Excerpt: ... The Court observes that transcripts from proceedings in Los Angeles County are of no use with one exception. Theydemonstrate how frustrated and impatient other trial judges get with these repetitive discovery motions in LemonLawcases that never change. That is, the same issues get relitigated again and again with the same tiresome argumentsand boilerplate objections. The separate statement in this case is 136 pages long. Who ever thought that a ...

Excerpt: ...of this motion only, UMF's 1,2 and 7 are undisputed and established. UMF's3,4,5,6,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,16 and 17 are disputed and not established. UMF 11 is moot. Defendants RJN is granted. Plaintiff's evidentiary objections to the Lewin and Marina Reingold declarations are sustained in their entirety. Theobjections to the Leon Reingold declaration are sustained except to objection 15. Objections to the Barry Schehr declaration are overruled. Objec...

Excerpt: .../18/2022 A few preliminary observations: (1) The size of the settlement does not drive the allowable attorneys fees. Feeprovisions are often crafted to encourage lawyers to take meritorious cases even though the potential recoveryismodest; (2) Time in practice is not necessarily an accurate barometer of an attorney's skill level. Some attorneys donot improve with time. Others pick it up very quickly; (3) The local legal market and the trial judge...

Excerpt: ...ntiff argues that intentional conduct automatically allows a prayer for punitive damages. This is incorrect. Punitivedamages require a pleading of conduct that is malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent. That is not present here. What ispresent is an employment dispute, but the conduct attributed to Thacher is not of a quality that equals malicious, oppressive or fraudulent. ...

Excerpt: ...ng. The moving papers establish that Mr. Papetti is over 70, andsuffers from metastatic lung cancer that will kill him in a matter of months. The Court has little discretioniscircumstances such as this. The Court's intention is to set the case at the outer edge of the 120 day window, but alsotomake case management orders to control discovery such that no one's due process rights get trampled on. Is this goingto keep people busy? Yes, but sometime...

Excerpt: ...ss complaint of Mark alleging that they have a liability to Mr. Sims based on their acceptance of funds from Reno Rolle which Simscontends were unlawfully used to pay his Amex bill and his residential mortgage. Sims has alleged that Amex andSelect both had "knowledge" of the tainted character of the funds when they accepted them from Rolle. The tentative ruling is yo sustain both demurrers with leave to amend. A demurrer accepts as true all well ...

Excerpt: ... complex and its management company for damages resulting from a personal injuryresulting from00000 trip and fall. The management company (Sares) has cross‐complained against the apartment complex (The Knolls) for implied indemnity, express indemnity contribution, declaratory relief and the duty to defend. The apartment complex demurrers. The demurrers for uncertainty are overruled. This is a disfavored ground for a demurrer. The cross‐compla...

Excerpt: ...re. Alter ego ‐ Paragraphs 9‐11 allege alter ego so as to include defendant Brodsly as an individually responsible personfor the termination of plaintiff Stephen Walsh. These alter ego allegations are insufficient. See Rutherford v. PlazaDel Rey at 223 Cal.App.4th 221, 235. There it was sufficient to allege that defendant Caswell dominated and controlleddefendant PDR; that there was a unity of ownership and interest; that PDR was a mere shell...

Excerpt: ...compel further response. The interrogatories in question ask for the location of video cameras. Nowplaintiff wants video footage. They are two very different things. . Defendant has provided footage of plaintiff's fall. Theneed for additional footage is not adequately explained. Moreover, the request is not tailored to the area where plaintiff fell (or where she says she had been before her injury). Defendant makes a valid objection of proprietar...

Excerpt: ...cause "reasonable" conduct is typically a contested issue of fact, and one which cannot be resolved on affidavits. Here, defendant sustains its initial burden with the declaration of Robert Griswold who states that "industry standards" allow for a parking bumper to be located between two parking slots. Plaintiff, however, rebuts this with the declarationof its expert, Mark Burns, who offers ASTM standard 1367‐10, section 9.4 stating that the bu...

Excerpt: ...basisfor declining to enforce it. The provisions are satisfactory. It is a contract of adhesion. That does not mean, however, that it should be disregarded. It provides for discovery and judicial review of any award. There is no evidence of defendant being a "repeat player" with ADR. The is no credible evidence of waiver from the circumstances presented. This casewas filed on 10/25/21. The motion to compel arbitration was filed December 6th. That...

Excerpt: ...nd cause of actionfor specific performance, the third cause of action for an accounting, and the fourth cause of action for breach of contract. It is sustained with leave to amend as to the fifth cause of action for breach of a fiduciary duty. The motion to strikeisdenied. This is a demurrer. It is a pleading challenge, and the Court is limited in its examination to the allegations within thefour corners of the complaint. It does not matter that ...

Excerpt: ...nts Sherwood Development and Sherwood Valley HOA's request for judicial notice is granted. (Evidence Codesection 452 (d)). Judicial notice is taken of Defendants; Exhibits A and B. The motion for Judgment on the Pleadings is granted in part. The motion is granted without leave to amend as tothefirst cause of action for prescriptive easement, the second cause of action for preliminary and permanent injunctionanddamages (prescriptive easements) and...

