Excerpt: ... or the person bringing the action is an original source of the information." AbbVie argues that the public disclosure bar of Insurance Code 1871.79(h)(2)(A) applies. The Insurance Commissioner asserts that because Insurance Code 1871.7(d) authorizes the district attorney or commissioner (and not the Attorney General) to bring a civil action, the court should read the Labor Code 1871.79(h)(2)(A) exception for an "action is brought by the Attorney...

Excerpt: ... based on conduct of various Defendants in regards to the medical treatment of Decedent and her liver cancer. With respect to Eden specifically, the SAC alleges medical malpractice, elder abuse, and related claims. DEMURRER "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 sta...

Excerpt: ...tion. See CCP §§ 2016.040 and 2030.300(b). Counsel are advised that their meet-and-confer efforts should go beyond merely sending letters stating their respective positions. See Townsend v. Superior Court (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 1431, 1439; and Obregon v. Superior Court (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 424, 428. The Court has the discretionary authority to impose a monetary sanction on attorneys who fail to comply with their meet-and- confer obligations reg...

Excerpt: ... communications between counsel and also between counsel and the Court].) To the extent necessary, the Court reopens discovery for the limited purpose of hearing this motion and to permit the deposition at issue here to take place. (See CCP § 2024.050(a).) Too the extent they have not already done so, the parties are ORDERED to meet and confer regarding setting a reasonable date, time, and location for the deposition of Defendant BART's person m...

Excerpt: ...674, 685 (court is tasked with determining the parties' mutual intent); and Ruiz v. Moss Bros. Auto Group, Inc. (2014) 232 Cal.App.4th 836, 842 (trial court may weigh conflicting evidence to determine whether arbitration agreement exists). If the Court finds that Defendants presented insufficient evidence to support their assertion that Plaintiff agreed to submit this claim to arbitration, then the inquiry concludes and the motion to compel arbit...

Excerpt: ... claims that Defendants breached the terms of their distributorship agreements when they sought to exercise their right to terminate the agreements. On April 30, 2019, the Court set the matter for trial on March 23, 2020. On December 6, 2019, Defendants filed their Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff and Defendants entered into two Distribution Agreements. The first Distribution Agreement is dated January 1, 2005. The second Distribution Agree...

Excerpt: ...alleges facts sufficient to state a cause of action or discloses a complete defense." (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 Co. (1981) 123 Cal.App.3d 593, 604.) Courts "give the complaint a reasonable interpretation, reading it as a whole and its parts in their context." (Goncharov v. Ube...

Excerpt: ...n Dorgan Electrical, Inc. (the "Corporation"), which Plaintiff assumably controls. However, according to records maintained by the California Contractors State License Board, Plaintiff's electrical contractor's license was "re-assigned" to the Corporation in 2014. It is "fundamental" that an individual and a corporation are separate legal entities, even if the individual is the corporation's sole officer and/or shareholder. (See, e.g., Merco Cons...

Excerpt: ...Williams v. Superior Court (2017) 3 Cal. 5th 531, 557; Britt v. Superior Court (1978) 20 Cal.3d 844, 864.) The right of privacy is not absolute and may be outweighed by the interest in discovering the truth in legal proceedings, but any intrusion on privacy rights requires a balancing of the countervailing rights, and will only be allowed if there is a compelling state interest and disclosure is necessary to achieve the compelling state interest....

Excerpt: ...ces by several hundred thousand dollars. Plaintiff now seeks prejudgment attachment of "[a]ny property of a defendant who is not a natural person." (See Application filed 1/10/2020, p. 2, item 9(a).) Initially, Plaintiff's Application is defective. No Defendant is listed in item 2 of the Application, which was filed with the Court on January 10, 2020. As there are multiple Defendants in the case, this makes it somewhat unclear to the Court who th...

Excerpt: ...er to Tri's Second Cause of Action for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress is SUSTAINED WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND. Tri did not have leave to add Portofino as a new defendant to this existing cause of action. (People ex rel. Dept. of Public Works v. Clausen (1967) 248 Cal.App.2d 770, 785-786.) The demurrer to Portofino's Third Cause of Action for Breach of Contract is SUSTAINED WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND. The Third Cause of Action alleges breach...

Excerpt: ...Defendants based upon an alleged agreement (the "Agreement") by Defendants to settle their disputes with Plaintiffs for $4,500,000.00 during a September 10, 2019 mediation to resolve Private Attorney Generals Act of 2004 ("PAGA") claims asserted in Hadley v. California Logistics, Inc., Case No. 18 CMCV 00022, Ortega v. Michigan Logistics, Inc., Case No. BC 720954, and Simmons v. California Logistics, Inc., Case No. RG17863988, as well as claims a...

