Excerpt: ...gs: (1) [t]he party has a substantial interest in the action as a whole[;] [and] (2) [t]he health of the party is such that a preference is necessary to prevent prejudicing the party's interest in the litigation." (CCP § 36(a).) Notably, "[t]he standard under subdivision (a), ..., includes no requirement of a doctor's declaration." (Fox v. Superior Court (2018) 21 Cal. App. 5th 529, 534.) "To the contrary, a motion under subdivision (a) may be s...

Excerpt: ... Code § 2924(j); see CCP § 386.5 ["[U]pon affidavit that he is a mere stakeholder with no interest in the amount or any portion thereof and that conflicting demands have been made upon him for the amount by parties to the action, upon notice to such parties, [the stakeholder may] apply to the court for an order discharging him from liability and dismissing him from the action on his depositing with the clerk of the court the amount in dispute ....

Excerpt: ... 2018 (the "Protective Order"). Defendant now seeks an order from the Court: (1) affirming that Defendant properly designated the names of its third-party suppliers, vendors, and/or manufacturers, which are trade secrets, as confidential under the Protective Order; (2) limiting the use of trade secret information to the resolution of Plaintiff's claims against Defendant in this matter; and (3) confirming that Plaintiff may only use/disseminate th...

Excerpt: ... the Department of Transportation ("Caltrans"), have reached a settlement agreement to settle the claims in this action (the "Settlement Agreement"). (Declaration of William S. Freeman ["Freeman Dec."], Ex. 1.) The Certified Class for the First, Second and Sixth Causes of Action in the First Amended Complaint is "all persons whose personal belongings were unreasonably taken from them by [Caltrans] in the Cities of Berkeley, Oakland, or Emeryville...

Excerpt: ...r, adequate, and reasonable under all the circumstances. (Accord O'Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (N.D. Cal. 2016) 201 F.Supp.3d 1110, 1133; see also Gov. Code § 12652(e)(2)(B) [requiring False Claims Act qui tam settlements be "fair, adequate, and reasonable under all the circumstances"].) The Court therefore takes guidance from the context of class action settlements, which must also be found to be "fair, adequate, and reasonable." (See, e....

Excerpt: ...s and resets on a regular basis, and causes safety problems when the system is being used for GPS and when backing up the vehicle. Plaintiff alleges violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act ("CLRA"), unfair competition law, fraud by concealment, breach of express warranty, breach of the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, breach of the implied warranty of merchantability and unjust enrichment. STANDARD OF LAW "A demurrer tes...

Excerpt: ...ause 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 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." (Del E. Webb Corp. v. Structural Materials C...

Excerpt: ... of action within an action, one or more affirmative defenses, one or more claims for damages, or one or more issues of duty, if the party contends that the cause of action has no merit, that there is no affirmative defense to the cause of action, 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 ...

Excerpt: ...f it is contended that the action has no merit or that there is no defense to the action or proceeding." (CCP § 437c (a) (1).) "[T]he party moving for summary judgment bears the burden of persuasion that there is no triable issue of material fact and that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." (Aguilar v. Atl. Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal. 4th 826, 850.) "That is because of the general principle that a party who seeks a court's action in...

Excerpt: ...1 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, and treats the demurrer as admitting all material facts properly pleaded. (Aubry v. Tri-City Hosp. Dist. (1992) 2 Cal.4th 962, 966-67; Blank v. Kirwan (1985) 39 Cal.3d 311, 318.) The court may consider all material facts pleaded in the com...

Excerpt: ...gency room fee for emergency room visits that is billed on top of the individual items of treatment and services provided. The 2AC asserts three claims (1) declaratory relief; (2) UCL unfair, unlawful, and deceptive; and (3) CLRA, Civil Code 1770(a)(5) and (a)(14). ORDER ON DEMURRER OF SUTTER TO SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT On a demurrer or motion to strike, the court accepts all factual assertions as true and construes them in favor of plaintiff. FI...

Excerpt: ... party, is entitled to recover attorney's fees and costs incurred in defending its rights under the Note and Deed of Trust at issue in this case and pursuant to Civil Code section 1717. Plaintiffs brought this action on December 4, 2018 against U.S. Bank and other defendants, asserting claims for breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligence, unfair business practice, and accounting based upon the handl...

Excerpt: ...ment states there will be attorneys' fees of up to $47,313.31 (30%), costs of up to $TBD, a service award of $5,000 for the class representative, and settlement administration costs of $9,750. After these expenses, the class would get $100,000. The average payout per class members would be $400. The settlement was mediated with the assistance of Tripper Ortman. The court gives "considerable weight to the competency and integrity of counsel and th...