Excerpt: ... is a dog bite case wherein a dog owned by a tenant bit the plaintiff/mailman. A landlord's liability requires that thelandlord have actual knowledge of the vicious propensity of a tenant's dog before the landlord can be held responsible. Defendants Marlynn and Lamar Bushnell have denied having any such actual knowledge. That denial is sufficient toshift the burden to the plaintiff to demonstrate a triable issue as to that fact. Plaintiff argues ...

Excerpt: ...that moving defendants did not own the subject area, and Plaintiff does not allege that theypossessed or controlled the area (see FAC, paragraphs 5‐8). Plaintiff asserts that defendants owed a legal dutytomaintain in a reasonably safe condition the brick area adjacent to their property, pursuant to the City's Municipal Codesection 7‐3.19 as well as the Streets and Highway Code. Plaintiff does not cite to a specific provision of the Streets an...

Excerpt: ...murrer, 09/07/2021 stolo Demurrer by City to Plaintiff's Complaint. Sustain without leave the demurrers to the 2nd and 3rd causes of action (trespass and Negligence). Plaintiff alleges that his injury was caused by the conduct of public employees. Government Code 840 says that such employees are immune from liability. If they are, so is the City. This is counter‐intuitive, but is supported by Longfellow v. County of SLO, 144 Cal.App.3d 379. Ove...

Excerpt: ...tolo Kia Demurrers to the third and sixth causes of action in Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint. The demurrers are overruled. Plaintiff has sufficiently amended his complaint to get past a demurrer. Kia demurs to the third (Civil Code section 1793.2(a)(3)) and sixth (fraud) causes of action based on the applicable statutes of limitation. Plaintiff alleges with reasonable specificity facts indicating that he (a) did not discover the subject engi...

Excerpt: ...rruled. This is a disfavored ground for demurrer, and is better addressed by he demurrers to the specific causes of action based on failure to state a cause of action. The first cause of action is for violation of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act. The tentative is to sustain this demurrer without leave to amend. Plaintiff fails to allege facts indicating that Affordable Collision Center violated the listed subsections of Civil Code section 1770(a...

Excerpt: ...ton demurrers to the cross‐complaint of Port 121. 1st C/A (equitable implied indemnity) ‐ Sustain with leave to amend. Port 121 has not alleged any facts showing what DR Horton did. The allegation that Horton had a duty to create a "negligent free easement" is borderline nonsensical ("negligence" is conduct, what is a "negligent free easement), and does not inform Horton what conduct is alleged to be negligent. 2nd C/A (apportionment and cont...

Excerpt: ...f their third cause of action for establishment of an equitable mortgage against defendants River Range and William Rheinschild. Plaintiff's complaint asserts the third cause of action against River Ridge and Does 21‐30. As such, the request for summary adjudication against Rheinschild is denied. Plaintiffs have established the necessary elements of an equitable mortgage which shifts the burden to River Range. River Range establishes that it ha...

Excerpt: ...on is for breach of contract. In an action for breach of contract, a party must plead the existence of a contract, his/her performance, the defendant's breach, and damages. Here, Plaintiff has alleged an offer in the form of a Preliminary Estimate, and acceptance in the form of the deposit check from the defendant. That is enough to allege a contract. Defendant's arguments go well beyond the allegations of the complaint, e.g. four estimates, the ...

Excerpt: ... were not parties to the contract as attached to the complaint. Use of the plural "defendants" does not create an individual liability. Directors and officers are not personally liable on contracts signed by them on behalf of a corporation unless there is a demonstrated intent to bind themselves personally. The 3rd cause of action is for unjust enrichment which the 2nd district/division 6 recognizes as a stand alone cause of action (some other di...

Excerpt: ...ch of fiduciary duty), 3rd c/a (B & P 6148), 4th c/a (concealment), and 8th c/a (unfair business practices). Sustain w/o leave as to 5th c/a (restitution, 6th c/a/ (declaratory relief), and 7th c/a/ (unjust enrichment). There are plenty of allegations sufficient to support 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 8th causes of action. This is a demurrer, and allegations control. What plaintiff can prove at trial is something else entirely. The restitution c/a see...

Excerpt: ...stolo Defendant demurrers to Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint. The demurrer for uncertainty is overruled. Demurrers for uncertainty are disfavored. The targeted causes of action are not so unintelligible that ACC does not know what they are being sued for. That is good enough to get past uncertainty, but not so the demurrers focused on specific causes of action. 4th cause of action for breach of contract and 5th cause of action for breach of i...

Excerpt: ...ompel, 10/26/2020 stolo These are preliminary thoughts. My workup is a work in progress. A RFA is not a discovery device in the same sense as an interrogatory or a RFP. The remedy by the aggrieved party is ultimately proving the stated matter at trial, and then asking for fees for having to go to the bother of having to prove what should have been admitted. The objection to admitting the authenticity of the policy seems foolish. Is there really a...