Excerpt: ...r filed in conformity with the laws of this state, a court rule, or an order of the court." (CCP § 436.) An "irrelevant matter," or "immaterial allegation," means: (1) an allegation that is not essential to the statement of a claim or defense; (2) an allegation that is neither pertinent to nor supported by an otherwise sufficient claim or defense; or (3) a demand for judgment requesting relief not supported by the allegations of the complaint or...

Excerpt: ... to Plaintiff. (Declaration of Peter Rehon at ¶ 6, Exhibit 1.) Defendant was to provide further verified responses no later than November 10, 2020. The court also previously granted Plaintiff's request for issue, evidentiary and monetary sanctions on March 3, 2021 and awarded monetary sanctions in the amount of $13,372.50 and to pay $1,500 in sanctions to the court. (Declaration of Peter Rehon at ¶¶ 3-17.) Plaintiff represents that no such res...

Excerpt: ... the building manager before calling any of the contractors on the sheet. Stoneledge employee Mountain called the building manager and got no response. The emergency contact stated that tenants were to call Carson Madrona if they could not reach the building manager. Stoneledge employee Mountain did not try to call Carson Madrona. Stoneledge employee Mountain called Perez of DP Electric. DP Electric employee Perez tried to fix the electrical prob...

Excerpt: ... argues that the undisputed evidence shows that the delivery truck was not a proximate cause of the accident. EVIDENCE Plaintiff's objection #1 (police report) is SUSTAINED. It is not a business record. It is hearsay. Plaintiff's objection #2-10 (police officer testimony) is OVERRULED. The police officer was not qualified as an expert witness. The police officer can state his lay opinions. (Evid Code 800.) The police officer's conclusions based o...

Excerpt: ..." (Miller v. Fortune Commercial Corporation (2017) 15 Cal.App.5th 214, 220, citing Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal. 4th 826, 843.) A party may move for summary adjudication to decide whether there is no merit to causes of action, affirmative defenses, or claims for damages, whether "one or more defendants either owed or did not owe a duty to the plaintiff or plaintiffs," or some combination thereof. (Code of Civil Procedure ["CCP"...

Excerpt: ...) 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 notice has been taken." (Id.) "As a general rule in testing a pleading against a demurrer the facts alleged in the pleading are deemed to be true, however improbable they may be," unless the "complaint contains allegations of fact inconsistent with attached documents, or alleg...

Excerpt: ...or Court Case No. RG17862495, by failing to install suitable seats at the front-end cash registers of its California stores. The FAC also alleges that Defendants' breaches of the Smiles agreement constitute subsequent violations of Wage Order 7-2001 § 14. Previously, Defendant filed a writ petition arguing that the Court abused its discretion by denying Defendant's peremptory challenge under Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6. Plaintiffs asse...

Excerpt: ... defendants' moving papers are true and correct copies of the documents executed between the parties. The court therefore grants judicial notice of the documents and considers the merits of arguments presented. The operative First Amended Complaint filed in the present case asserts five causes of action: 1) Declaratory Relief- Shareholders Agreement; 2) Breach of Contract- Employment Agreement; 3) Breach of Contract- legal Fees Obligation for Mar...

Excerpt: ...ry basis for maintaining its cause of action for the second cause of action for negligence or the third cause of action for breach of mandatory duty. Except as otherwise provided by statute . . . [a] public entity is not liable for an injury, whether such injury arises out of an act or omission of the public entity or a public employee or any other person." (Cal. Gov't Code § 815(a).) Plaintiff must provide a statutory basis for his claim. (East...

Excerpt: .... LEGAL STANDARD A general demurrer tests the sufficiency of the complaint, i.e., whether it states facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action upon which relief may be based. (Code Civ. Proc., § 430.10, subd. (e); Aragon-Haas v. Family Security Ins. Services, Inc. (1991) 231 Cal.App.3d 232, 238) The complaint must be "liberally construed, with a view to substantial justice between the parties." (Code Civ. Proc. § 452.) The court gives the...

Excerpt: ...in their declarations, points and authorities in opposition being stricken. In addition, the motion of Plaintiffs Sharif Sawires and Nina Birnbaum for entry of judgment pursuant to the terms of the parties' Stipulation to Settle, executed on January 12, 2021 and approved by the Court on February 17, 2021, pursuant to CCP § 664.6, is CONTINUED to September 10, 2021, at 2:00 p.m., in Department 520. The Court has reviewed the parties' voluminous s...

Excerpt: ...costs of up to $25,000, a service award of $5,000 for the class representative, a net PAGA payment of $18,750, and settlement administration costs of up to $6,000. After these expenses of approximately $154,750, the class would get $145,250. The average payout per class members would be $410. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. There were no opt outs and no objections. (Kruckenberg Supp Dec.) The proposed class is appropria...

