Excerpt: ...assertion that they need not answer Form Interrogatory 216.1 for their denials of Plaintiff's material allegations because they filed a General Denial has merit. Defendants agreed to provide verified responses for their affirmative defenses. Defendants indicate that Plaintiff should have simply served specific contention interrogatories. The motion is granted because Defendants' legal position is without merit. Defendants stated in their Answer, ...

Excerpt: ...a] nonparty shall petition the court for leave to intervene by noticed motion or ex parte application." (CCP § 387(c).) "The petition shall include a copy of the proposed complaint in intervention or answer in intervention and set forth the grounds upon which intervention rests." (Id.) "The court shall, upon timely application, permit a nonparty to intervene in the action or proceeding if either of the following conditions is satisfied: (A) [a] ...

Excerpt: ...tore's ("Plaintiff") February 13, 2019 FAC states that he is the leaseholder of a unit at a commercial property in Oakland (the "Property"), and brings this action against Bay Dev, owner of the Property, and Parker, the managing member and principal owner of Bay Dev. In January 2010, Plaintiff entered into a rental agreement with the original owner of the Property for five years, with an option to renew for an additional five years on like terms ...

Excerpt: ...10(a); Holiday Matinee, Inc. v. Rambus, Inc. (2004) 118 Cal.App.4th 1413, 1421 [demurrer for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is general demurrer].) Plaintiff's FAC again did not plead facts showing that Plaintiff exhausted all administrative remedies afforded by Defendant or that a valid excuse exists for not exhausting such remedies. (Parthemore v. Col (2013) 221 Cal.App.4th 1372, 1379.) Administrative exhaustion is "a jurisdictional prerequ...

Excerpt: ... tests the legal sufficiency of the factual allegations in a complaint." (Redfearn v. Trader Joe's Co. (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 989, 996.) The Court must determine "whether the complaint alleges facts sufficient to state a cause of action or discloses a complete defense." (Id.) The Court assumes "the truth of the properly pleaded factual allegations, facts that reasonably can be inferred from those expressly pleaded and matters of which judicial not...

Excerpt: ...mplaint is DENIED. DEMURRER Cross-Defendants have demurred to the Cross-Complaint's sixth cause of action for "tort of another," and only to that cause of action. "A demurrer tests the legal sufficiency of the factual allegations in a complaint." (Redfearn v. Trader Joe's Co. (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 989, 996.) The Court must determine "whether the complaint alleges facts sufficient to state a cause of action or discloses a complete defense." (Id.) ...

Excerpt: ...of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition imposed an "automatic stay on all state and federal proceedings outside the bankruptcy court against the debtor and the debtor's property." (Shaoxing County Huayue Import & Export v. Bhaumik (2011) 191 Cal.App.4th 1189, 1196.) The Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay normally does not extend to non-debtor defendants like MTC. (Higgins v. Superior Court (2017) 15 Cal.App.5th 973, 979.) But, this action is not yet at...

Excerpt: ...members. The Court CONFIRMS its Order of January 29, 2019 certifying a class for settlement purposes. The Court APPROVES the Settlement Agreement. The Court has considered (1) the relative strength of Plaintiffs' case; (2) the high risk, expense, complexity, and likely duration of further litigation of this dispute; (3) the high risk of maintaining class status through trial; (4) the relatively generous amount offered in settlement; (5) the exten...

Excerpt: ... (See Goodall Decl., filed 5/15/19, at ¶ 2 & Ex. A.) Counsel sending the letter does not even appear on the caption page for Plaintiffs' filings in the case. There is no indication that counsel for Plaintiffs ever reached out to counsel for Caltrans by telephone or in any other way to determine when responsive documents would be produced or to ascertain the reason for the apparent delay in the production. Plaintiffs' contention that a meet and c...

Excerpt: ...sufficient to constitute a defense. (See Code Civ. Proc. § 438(c)(1)(A).) Defendant's statements that "I have a hard time paying them, that's why I go to debt settlement" and "I am on debt settlement but they need to wait for them to be paid" are not sufficient to dispute the allegations of the complaint or to constitute a defense. Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure § 431.20(a), "[e]very material allegation of the complaint or cross-complaint,...

Excerpt: ...ging that Defendants failed to reimburse its employees for uniform expenses. Plaintiff Billingsley was employed as a retail employee at stores in Oakland and Emeryville from May 2013 until fall 2016. On October 6, 2017, Plaintiff amended her complaint to add a cause of action for penalties under the Private Attorney Generals Act ("PAGA"). (Cal. Labor Code § 2699.) Plaintiff's class action claims were subsequently dismissed at her request on Apri...

Excerpt: ... allegations are proposed to be deleted, if any, and where, by page, paragraph, and line number, the deleted allegations are located; and (3) state what allegations are proposed to be added to the previous pleading, if any, and where, by page, paragraph, and line number, the additional allegations are located. (CRC, Rule 3.1324(a).) In addition, the moving party on a motion to amend must include a separate declaration that specifies: (1) the effe...

Excerpt: ...was put on hold until June to allow him to attend occupational and physical therapy. (Id. ¶ 5 at 2.) Plaintiff has been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, stage III chronic kidney disease, asthma, and hypertension. (Id. ¶ 2 at 1.) Plaintiff also has a history of colon cancer, prostate cancer, and skin cancer. (Id.) While the deterioration of Plaintiff's health has been gradual and he has appar...

