. BEFORE TRIAL (The Rutter Group 2018) ¶4:414, p. 4‐69 citing Kappel v. Bartlett (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 1...

Excerpt: ...erted therein. Defendants' requests for judicial notice are GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. While the Court may properly take judicial notice of the Complaint as a court document pursuant to Evidence Code section 452, subdivision (d), it may not properly take judicial notice of the existence of a contract between private parties. (Gould v. Maryland Sound Industries, Inc. (1995) 31 Cal.App.4th 1137, 1145.) The requests are GRANTED as to Exhibi...

Excerpt: ... (See complaint, ¶ 12.) However, Novinium failed to accurately measure the length of the cables by 28%, and, in an attempt to complete the project on time, Novinium increased the injection pressure to 60 psi, double the maximum pressure provided by Novinium's documented injection procedures. (See complaint, ¶¶ 17‐20.) Moreover, Novinium reused ground clamps, improperly mixed or used defective injection fluids, and prematurely capped the cabl...

Excerpt: ...es paramedical examination services in the State of California, and A.P.P.S. of California is a related entity. (Class Action Complaint, ¶¶ 9‐10.) In October 2015, defendants hired plaintiff as a Medical Examiner to conduct medical exams for life insurance applications. (Id. at ¶ 7.) Plaintiff was classified as an independent contractor and compensated on a piece‐rate basis for her work. (Ibid.) She alleges that she and other members of th...

Excerpt: ...l his termination on August 7, 2017, and was a Senior Software Engineer at its Mountain View campus. (First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), ¶ 12.) Plaintiff David Gudeman was also a Software Engineer at Google from 2013 until his termination in December 2016. (Id. at ¶ 13.) Plaintiff Manuel Amador worked for Google in San Francisco beginning in 2013, then transferred to its Zurich, Switzerland offices. (Id. at ¶ 14.) He unsuccessfully reapplied...

Excerpt: ...ust 15, 2016 to February 20, 2017. (Id. at ¶ 4.) He alleges that his wage statements failed to specify the hourly rates and number of hours worked for the “Premium Pay‐Hourly,” which was listed as a lump sum. (Id. at ¶ 17.) Plaintiff filed this action on May 11, 2017, asserting claims for (1) violation of Labor Code section 226 and (2) penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). The parties have reached a settlement. P...

Excerpt: ...tive class action for recovery of penalties under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004. Plaintiff Eva Sharp (“Plaintiff”) worked as a cashier for defendant Safeway, Inc. (“Defendant”) in California. (Complaint, ¶¶ 3‐4.) Plaintiff alleges Defendant failed to provide Plaintiff and the other putative class members with seats. (Complaint, ¶ 17.) Now before the Court is Plaintiff's motion for class certification...

Excerpt: ... Department 5. The Court now issues its tentative ruling as follows: I. INTRODUCTION This is a putative class action arising out of various alleged Labor Code violations. The Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), filed on October 20, 2017, sets forth the following causes of action: (1) Unfair Competition in Violation of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200, et seq.; (2) Unfair Competition in Violation of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200, et seq.; (3)...

Excerpt: ...ushnell's (“Nancy”) husband, Nolan Bushnell (“Nolan”).1 (First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), ¶ 8.) Nancy owned real property located in Sunnyvale, California (“Property”) with her brother, plaintiff Robert Nino (“Nino”). (FAC, ¶ 10.) Nancy's interest in the Property “was her separate property, and not part of community property she shares with Nolan.” (Ibid.) At some unidentified time, Nancy and Nino (collectively, “Plain...

Excerpt: ...riage on September 15, 1996. (FAC, ¶12.) After marriage, Plaintiff and Defendant continued to reside together as husband and wife until March 6, 2016. (FAC, ¶13.) On or about February 1, 1992, Plaintiff and Defendant entered into an oral agreement by which they agreed to treat as joint property the earnings, income and all property acquired therewith, which resulted from all personal service, skill, effort, work, monetary contribution and non�...

