Excerpt: ...al.App.4th 873, 885. Additionally, attorneys hired by a trustee to aid the trust are entitled to reasonable fees paid from the trust assets (Kasperbauer v. Fairfield (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 229, 235) and the Court has inherent equitable authority to sanction a beneficiary when the beneficiary brings or maintains an unfounded suit against the trustee. (Emphasis the Court's.) Here Petitioner and her counsel, in failing to notify Respondents that Pet...

Excerpt: ...ive conduct, irrespective of whether such communications may be barred from imposing liability as a matter of affirmative defense. (Shade Foods v. Innovative Products Sales & Marketing (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 847, 915, 93 C.R.2d 364 [litigation privilege did not bar introduction of evidence involving settlement offers or answers to interrogatories to prove bad faith in action against insurer].)” (5 Witkin, Summary 11th Torts § 660 (2021); see al...

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: ...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: ...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: ... 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: ...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: ... 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: ...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: ...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 ...

Excerpt: ...t. (Code Civ. Proc. §871.10(d).) However, the Court finds that the provisions of Code Civ. Proc. §871.10(e) apply to the above-described claim, such that after submission of the amended pleading the action must be stayed until November 1, 2021 as required by that statute. The motion is DENIED as against Defendant Cuevas. To the extent that the proposed amended pleading seeks to add a new defendant who was not previously included as a named or f...

Excerpt: ...Set One to Paula Roberts – Nos. 1-5 - GRANTED. 5. Form Interrogatories - General, Set One to Paula Roberts – Nos. 8.2 – 8.7 - DENIED. Counsel shall serve further code compliant responses to the requests for production of documents and special interrogatories not later than August 13, 2021. Discovery is supposed to be self-executing. The Court notes a more productive and civil “meet and confer” process would likely have prevented the nee...

Excerpt: ...ply is limited to rebuttal of the opposition by its very nature. As such, without good cause and leave of court, new facts or evidence are not within the scope of a reply. Other procedural mechanisms exist for this purpose and, in this regard, the Court has granted the parties' stipulation to continue the trial date with a limited re-opening of discovery. Presumably, if the facts and evidence so warrant, Defendant will avail itself of the appropr...

Excerpt: ... acquired].) Further, the complaint alleges all three statutory grounds. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1240.030; Complaint, ¶ 6-11.) Accordingly, the general demurrer is overruled. With respect to the special demurrer for uncertainty, the Possession & Use Agreement (agreement) explicitly contained an understanding that the “purpose of this Agreement is to allow [Plaintiff] to proceed with construction and operation of the Rail Facilities on the Parcel ...

Excerpt: ...d facts, Nos. 34 – 37, raise further triable issues of material fact. Moving party's evidentiary objections to opposing party's evidence are overruled: the Court sees no basis for requiring expert witness testimony as to non-scientific and non-technical matters of identifying products and components within the personal knowledge of the affiant; photographs of the subject chair and the component catalog are non-testimonial and have independent l...

Excerpt: ...r justification that such expenses were reasonable and necessary. (Ripley v. Pappadopoulos (1994) 23 Cal.App.4th 1616, 1621; cf., Foothill-De Anza Community College Dist. v. Emerich (2007) 158 Cal.App.4th 11, 30 [overnight messenger fees recoverable if reasonable and necessary].) The Court denies the motion to tax deposition costs in the amount of $866.60. The Bankruptcy proceeding in which the examination and transcript were obtained was directl...

Excerpt: ... face of the pleading or matters judicially noticed]; Deyo v Kilbourne (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 771, 779 n2; Weil & Brown, Cal. Prac. Guide Civ. Pro. Before Trial (TRG 2021) Ch. 7(I)-B, § 7:169 [defendant cannot base a motion to strike the complaint on affidavits or declarations containing extrinsic evidence].) The Court grants Plaintiffs' request for judicial notice pursuant to Evidence Code section 452, subdivision (d), as unopposed and without ob...

Excerpt: ...l rationale adopted by the Court in ruling that non-signatory enforcement of the arbitration agreement will be granted, and that such a bifurcated scope would entail a substantial risk of inconsistent, conflicting or even contradictory decisions between those claims decided by the arbitrator and those decided by the trier of fact in this case. (Jenks v. DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP (2015) 243 Cal.App.4th 1, 11; Marenco v. DirecTV LLC (2015)...

Excerpt: ...vil complaints filed in other cases are sustained and the Court did not consider them. 1. Disability Discrimination in Violation of FEHA (First Cause of Action); Retaliation (Fourth and Seventh Causes of Action); Failure to Prevent Discrimination/Retaliation (Fifth Cause of Action); Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy (Eighth Cause of Action) Both discrimination and retaliation claims are analyzed using the McDonnell Douglas shifti...

Excerpt: ... for Failure to Provide Meal Periods – STAYED. a) and b) Plaintiff's Third Amended Complaint specifically alleges alter-ego and successor-in-interest theories and alleges that SEG assumed all of the liabilities arising out IOT's employees' employment. The Asset Purchase identified specific contracts which were not be assumed but the Arbitration Agreement is not identified as an excluded contract. Rather, the employment contracts and liabilities...

Excerpt: ...djudication as to the Second Cause of Action for general negligence based on premises liability is DENIED. Taking all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party, Shooter Farms has failed to provide sufficient foundation as to the industry standard. While Wendel Trinkler, Jr. has been a farmer for over 30 years, conditioning the almond harvest was “new” to him. (Plaintiff's Material Fact #12.) There are triable issues of material f...

Excerpt: ...s suspension, allowing Mr. Wallace to return to work in the same unit as Plaintiff was appropriate, particularly when coupled with the threatening phone call Plaintiff received the same as Mr. Wallace's return and Mr. Wallace's subsequent allegedly intentional bumping into Plaintiff while Plaintiff was with a patient. (Disputed Fact #16, Plaintiff's Additional Fact #1, 7.) Summary Adjudication as to the Second Cause of Action for Sex Discriminati...

Excerpt: ...llows: “Real property claim means the cause or causes of action in a pleading which would, if meritorious, affect (a) title to, or the right of possession of, specific real property … .” The courts who have construed this definition have explained that a lis pendens may not be recorded in a creditor's action to impose a constructive trust or equitable lien on real property solely as a means of enforcing a debt. See e.g. Urez v. Superior Cou...

Excerpt: ...pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure 1008, which requires new facts and/or new law. Plaintiff argues that an amended complaint provides new facts. Even if that were the standard, Plaintiff has not attached a proposed amended complaint. Therefore, at the time of Plaintiff's Motion for Reconsideration, there are no new facts or law for the Court to reconsider.” ...