Excerpt: ...ndant Loh. The declarations provided Peter Catalanotti and Michael Shepherd and Jessica M. Takano show hours billed at a "reasonable rate" but do not reflect the amounts actually billed to the client/insurer. PREVAILING PARTY In an action to enforce a contract authorizing an award of fees and costs to one party, the party "prevailing on the contract" is entitled to reasonable fees. (Civ. Code § 1717.) Here, the language of the lease agreement th...

Excerpt: ...irst Amended Cross-Complaint was served by mail to counsel at an incorrect mailing address. See CCP §§ 425.16(f) and 1013. Counsel's correct mailing address is 11 Golden Shore, Suite 430, Long Beach, California 90802. Counsel has never used a different address since this action was filed in June 2020. Cross-Defendant has met his initial burden of establishing that Cross-Complainant's causes of action are based on his filing of his Complaint for...

Excerpt: ... on this motion to strike, whether the facts alleged by Plaintiffs in their Amendment to the 2nd Amended Complaint are true. (See Code of Civil Procedure section 437.) If Defendants contend that Plaintiffs do not have standing to bring this action under Code of Civil Procedure section 377.11, they may present evidence in support of that position at a later stage of this case. The Court rejects Defendants' argument that it must grant this motion b...

Excerpt: ...ther Responses to Form Interrogatory No. 15.1 is GRANTED. Defendant's Motion to Compel Plaintiff's Further Responses to: (1) SROGS Nos. 6 and 8-10; and (2) RFPDs Nos. 68 and 77 is GRANTED IN PART as set forth below. IF ANY PARTY WISHES TO CONTEST THIS TENTATIVE RULING, NO LATER than 4:00 PM on Tuesday, February 9, 2020, the contesting party must email [email protected] and provide notice to all counsel of the intent to contest the ten...

Excerpt: ...ents, Sets Two and Three in accordance with this Order, no later than seven (7) days from the date of this Order. As a threshold issue, the City contends that this Motion should be limited to the issue of scope of the discovery requests as it pertains to the Queen Mary, arguing that the other parts of the Motion were not discussed as part of the informal discovery conference. However, the Court finds that it would be a waste of judicial resources...

Excerpt: ...ing the motion had not been served electronically as the parties allegedly agreed, but rather served via US post upon defense counsel's office and which he claimed not to have received because due to Covid Shelter in Place rules, he was working remotely. The court ordered the motion to be served electronically and continued the matter for further briefing to October 1, 2020. Defendant filed no substantive response and filed a Notice of Non-Opposi...

Excerpt: ...uty was to travel to the homes of AIP's clients and provide therapy services. (See SSF Nos. 3 and 8 and the evidence cited in support.) In addition to being paid for time spent providing therapy services to AIP's clients, Sciutto was paid for nonbillable (i.e., administrative) work, travel time between client locations, and mileage for travel to the client's residences. (See SSF Nos. 6 and 9 and the evidence cited in support.) On the day of Plain...

Excerpt: ...fit. This contention is supported by neither the facts nor the law. California voters approved Proposition 64 on November 2, 2004. In doing so, the California Supreme Court held "the voters found and declared that the UCL's broad grant of standing had encouraged '[f]rivolous unfair competition lawsuits [that] clog our courts[,] cost taxpayers' and 'threaten[ ] the survival of small businesses....' (Prop. 64, § 1, subd. (c) ['Findings and Declara...

Excerpt: ...he 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 complaint a reasonable interpretation, r...

Excerpt: ...action alleged in the Cross-Complaint are time-barred based on the 12/20/2019 date of filing of the Complaint in this action. However, the Court notes that, based on the allegations of Plaintiff's Complaint at ¶¶ BC-1 through BC- 4, Plaintiff's breach of contract action also appears to be time-barred pursuant to CCP § 337. Defendant may file and serve an amended Cross-Complaint no later than Tuesday, March 9, 2021. IF ANY PARTY WISHES TO CONTE...

Excerpt: ...e declarations or the deposition transcripts attached by Plaintiff's counsel to the Complaint. The Court is required to accept Plaintiff's well-pled allegations as true for purposes of the demurrer. See Aubry v. Tri-City Hosp. Dist. (1992) 2 Cal.4th 962, 966-967. Counsel need not draft the Complaint as if he were opposing a motion for summary judgment. Based on its review of the Complaint, the Court agrees with Defendant's contention that Plainti...

Excerpt: ...ding deficiencies identified in the September 22, 2020 order. Cross-Complainant has pled a sufficient claim for Intentional Misrepresentation in its First Cause of Action. The demurrer to the First Cause of Action is therefore OVERRULED. Cross-Complainant alleges that its Chairman and CEO, Milton C. Ault III, met Cross-Defendant and Cross-Defendant's girlfriend when they were dining at one of Mr. Ault's restaurants, Guilia, in downtown Los Angele...