Excerpt: ...s counsel should not have combined three separate sets of discovery requests in a single motion. This rule applies in particular to cases where the alleged transgression is the failure to provide an adequate response or a failure to comply with a discovery request as agreed. In addition, although the parties apparently believe that the Court should have a complete understanding of all of the discovery issues in the case, including prior violation...

Excerpt: ...rs, class action settlements must be reviewed and approved by the Court. (Duran v. Obesity Research Institute, LLC (2016) 1 Cal.App.5th 635, 646 ["The [trial] court has a fiduciary responsibility as guardians of the rights of the absentee class members when deciding whether to approve a settlement agreement"].) California follows a two-stage procedure for court approval: first, the Court reviews the form of the terms of the settlement and form of...

Excerpt: ... an affirmative defense as to any cause of action, that there is no merit to a claim for damages . . . , or that one or more defendants either owed or did not owe a duty to the plaintiff or plaintiffs." (CCP § 437c(f)(1).) "A motion for summary adjudication shall be granted only if it completely disposes of a cause of action, an affirmative defense, a claim for damages, or an issue of duty." (Id.) "[T]he party moving for summary judgment bears t...

Excerpt: ... Plaintiff filed its operative form Complaint on July 31, 2018, in which it pleaded common counts for open book account and account stated against defendant Kathy Zitani ("Defendant"), and prayed for damages in the amount of $7,458.38. Plaintiff made a prima facie showing that on some unspecified prior date, Defendant applied for and obtained a credit card account with Plaintiff ending in account number 6927 ("the Account"). (Stmt. of Undis. Mtr....

Excerpt: ..."), alleges that he was injured by an autistic client on November 14, 2016 in Room 33 at Skyline Senior High School ("Skyline"). Defendants allegedly failed to provide additional staff to protect other special education students present in Room 33 while he was working one-to-one with his assigned client. When the client became emotionally agitated, Plaintiff was allegedly forced to divide his attention between protecting other students and de-esc...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiff Yen H. Dang ("Plaintiff") on February 25, 2015, or alternatively summary adjudication as to each of the two causes of action therein: the First Cause of Action for Quiet Title and the Second Cause of Action for Declaratory Relief. As discussed below, BONYM is entitled to summary adjudication as to both causes of action and hence summary judgment as to the entire complaint. A. First Cause of Action The First Cause of Action, for Quiet Ti...

Excerpt: ...fendant failed to provide discovery responses in violation of the Court's March 23, 2018 and June 21, 2018 Orders. DISCOVERY ORDERS On December 11, 2017, Plaintiff served three sets of form interrogatories and three sets of demands for production on: (1) Dellesia Onifade, individually; (2) Dellesia Onifade, as administrator of the estate of Jerlyn Smith; and (3) Dellesia Onifade, as trustee of the Jerlyn Smith Trust. When Defendant failed to resp...

Excerpt: ...rance of the evidence that plaintiff Dolly Rizvi ("Plaintiff") is a party to a valid, enforceable, and irrevocable agreement to arbitrate the claims at issue in this action under the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq. (Rosenthal, 14 Cal.4th at 413.) Although MMV's managing member has candidly confessed that he cannot find a copy of the Employee Understanding Disclosure signed by Plaintiff, the facts described are sufficient to establi...

Excerpt: ...such action or proceeding, stay the action or proceeding until an arbitration is had in accordance with the order to arbitrate[.]") Plaintiffs Greg Harper and Barbara Horsting's (collectively, "Plaintiffs") verified Complaint against Defendant for breach of contract was filed on February 6, 2019. Plaintiffs allege that Defendant failed to maintain its sewage drain system in violation of a 1994 lease to rent a studio at the cooperative. As a resul...

Excerpt: ...Smith; and (3) Dellesia Onifade, as trustee of the Jerlyn Smith Trust. Plaintiff previously stipulated to an extension for Defendant's response to January 31, 2018 and then February 19, 2018. When Defendant still failed to respond, the parties participated in an informal discovery conference on March 6, 2018, and the Court ordered Defendant to respond on or before March 31, 2018. Defendant provided some discovery responses on March 30, 2018. With...

Excerpt: ...nformally. Plaintiff has agreed to limit the scope of Request No. 7 to the period from 2013 to 2018. Defendant has agreed to produce those warranty manuals for the Chevy Cruze after Plaintiff agrees to the terms of a Protective Order. The Court refers to pages 8, 9 and 12 of the May 20, 2019 transcript. 2. The Motion to Compel Defendant to Serve a Further Response to Request No. 10 is GRANTED. Plaintiff has agreed to limit the scope of Request No...

Excerpt: ...the ground that there is a another action pending is SUSTAINED. In the First Cause of Action, Plaintiff seeks to quiet title to a month-to-month tenancy at 7203A Holly Street, Oakland, and the Second Cause of Action seeks a declaration that Plaintiff owns has month-to-month tenancy. Plaintiff does not seek to establish an ownership in interest in the real property, but merely the right to reside there as a tenant. Defendant Dellesia Onifade's com...