Excerpt: ...6.10(c), 426.30(a).) Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 426.50, the court is required to grant a motion to plead a compulsory cross-complaint if the party seeking to leave to plead the cross-claim acted in good faith. Section 426.50 also specifically requires the court to liberally construe its provisions to avoid forfeiture of causes of action. Thus, where forfeiture would otherwise result, a motion to file a cross-complaint at any time...

Excerpt: ... Code sec. 432.7 from considering an unadjudicated criminal charge or a criminal charge which resulted in acquittal in determining any condition of employment, including hiring. Concentra contends that this new allegation is responsive to Plaintiff's contention that Concentra should have not hired Dr. Hafi, because it knew or should have known that Dr. Hafi was accused of criminal sexual battery following an incident on April 19, 2014, prior to h...

Excerpt: ...s governed by a Promissory Note, Deed of Trust, and Disposition and Development Agreement ("DDA"). RPII alleges that City of Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency ("Agency") is the successor to ORA. Plaintiff alleges that the City of Oakland has acted through ORA and Agency with respect to the loan documents. The court will refer to the defendants collectively as "City" unless otherwise indicated. RPII alleges that it intends to sell a percentag...

Excerpt: ...sposition and Development Agreement ("DDA"). RPII alleges that City of Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency ("Agency") is the successor to ORA. Plaintiff alleges that the City of Oakland has acted through ORA and Agency with respect to the loan documents. The court will refer to the defendants collectively as "City" unless otherwise indicated. RPII alleges that it intends to sell a percentage of its ownership interest in the Rotunda Building fo...

Excerpt: ...by Defendant Baireddy. Plaintiff alleges that Baireddy was employed by Lyft. Plaintiff alleges that Lyft and its officers, directors, and managing agents were negligent in hiring drivers, because they fail to require drivers to attend training and Lyft's background check is inadequate. Plaintiff alleges that Lyft's conducted created a risk of sexual assault for passengers, but it failed to take action to eliminate that risk. Plaintiff alleges tha...

Excerpt: ...Company's Motion to Seal; (4) Declaration of Colin T. Kemp in Support of Victualic Company's Motion to Seal. On September 13, 2019, Victualic lodged the following unredacted documents under seal: (1) Reply Memorandum of Points and Authorities in support of Motion for Protective Order; and (2) Reply Declaration of Colin T. Kemp in support of Motion for Protective Order. On September 9, 2019, Defendants American Home Assurance Company, The Insuranc...

Excerpt: ... he was instructed to participate in the work. Plaintiffs allege that the work was ultrahazardous. Plaintiff alleges that Defendants failed to take appropriate precautions to protect Plaintiff from dangerous conditions of the premises, including the risks of electrocution and explosion. Plaintiff that he suffered personal injury. Plaintiff alleges that Defendants David Perez and DP Electric and others negligently owned, possessed, operated, contr...

Excerpt: ...h the Court of Appeal's Unqualified Reversal. The court's ruling was based on its conclusion that the Court of Appeal's decision was an unqualified reversal, that there was nothing in the decision showing an intent to preserve the court's or the jury's determinations on any of Victualic's sixteen causes of action, and that the jury's verdict on the Fifteenth Cause of Action for Breach of Contract was not entitled to "collateral estoppel" effect. ...

Excerpt: ...d by it during the commission of a felony and it has not been convicted of any crime in connection with the alleged sexual assault by Defendant Baireddy. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 37(a).) Assuming the court has discretion to set a preferential trial date for Plaintiff's claims against the Lyft Defendants if a preferential trial date is set for her claims against Defendant Baireddy, the court does not find that this is an appropriate case to do so. L...

Excerpt: ...r Negligent Hiring, Supervision and Retention is OVERRULED. In this case, Plaintiff alleges that on April 7, 2018, she consumed alcohol with friends and then requested a ride using the digital platform provided by Lyft Defendants. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Baireddy provided transportation services on behalf of Lyft. Plaintiff alleges that in the course of providing transportation services for Lyft, Defendant Baireddy sexually assaulted her...

Excerpt: ... 2017. Plaintiff's supervisor was Defendant Martinez. Plaintiff is an African-American women. Plaintiff alleges that she was subject to harassment based on race and sex in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA"), and discrimination based on sex and race in violation of FEHA. Plaintiff alleges that Guess failed to prevent discrimination and harassment in violation of FEHA. Plaintiff alleges that when she complained, Defendants re...

Excerpt: ...t or omission of its current or former employee, the public entity may recover from the employee the amount of that payment if the employee acted with "actual fraud, corruption, or actual malice". The Regents contend that they had to pay claims against them asserted by four current or former students (collectively, "the four students") who alleged that they were sexually harassed by the Regents' former employee Wentworth. Wentworth first argues t...

Excerpt: ...motion is GRANTED. The undisputed facts establish that the Regents did engage in the legally required interactive process with Plaintiff after he first discussed the need for potential accommodations in February 2015. (See the Regents' Separate Statement Facts ("SSF") Nos. 21-93, Plaintiff's response, and the evidence cited in support.) Although Plaintiff purports to dispute many of those SSF, he does not cite any evidence demonstrating that he r...

