Excerpt: ...; d) Plaintiff's Motion for an Order Deeming the Truth of Facts and Matters in Requests for Admission, Set One, Propounded to Defendant, Maria Islas; Request for Monetary Sanctions of $3,035 – Motions (a.), (b.) and (c.)—GRANTED, in part; CONTINUED, in part; Motion (d.)—CONTINUED, on the Court's motion. With regard to motions (a.), (b.) and (c.), Defendant Islas is ordered to provide complete and verified responses without objections other ...

Excerpt: ...ws: 1. Judge Howard Broadman (ret) is appointed as referee for all purposes related to discovery in this action. Judge Broadman's address and telephone number are as follows: 300 N. Willis Street, Visalia CA 93291 (559) 738-1800. 2. The following exceptional circumstances require this appointment: The parties' continual pursuit of numerous, time-consuming motions related to discovery issues throughout the pendency of the matter; the demonstrated ...

Excerpt: ...fails to allege sufficient facts to support the stated claim, and this argument is more appropriately raised on demurrer. (Code Civ. Proc. §430.10(e).) However, the Court also has authority to consider such a motion as a judgment on the pleadings under such circumstances. (Pierson v. Sharp Memorial Hospital Inc. (1989) 216 Cal.App.3d 340, 342-343.) In either case, the Court finds that Defendants have failed to demonstrate that the challenged cla...

Excerpt: ...nicate with all necessary parties and no discussion could occur because the attorney who was contacted was on vacation. (Code Civ. Proc., § 2034.250, subd. (a).) In part because of the weakness of the meet and confer efforts and in part because of the rest of the factors discussed below, the court finds there is “good cause” to alter the expert witness designation dates set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 2034.230, subdivision (b). ...

Excerpt: ...s discovered that its ruling on the motion concerning the responses to Requests for Admissions, Set Two was incomplete and requires correction. Specifically, the Court's denial of the motion was intended to be directed only to Requests 20-23 and 35. While the motion also sought to compel further responses to Requests 36-47, the ruling was not directed at those requests and was incomplete in that regard. Therefore, the Court finds that the relief ...

Excerpt: ...terrogatories 16.2 – 16.5 and rules as follows: Plaintiff has demonstrated that Defendant's responses do not comply with the requirements of Code Civ. Proc. §2030.220. Despite the possibility that later-acquired discovery may further inform and support Defendant's contentions in the case, the Code requires that the responding party provide responses that are as complete as possible based on the information that is reasonably available. Therefo...

Excerpt: ...ry. (Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 3.1345(a)(1)-(5), (b).) The Court sees no purpose to its utilization here and this objection is overruled. The subject discovery consists of 424 separate Requests for Admissions, Form Interrogatory 17.1 that, itself, contains three subparts for facts, witnesses and documents, and a blanket Request for Production for any and all documents identified in 17.1. The end result is that the propounding party is effectively s...

Excerpt: ...See, e.g., Orcilla v. Big Sur, Inc. (2016) 244 Cal.App.4th 982, 1008 [“Each element of a fraud claim must be pleaded with specificity.”]; Carter v. Prime Healthcare Paradise Valley LLC (2011) 198 Cal.App.4th 396, 410 [elder abuse must be pled with specificity because it is a statutory cause of action.) “‘The specificity requirement means a plaintiff must allege facts showing how, when, where, to whom, and by what means the representations...

Excerpt: ...e parties appear to be in agreement that responses to certain of the requests at issue turn on the implementation of a stipulated protective order regarding the nature of the materials to be disclosed; therefore, they are instructed to continue their efforts to reach a resolution of this issue which may, in turn, resolve certain of the arguments herein. Moreover, Defendant has demonstrated that some of the requests at issue have not previously be...

Excerpt: ...d Banke were not employees or agents of the hospital during the time period at issue in this action; (2) That the staff employed by the hospital met the standard of care in their treatment of Plaintiff; and (3) That no act or omission of the staff employed by the hospital caused or contributed to the injuries claimed by Plaintiff. The burden then shifts to Plaintiff to submit admissible evidence demonstrating the existence of triable factual disp...

Excerpt: ...September 2018 for purposes of Code of Civil Procedure section 761.020, subdivision (d). Because the other causes of action are valid and because plaintiff alleges the acts of which he complains were performed in conjunction with a licensed realty transaction, the court overrules the demurrer to the fourth cause of action under Business and Professions Code section 17200, as well. ...

Excerpt: ...UMF 3.) Plaintiff sustained serious burn injuries when he picked up the burning frying pan with his bare hands and took the pan outside. Plaintiff's Complaint alleges two causes of action against moving defendants: general negligence, and premises liability. Premises liability is a specific form of negligence: the owner of premises is under a duty to exercise ordinary care in the management of such premises in order to avoid exposing persons to a...

Excerpt: ...t Law, Set One, and Request for Production of Documents, Set One; and Request for Monetary Sanctions – a) GRANTED, in part. The order to compel responses to the subject discovery without waived objections is granted. Defendant shall serve responses without the asserted objections within ten (10) days of this order. In light of Defendant's filed Notice of Non-Opposition, the amount of sanctions awarded will be reduced to Six Hundred Twenty-Five ...