Excerpt: ...adjudication with respect to which Plaintiff has failed to serve timely oppositions. Further, Plaintiff has not timely sought relief for a problem which Plaintiff's counsel was aware of since at least 11/27/2019. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND A Trial date of 3/16/2020 was set in the present action on 5/22/2019. (See 5/22/2020 Case Management Order.) On 7/1/2019, Plaintiff's counsel, who has considerable experience representing plaintiffs in a...

Excerpt: ...ype of metal worker, between approximately the late 1950's and the late 1970's. Defendant targets the threshold exposure sub-element of the essential element of causation by attempting to show that "the plaintiff does not possess, and cannot reasonably obtain, needed evidence-as through admissions by the plaintiff following extensive discovery to the effect that he has discovered nothing." (See Rutherford v. Owens-Illinois, Inc. (1997) 16 Cal.4th...

Excerpt: ... party, is entitled to recover attorney's fees and costs incurred in defending its rights under the Note and Deed of Trust at issue in this case and pursuant to Civil Code section 1717. Plaintiffs brought this action on December 4, 2018 against U.S. Bank and other defendants, asserting claims for breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligence, unfair business practice, and accounting based upon the handl...

Excerpt: ..., 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 moving f...

Excerpt: ... Defendant, namely Selbalith "Navy Magnesite," a product which manufacturer and licensor Selby-Battersby Company ("SBC") has admitted contained 2% to 3% asbestos in its dry form until at least 1969 and which substantially matches the description of large bags of "magnesite" applied and sanded by Defendant's agents in plaintiff's presence in late 1962 or early 1963 on the USS Gridley. Defendant's Motion for Summary Adjudication ("MSA") with respec...

Excerpt: ...ntial interest in the action as a whole[;] [and] (2) [t]he health of the party is such that a preference is necessary to prevent prejudicing the party's interest in the litigation." (CCP § 36(a).) "An affidavit submitted in support of a motion for preference under subdivision (a) of Section 36 may be signed by the attorney for the party seeking preference based upon information and belief as to the medical diagnosis and prognosis of any party." ...

Excerpt: ...Rose for leave to file the proposed First Amended Complaint is DENIED." Procedurally, the court will clarify the order. To the extent that the motion is a motion for reconsideration, the court will hear the motion. (Le Francois v. Goel (2005) 35 Cal.4th 1094, 1096; In re Marriage of Barthold (2008) 158 Cal.App.4th 1301.) Substantively, plaintiff seeks clarification of three points. (Opening brief at 2:11- 20.) First, plaintiff seeks clarification...

Excerpt: ...laint asserts that the Sutter defendants have a practice of administering nerve block in operating rooms and placing post-operative patients in recovery rooms. The complaint asserts that both practices are unnecessary, inflate the cost of medical care, and are therefore a fraud on insurers and other end payors. MOTION NO. 1 - MOTION OF SUTTER TO COMPEL TENET TO PRODUCE DOCUMENTS AND DEPOSITION TESTIMONY The Motion of Sutter to compel Tenet to pro...

Excerpt: ...t 517 in July 2019. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of Defendant BMW of North America, LLC. The Court entered Judgment in favor of Defendant on December 13, 2019. Plaintiff's first contention in support of the motion is that Defendant should not be permitted to recover its costs because the CCP § 998 offer that its attorneys served just prior to the commencement of trial was legally deficient. The Court decli...

Excerpt: ...e and scope. The Court finds these objections to be valid. Though the scope of discovery is broad, ICT has not sufficiently demonstrated how this Interrogatory seeks information that may lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. The reasons for compelling a further response, set forth in the separate statement, do not include facts showing the potential relevance of each and every one of Plaintiff's customers over a fifteen year period of tim...

Excerpt: ...nte $12,500, and Kante would have the right to an additional $14,209.41 through an assignment and lien on Ali's share of any proceeds recovered by Ali "from any and all claims against Mid-Century Insurance, State Farm Insurance, Kevin Dawson or any other entity or person concerning [Ali's] claims concerning or relating to" Ali's house located at 7757 Hanson Drive, Oakland. Kante subsequently filed two motions to enforce the settlement agreement i...

Excerpt: ...f the Fair Credit Reporting Act; (5) Negligence; (6) Breach of Contract; (7) Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; and (8) Violation of Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.; and (9) Declaratory Relief. Defendant acquired the mortgage loan that Plaintiff and his former wife, Deneice Hutcherson (aka Deniece Hutcherson) had with Bank of America on August 8, 2013. The couple's property is located at 886 Comanche Court, in the C...