Excerpt: ...to assist plaintiff Yum in applying for and obtaining a modification of the first and second deeds of trust recorded against plaintiff Yum's property. (SAC, ¶8.) Defendant Yum verbally represented that he and/or defendants Nexus Line Inc. and Nexus Homes Inc. (collectively, “Nexus”) could obtain or provide plaintiff with a loan modification and prevent or stop any foreclosure of plaintiff's property, and that he had performed the same servic...

Excerpt: ...rn Tool”). Cruz asserts causes of action for premises liability and negligence against Medina and the property owners for whom he provided landscaping services. Additionally, and as relevant here, Cruz asserts a products liability claim against Northern Tool. Cruz's third cause of action for products liability consists of three separately identified counts for strict products liability, negligence, and breach of warranty. Northern Tool moves fo...

Excerpt: ...r 24, 2002, plaintiff Leire Funk aka Leire Ferro (“Plaintiff”) and her ex‐husband, Rick Funk, financed real property located at 172 French Court in San Jose, California (“Subject Property”). (Third Amended Complaint [“TAC”] at ¶ 17.) As evidence of the loan, Plaintiff executed a promissory note (“Note”) and concurrently executed a Deed of Trust as security for the Note. (Ibid.) The Deed of Trust for the Subject Property was rec...

Excerpt: ...at this late date, to add a wholly new cause of action for alleged violation of Labor Code §1197.5 (the California Equal Pay Act). Plaintiff's supporting declaration does not fully and satisfactorily address any of the factors enumerated in California Rules of Court, rule 3.1324(b). Defendants' Request for Judicial Notice is granted. The Court agrees with defendants' arguments that the proposed new cause of action would add significant new factu...

Excerpt: ...�� or that any mistakes were made. As noted in the Court's most recent order denying Plaintiff's motion for leave to amend, Plaintiff's proposed amended complaint did not address the defects that the Court found in the prior complaints, and otherwise did not state any valid claim against Defendant. Plaintiff argues that the Court should have granted her leave to amend, and suggests that reconsideration is appropriate, but has not filed any proper...

Excerpt: ...s Plaintiffs' mother resided at the Terraces of Los Gatos from April 2015 until shortly before her death in April 2017. Plaintiffs allege Defendants repeatedly failed to provide their mother with adequate medical care, especially after she fell and fractured her hip in October 2016. For example, in April 2015, Plaintiffs' mother had a stroke and lost her sight during breakfast, but Defendants' employees failed to call for emergency medical care a...

Excerpt: ...e instant special motion to strike the Complaint in its entirety, which Plaintiff opposes.1 I. Defendant's Motion to Strike Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 provides a summary procedure by which defendants may dispose of “strategic lawsuits against public participation” or “SLAPP” lawsuits, i.e., lawsuits brought “primarily to chill the valid exercise of constitutional rights of freedom of speech and petition for redress of grieva...

Excerpt: ...ty property – where the Second Amended Complaint is not verified, and plaintiff fails to present any admissible evidence from which the court can determine the probable validity of any real property claim. §405.38 commands “the court shall direct that the party prevailing on any motion under this chapter be awarded the reasonable attorney's fees and costs of making or opposing the motion...”. (Emphasis added.) As the court does not find on...

Excerpt: ...ll claims handling policy and/or procedure manuals, and all other DOCUMENTS, emails, bulletins, or other WRITINGS relating to policies or procedures relating to the handling of claims for liability coverage under liability insurance policies issued by NACIC.” In its response, NACIC objected, on the grounds that the information sought was protected by the attorney client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine, trade secret, and that the r...

Excerpt: ...ermal Partners, L.P.; Calpine Sonoma, Inc.; Calpine Geysers Company, L.P.; Geysers Power I Company; Geysers Power Company, LLC; and Calpine Corporation (“Calpine”) (collectively “Defendants”). Calpine is the successor‐in‐interest to Freeport and the remaining defendants are all subsidiaries of Calpine. As alleged in the Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), in May 1987, SAI Geothermal, Inc. (“SAI”) and Freeport entered into an agr...