Excerpt: ... pursuant to Government Code section 831.4. That section provides that a public entity is not liable for an injury caused by a condition of an unpaved road or a trail that provides access to "recreational or scenic areas". Whether the property on which the injury occurs is a trail depends on a number of considerations, including accepted definitions of the property, the purpose for which the property is designed and used, and the purpose of the i...

Excerpt: ...est of the real property that is the subject of this action. On September 12, 2014, Plaintiff filed a small claims case against Defendant and Fran Yeganeh (Case No. RG14-740333) in which admitted that he lost title to the subject property to a nonjudicial foreclosure and that he became a tenant of Defendant and Fran Yeganeh in 2012. Those allegations constitute judicial admissions, and Plaintiff is judicially estopped from alleging that he was th...

Excerpt: ...proceedings therein as may tend to avoid unnecessary costs or delay." The decision to consolidate is within the broad discretion of the court. (See General Motors Corp. v. Superior Court (1966) 65 Cal.2d 88, 92.) Where one of the lawsuits is an unlawful detainer action, however, the circumstances under which consolidation may be appropriate are limited. An unlawful detainer action is "summary in character ... ordinarily, only claims bearing direc...

Excerpt: ...efforts as discussed below. In the opposition papers filed by Defendant FCA US LLC ("FCA") on August 22, 2019, FCA asserts that the motion is moot because, in a letter dated July 17, 2019, it agreed to submit specified search terms into its Customer Assistance Inquiry Records ("CAIR") database and thereafter review and produce responsive, non- privileged records, and that it would also review the pertinent CAIR records to identify the customer as...

Excerpt: ...porting memorandum sufficiently supplies such details such that Plaintiff has sufficient notice of the requested relief and the matter is properly before the court. (See Carrasco v. Craft (1985) 164 Cal.App.3d 796, 808.) Further, though the memorandum has a typographical error in referring to the applicable statute, C.C.P. § 2024.050, the first two paragraphs of the argument section identify and quote from that statute, which is sufficient to ad...

Excerpt: ...n Williams ("Defendant") had not served any responses to these interrogatories, despite several reminders that the due date had passed, which resulted in his waiver of any objections to those interrogatories. (See C.C.P. § 2030.290(a).) In his opposition filed on August 14, 2019 (which is not accompanied by a proof of service), Defendant attaches verified responses to the interrogatories, containing objections and incomplete responses. Where res...

Excerpt: ...e categories in ruling on the motion. A. Discovery Potentially Relevant to Punitive Damages 1. RFAs The motion is DENIED as to RFAs Nos. 1, 2 and 7-9. Plaintiff International Currency Technologies ("Plaintiff") objected that these RFAs are not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, which the court finds to be a valid objection. The court already excluded evidence of the trademark application and registration based ...

Excerpt: ...al connection between the negligent conduct and the resulting injury" and the "actual loss or damage resulting from the professional's negligence." (Budd v. Nixen (1971) 6 Cal.3d 195, 200.) As currently pleaded, the cause of action is deficient in at least some of the above respects. Preliminarily, the cause of action does not comply with CRC 2.112, subdivisions (2), (3) and (4), by stating its "nature," the party or parties asserting it, or the ...

Excerpt: ...of Civil Procedure ("C.C.P.") section 391(b), subdivisions (1), (2) and (3). First, the records of which the court takes judicial notice show that Plaintiff, in propria persona, has filed and maintained at least five litigations in the last seven years that have been finally determined adversely to her. (See C.C.P. § 391.1(b)(1); Request for Judicial Notice ["RJN"] filed on June 28, 2019, Exhs. D through V, which is granted; Tokerud v. Capitolba...

Excerpt: ...where the "complaint states facts sufficient to constitute a cause or causes of action against the defendant and the answer does not state facts sufficient to constitute a defense to the complaint." (C.C.P. § 438(c)(1).) Although Defendant filed a general denial to the complaint on February 22, 2019, the court issued an order on June 21, 2019, stating that "the matters set forth in the Requests for Admissions, Set No. 1, served on February 28, 2...

Excerpt: ... with WSC that required a contractor's license and that MPI did not have such a license. (FACC, ¶¶ 15-17.) WSC alleges that, pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 7031(b), WSC is thus entitled to recover all compensation paid to MPI as an unlicensed contractor. (Id., ¶ 18.) MPI's demurrer is based on the ground that this was a claim that was required to be brought as a compulsory cross-complaint in the prior action entitled Masterp...

Excerpt: ...responses on May 3, 2019, and amended supplemental responses on July 8, 2019. In all three sets of responses, the responses to Nos. 26 through 34 contained only objections and no agreement to produce any responsive documents. (Decl. of Thomas Spielbauer, ¶¶ 3-14 and Exhs. 2, 4 and 7.) On July 19, 2019, Plaintiff sent a "meet and confer" letter as to asserted deficiencies in the amended supplemental responses. Ocwen did not respond to that lette...