Excerpt: ...ows: The motion is DENIED. Legal Standard for Summary Adjudication "A party may move for summary adjudication as to one or more causes of action within an action, one or more affirmative defenses, one or more claims for damages, or one or more issues of duty, if that party contends that the cause of action has no merit or that there is no affirmative defense thereto, or that there is no merit to an affirmative defense as to any cause of action, o...

Excerpt: ...raming argues that because LMV 19H Holdings posted a release bond there is now no lien on an owner's property, and the owner has no standing to file a Lambert Motion. The court finds that LMV 19H Holdings has standing to bring a Lambert motion. If a Mechanic's lien is recorded on property, then the property owner can bring a motion to remove an improper mechanics lien or to obtain an order confirming that the filing of a release bond has released...

Excerpt: ...nts motion for class certification (4 and ½ years after case filed); On 1/24/20, Judge Seligman order establishes 9/10/20 as five-year rule deadline; On 1/24/20, Judge Seligman sets trial for 8/24/20; On 5/27/20, Judge Seligman re-sets trial to 11/30/20. On 9/24/20, the parties file a stipulation setting the discovery cut off for lay witnesses for 1/8/21 and for expert witnesses for 1/25/21. The stipulation did not address written discovery or m...

Excerpt: ...th 1203, 1207-1209, cited by Judgment Creditor, dealt with a claim for recovery of mediation costs and not messenger costs. Although the Court has the discretionary authority to allow Judgment Creditor to recover the messenger costs, it declines to do so in this instance. Judgment Debtor's objection to the filing fee for the application of James M. Roche to appear as counsel pro hac vice for Plaintiff is overruled. Judgment Debtor fails to make a...

Excerpt: ...ion, that there is no merit to 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 movin...

Excerpt: ...nafter "Agreement") on November 19, 2017 in which Cross-Defendant CAL FMC, LLC, agreed to fully indemnify and defend Cross-Complainant Sonesta International Hotels Corporation for the allegations against Cross-Complainant as described in Plaintiff's Complaint filed on May 21, 2019. (FACross-Complaint, ¶¶ 4 and Exhibit A) The third cause of action seeks Declaratory Relief as to the rights, liability and duties of the parties pursuant to the Agre...

Excerpt: ...pervisor. The two had personal, non-work related, relationship. (UMF 6; DX 2 [text messages of 10/20/17].) Between 4:28 and 7:08 am in the morning of 10/30/17 Knight sent Lara multiple text messages of an arguably oversharing and arguably sexual nature. (UMF 8.) Lara reported the incident to management. (UMF 10) The Regents offered Lara paid time off. (UMF 10) The Regents decided to not discipline Knight because there was no prior history, this w...

Excerpt: ...Three - Dangerous Condition of Public Property" in Plaintiff's Second Cause of Action for Premises Liability, the City's motion is DENIED. In ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the Court strictly scrutinizes the moving party's evidence and resolves any evidentiary doubts or ambiguities in the opposing party's favor. (See, e.g., Johnson v. American Standard Inc. (2008) 43 Cal.4th 56, 64 and Binder v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. (1999) 75 Cal.App.4th...

Excerpt: ... action adequately allege facts supporting 414LS's claims. 414LS sues Fields for breach of a Guaranty of Lease ("the Guaranty") in which Fields guaranteed the obligations of lessee Herban Industries LLC ("Herban"). The Guaranty executed by Fields guaranteed "each and every one of the terms, conditions, and covenants" to be performed by Herban under its lease with 414LS. The Guaranty further provided that terms of Herban's lease could be modified ...

Excerpt: ...red his driveway or towed his vehicle; rather, he appears to be alleging that some other individual(s) (not WE) did that. If Plaintiff believes that the person(s) who entered his driveway and towed his vehicle (e.g., Doe 1) were AHR employees acting within the course and scope of their employment, Plaintiff shall clearly allege that. As the Second Amended Complaint is currently pled, it is unclear whether Plaintiff is alleging that the actions of...

Excerpt: ...graph 10) by allowing a male individual, to whom MBB referred as her "son", to annoy Ona's other tenants by behaving in an intimidating and threatening manner. (See Second Amended Cross-Complaint, paragraph 9.) As a result of this alleged behavior, Ona claims to have incurred two types of damages which Ona seeks to recover from MBB. First, Ona seeks to recover the costs of repairing and renovating the apartments of other tenants who vacated the p...

Excerpt: ...DARD OF LAW "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.) The Court assumes "the truth of the properly pleaded factual allegations, facts that reasonably can be inferred from those expressly pleaded and matt...

Excerpt: ...T. STANDARD OF LAW "A defendant, on or before the last day of his or her time to plead or within any further time that the court may for good cause allow, may serve and file a notice of motion . . . [t]o quash service of summons on the ground of lack of jurisdiction of the court over him or her," or "[t]o stay or dismiss the action on the ground of inconvenient forum." (CCP § 418.10(a).) "Failure to make a motion under this section at the time o...