Excerpt: ...nsel must file the required declaration." Counsel must file a declaration with the required information or direct the court to a previously filed declaration with the required information. Assuming that counsel provides the CCP 382.4 information, then the order would be: The motion of plaintiffs for final approval of class action settlement is GRANTED. The motion of plaintiffs for approval of fees and costs and award is GRANTED. APPROVAL OF THE S...

Excerpt: ...DENIED. The motion for summary judgment cannot be granted because Plaintiffs have not met their initial burden of making a prima facie showing that each element of the cause of action has been proved. See Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 826, 850. Although Plaintiffs have provided the Court with a large volume of evidence in the form of Defendant's responses to written discovery and pleadings and orders in the earlier filed Pro...

Excerpt: ...nt administration costs of up to $15,000, and a net PAGA payment of $37,500. After these expenses of approximately $435,833, the class would get $564,167. The average payout per class member would be $1,007. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. The proposed class is appropriate for class certification. The motion makes an adequate analysis as required by Kullar v. Foot Locker Retail, Inc. (2008) 168 Cal.App.4th 116. The scop...

Excerpt: ...el for Plaintiff has provided a declaration in support of the motion that provides the information required by CCP 382.4 regarding the absence or presence of a relationship between counsel and the residual beneficiary. Counsel for Plaintiff had a prior employment relationship with Centro de la Raza and currently has a co- counsel relationship with Centro de la Raza. The payment of residual funds to Centro de la Raza creates an appearance of impro...

Excerpt: ...cretion finds that it would not be in the interests of justice to grant a preference in trial setting absent some evidentiary showing that there is substantial medical doubt of Mrs. Boccio's survival beyond six months or that her interests will be prejudiced if trial is not set to commence in 120 days. (See CCP § 36(d).) However, the Court would be inclined to set a non-preferential trial date in this action for a date prior to the end of 2021, ...

Excerpt: .... "The general rule of motion practice ... is that new evidence is not permitted with reply papers. (Jay v. Mahaffey (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 1522, 1537-1538.) "A trial court has discretion to consider new evidence in reply papers supporting a summary judgment motion as long as the opposing party has notice and an opportunity to respond. ... Evidence which is used to fill gaps in the original evidence created by the opposition is particularly appro...

Excerpt: ... party Tami Mason, the daughter the decedents and the representative of their estate, has "specially appeared" for the purpose of seeking a dismissal. Mason claims the mechanic's lien recorded against the property is interfering with her ability to administer her parents' estate. (See Mason Decl. paras. 2-5.) Mason's motion is denied because Mason has not sought to intervene and lacks standing as a non-party. (Lohnes v. Astron Computer Products (...

Excerpt: ...he attorneys advise the Court that they were attempting to settle the case informally prior to November 17, 2020. After the Court ordered the parties to submit their claim to arbitration, the attorneys then spent months attempting to select an arbitrator. Plaintiff's attorney finally contacted JAMS on March 16, 2021 and commence the arbitration. On April 19, 2021, the parties advised JAMS that they had agreed to have the matter heard by retired f...

Excerpt: ...ion is one arising from a protected activity, i.e., an act in furtherance of a person's right of free speech in connection with a public issue. (See Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16(b)(1).) Second, if such a showing is made, the Court determines whether the opposing party has demonstrated a probability of prevailing on the claim. The opposing party demonstrates this by showing the challenged pleading is legally sufficient and supported by a suff...

Excerpt: ...s that the confidentiality clause is substantively unconscionable, citing Ramos v. Superior Court (2018) 28 Cal.App.5th 1042, 1065-1067. However, the reason the Ramos court found the confidentiality clause contained in that arbitration agreement to be substantively unconscionable was that it prevented the plaintiff from gathering evidence to present her case. Here, by contrast, the confidentiality clause in Aerotek's arbitration agreement provide...

Excerpt: ...tals employee and defendant Emil Medina negligently unloaded the beam such that it struck the plaintiff who was standing nearby. Plaintiff propounded written discovery on defendant, including Form Interrogatories, Special Interrogatories, and Requests for Production of Documents, on July 29, 2019. On September 10, 2019, defendant served unverified responses to the foregoing discovery with the notation "verifications to follow." On March 8, 2021, ...

Excerpt: ...e 17, 2021, Plaintiffs' counsel filed this motion seeking relief from the summary judgment order and the judgment pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 473(b). Plaintiffs' counsel asserts that on April 6, 2021, he began to experience severe flu symptoms that lasted for "several days", and as a result he was unable to check the Court's tentative ruling on Defendant's motion for summary judgment, contest the tentative ruling, or appear at the...

Excerpt: ...ablish that Plaintiff's discovery motions were granted due to their mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect. Plaintiff's attorney caused the subject requests for admission to be served on Defendants on September 25, 2020. The discovery was served directly on Defendants because their attorneys successfully moved to be relieved as their counsel days before. Defendants did not serve any responses by the due date of October 30, 2020, no...