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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ... 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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ... ¶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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ...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: ... 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: ... (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: ...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: ...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: ...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...