Excerpt: ...ure to respond to discovery was “willful” (see, e.g., Doppes v. Bentley Motors, Inc. (2009) 174 Cal.App.4th 967, 994), or that an order dismissing the complaint would not “go further than is necessary to accomplish the purpose of discovery.” (Newland v. Superior Court (1995) 40 Cal.App.4th 608, 613). The request for terminating sanctions is therefore DENIED. The court orders plaintiff to reimburse defendant Janelle Lynn Clowers the $300 p...

Excerpt: ... documents in support of the Defendant's own affirmative defenses and that Defendant's investigation is “ongoing.” (Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. LCL Adm'rs, Inc. (2008) 163 Cal.App.4th 1093.) Accordingly, Plaintiff's motion is granted, in part, and Defendant shall provide further substantive responses within two (2) weeks of this Order. That said, no opposition was filed, Plaintiff did not file a reply, and Defendant's counsel of ...

Excerpt: ...ir names removed from the CACI under the traditional mandamus statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 1085. “ 'To obtain [this type of] relief, a petitioner must demonstrate (1) no “plain, speedy, and adequate” alternative remedy exists [citation]; (2) ‘‘ ‘a clear, present ... ministerial duty on the part of the respondent' '' ; and (3) a correlative ‘ '‘clear, present and beneficial right in the petitioner to the performance of ...

Excerpt: ...7 Cal.4th 1097, 1104–1105 [recognizing that FEHA exemption of religious/non-profit entities does not preclude public policy claim under Cal. Const., art. I, sec. 8]; Phillips v. St. Mary Regional Medical Center (2002) 96 Cal.App.4th 218, 232–233 [trial court erred in sustaining defendant's demurrer as to plaintiff's wrongful termination claim based on defendant's retaliation in violation of Section 8's policy against race and sex discriminati...

Excerpt: ...is reviewed de novo. (Gerwig v. Gordon (2021) 61 Cal.App.5th 59.) The Court addresses the legal contentions first. Petitioner's Objection to Mr. Keokot's Testimony on the Second Blood Test is SUSTAINED. The same objection was raised at the administrative hearing and overruled. The Hearing Officer's ruling was a harmless error. In Borger v. DMV (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 1118, the Court held that testimony that a blood-alcohol testing instrument with ...

Excerpt: ... of jurisdiction prevents this Court from adjudicating the matters stated therein. In addition, the pleading fails to state facts constituting a cause of action and is uncertain. (Code Civ. Proc. §§430.10(c),(e),(f).) Under the circumstances, and in view of the lack of opposition, it is clear that Plaintiff is unable to amend her claim to state a viable cause of action herein. Therefore, the demurrer is SUSTAINED, without leave to amend. 2. The...

Excerpt: ...oner filed this motion. It is inappropriate to submit additional material related to a matter under submission without leave of court. Further, although filed prior to any announcement of the Court's decision, Petitioner's motion appears to be a veiled motion for reconsideration. Simply put – the law does not authorize Petitioner's motion. Although the Court considered making an additional award of attorneys' fees and costs to Respondents for b...

Excerpt: ...se as available dates. 2. GRANTED as to the Belaire-West Notice for RFP 10: the disputed sentence shall state “You have no obligation to speak with the attorneys for Plaintiff or Defendant.” The cases Defendant cites are not precisely applicable, and the objected-to line does not say that employees have no obligation to speak to their employer generally. McGrory v. Applied Signal Technology Inc. (2013) 212 Cal.App.4 th 1510 relates to Cal. Go...

Excerpt: ...th Causes of Action and has identified material factual disputes with regard to the elements of each of the challenged claims, i.e. whether her termination was substantially motivated by discriminatory and/or retaliatory animus under FEHA and/or CFLA; whether Defendant's attendance policies interfered with Plaintiff's rights under CFRA, and whether Defendant's termination of Plaintiff violated public policy as a result of unlawful acts under FEHA...

Excerpt: ...in part; MOOT, in part. a)While Defendant has demonstrated that Plaintiffs failed to appear for their properly noticed depositions, the motion fails to comply with Code Civ. Proc. §2025.450(b)(2) in that Defendant does not demonstrate any efforts to contact Plaintiffs' counsel to discuss the non-appearances. Therefore, the motion is DENIED. Counsel are admonished regarding the Court's disfavor for the practice of resorting to law and motion proc...

Excerpt: ...to “meaningfully separate the attorney's fees incurred in litigating contractual claims from the attorney's fees incurred in litigating the inverse condemnation claim,” as required by both Carter and the court that heard defendants' appeal from the original attorney fees order. (See, e.g., (City of Patterson v. Patterson Hotel Associates (Jan. 11, 2019, No. F074038) at *7 [nonpub. opn.]).) Plaintiff has therefore failed to meet its burden on ...

Excerpt: ...gligence. (Pultz v. Holgerson (1986) 184 Cal.App.3d 1110, 1117 [property owner's duty inferred from assertion that defendant owned and managed property]; 4 Witkin, Cal.Proc.5th (2020) § 580.) Here, the complaint contains a single cause of action for premises liability. Defendant is not alleged to be negligent solely on the basis of ownership, but also on the basis that it negligently “maintained, managed and operated” said premises. But the ...