Excerpt: ...mmary judgment. Defendant's initial motion was withdrawn prior to the Court issuing a final order. Initially, Defendant's motion fails for procedural reasons. Defendant's motion is based on the premise that Plaintiff "has not and cannot bring forth any evidence to show the essential element of causation in [P]laintiff's sole negligence cause of action . . . ." (See Def.'s Memo., p. 9:26-28.) Where, as here, a moving defendant seeks summary judgme...

Excerpt: ...y." (CCP § 1048(a).) Plaintiff Lahoma Jackson ("Jackson") filed this action on April 11, 2019 against Umegboh, alleging that on April 12, 2018, she fell out of her wheelchair while being transported in a van. On April 12, 2019, Jackson and Peggy Hardy filed a complaint against George King and Donna King alleging injuries for a rear-end motor vehicle collision that took place on April 18, 2017. In both complaints, Jackson claims she was thrown ou...

Excerpt: ...Plaintiffs for their reasonable expenses for purchasing a required uniforms. Plaintiffs have offered evidence that plaintiffs in two other cases have asserted a right to recover civil penalties on a similar theory. Defendant opposes, arguing that the first of those cases (Berry v. Ross) is pending before this department and has already settled on an individual basis. Defendant argues that the other case (Dennis v. Ross Stores, Inc.) is pending in...

Excerpt: ...annot establish personal jurisdiction over Daimler AG through "specific jurisdiction" concepts. (See Thomson v. Anderson (2003) 113 Cal.App.4th 258, 266 [providing that the plaintiff bears the burden of proving personal jurisdiction where a motion to quash has been filed].) Daimler AG is a German stock company whose place of business is in Germany. (See Dec. H. Pak, ¶ 2.) Thus, it is a nonresident defendant. In California, a court may establish ...

Excerpt: ...s far back as 2003. Plaintiff argues the subpoenas are overbroad, and violate Plaintiff's right to privacy as well as her rights under Insurance Code section 791 et seq. In Opposition, Defendant makes a conclusory argument that the records sought are "relevant and likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence." The hearing on this Motion previously was continued in order to allow the Parties to further meet and confer and to afford Defen...

Excerpt: ... of the case. On November 5, 2019, the Court granted Defendants' Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings as to the First through Fourth Causes of Action and ordered Plaintiff to supplement his allegations supporting those claims. Based on its review of the evidence submitted by the parties, the Court concludes that Defendants have met the modest burden of proof needed for the requested relief. See CCP § 1030(b) (defendant must show that there is a ...

Excerpt: ...d Amended Complaint shows that Raymond was not 4W's employee. The motion to strike the allegation that each defendant ratified the despicable conduct of each other defendant and each defendant was the managing agent of each other defendant at pp. 19:27-20:2, is DENIED. 4W argues that Plaintiffs have not alleged that Raymond had substantial discretionary authority over significant aspects of 4W's business sufficient to support the conclusion that ...

Excerpt: ...2020, the Judicial Council referred this petition to the Superior Court of California, Alameda County for a coordination hearing. The Court received the order and commenced this proceeding January 23, 2020. Plaintiffs Aimee Baca, Tracey Baldridge, James Barry, Tolga Bayik, John Borba, Toniarika Bridges, Carin Elliott, Ruben Gouveia, Aujihnae Harris, Charles Heinbockel, Brad Johnson, Marco Lindsey, David Lopez, Melissa Margolis, Gretchen Miles, Ke...

Excerpt: ...ument is not the same as accepting the truth of its contents or accepting a particular interpretation of its meaning. . . . [J]udicial notice of matters upon demurrer will be dispositive only in those instances where there is not or cannot be a factual dispute concerning that which is sought to be judicially noticed."].) LEGAL STANDARD ON DEMURRER The standard for construing a complaint on demurrer is long-settled: "We treat the demurrer as admit...

Excerpt: ...ial you might need to verify that your debt was consumer debt under California law as part of the distribution of any monetary recovery." This sentence will be para 20 only and not in the several places where defendants proposed to insert it in the class notice. The sentence informs absent class members that they might need records, which should encourage them to maintain any records. The sentence does not suggest that there will be individualize...

Excerpt: ... Defendant did not file an Answer to the Complaint until June 3, 2019. On September 24, 2019, the Court denied Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment or, in the Alternative, Summary Adjudication of Issues. The motion is denied because Plaintiff has not properly put the sufficiency of Defendant's responses before the Court. Defendant correctly notes that Plaintiff did not timely file a Motion to Compel after it responded to Plaintiff's discovery ...

Excerpt: ... Defendants argue that the default judgment against them is void because, at the time Plaintiffs filed their application for default judgment on March 14, 2019, Defendants former counsel Mark Gallagher had already been suspended from the practice of law on January 18, 2019. This argument is misplaced, because by the time Mr. Gallagher had been suspended from the practice of law, the defaults of WWJ and AWB had already been entered (on December 14...

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...