Excerpt: ...pplicable theory. (See Easton v. Superior Court (1970) 12 Cal.App.3d 243, 245-246; Sequoia Pine Mills, Inc. v. Superior Court (1968) 258 Cal.App.2d 65, 67.) "[I]n the absence of an affirmative showing to the contrary, the presumption is that the county in which the title of the action shows that it is brought is, prima facie, the proper county for the commencement and trial of the action." (Mission Imports, Inc. v. Superior Court (1982) 31 Cal.3d...

Excerpt: ...responses on May 3, 2019, and amended supplemental responses on July 8, 2019. In all three sets of responses, the responses to Nos. 26 through 34 contained only objections and no agreement to produce any responsive documents. (Decl. of Thomas Spielbauer, ¶¶ 3-14 and Exhs. 2, 4 and 7.) On July 19, 2019, Plaintiff sent a "meet and confer" letter as to asserted deficiencies in the amended supplemental responses. Ocwen did not respond to that lette...

Excerpt: ...the high evidentiary burden that Plaintiff will bear in seeking to establish that Defendant acted with "oppression" or "malice" within the meaning of Civil Code section 3294(c), the court does not find Plaintiff's allegations in this regard to be so "irrelevant, false, or improper" that it would be appropriate to strike them from the complaint at the pleading stage. (Cf. Perkins v. Superior Court (1981) 117 Cal.App.3d 1, 6 ["The stricken language...

Excerpt: ...y 26, 2019, that requires the "income and accumulations of income for each of the three properties" to be "held by the property managers and not distributed without prior order of the Court or written agreement of the parties and their attorneys." (See Decl. of Edward Ngow, Exh. 2, ¶ 4.) Defendant seeks to restore "50/50 monthly distributions [of such income] to the parties through the conclusion of this matter," on the ground that she is a "sin...

Excerpt: ...er is directed only to the portion of the cause of action alleging age discrimination. "A demurrer does not lie to a portion of a cause of action." (PH II, Inc. v. Superior Court (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 1680, 1682; see also Grieves v. Superior Court (1984) 157 Cal.App.3d 159, 163.) Second, the demurrer is based on the argument that Plaintiff has not sufficiently alleged that she was "replaced by a substantially younger employee with equal or inferi...

Excerpt: ...sby, d.b.a. Tech Express ("Plaintiff" or "Tech Express") on April 19, 2019: (1) to American Express ("AmEx"), in New York, and (2) to PayPal Inc. ("PayPal"), in San Jose. (See Decl. of Holiday D. Powell, Exhs. 3 and 4.) As noted in the reply memorandum filed on August 6, 2019, the motion was timely served on Plaintiff and Plaintiff did not file any opposition by July 31, 2019, the due date per C.C.P. § 1005. Instead, on August 8, 2019, eight day...

Excerpt: ...ry adjudication as to each of the nine causes of action therein (and two issues pertaining to "alter ego" liability). Because summary judgment cannot be granted unless Xie is entitled to judgment as to each and every cause of action, the court proceeds by addressing the motion for summary adjudication as to each such cause of action. A. First and Third Causes of Action The motion for summary adjudication as to the First and Third Causes of Action...

Excerpt: ...adjudication as to each of the nine causes of action therein (and two issues pertaining to "alter ego" liability). Because summary judgment cannot be granted unless Yu is entitled to judgment as to each and every cause of action, the court proceeds by addressing the motion for summary adjudication as to each such cause of action. A. First and Third Causes of Action The motion for summary adjudication as to the First and Third Causes of Action, fo...

Excerpt: ...ng only objections, to the above-listed RPDs on February 15, 2019. (Hoffman Decl., Exh. B.) The parties met and conferred as to the above items without success. Although UC served amended responses to other RPDs in Set Six on April 29, 2019, they did not include amended responses to the above items. (Eklof Decl., ¶ 2 and Exh. A.) UC agreed to extend the motion to compel deadline to May 7, 2019, making the instant motion timely. (Hoffman Decl., �...

Excerpt: ... (4/23/19 order, citing Perkins v. Superior Court (1981) 117 Cal.App.3d 1, 6-7; Brousseau v. Jarrett (1977) 73 Cal.App.3d 864, 872.)" The order further stated: "As GEICO is a corporate employer, such a request must include allegations to the effect that the alleged 'advance knowledge and conscious disregard, authorization, ratification or act of oppression, fraud, or malice [was] on the part of an officer, director, or managing agent of the corpo...

Excerpt: ...issued an order sustaining a demurrer to the breach of contract cause of action in the First Amended Complaint ("FAC"), with leave to amend to allege facts sufficient to constitute such a cause of action including "(1) identifying with more specificity the contract between Plaintiff and GEICO; (2) setting forth the contract as an exhibit or alleging the material terms thereof verbatim or according to their legal effect; (3) specifying the terms t...

Excerpt: ...sclosed records to news media of sexual harassment investigations and discipline concerning roughly 113 professors at several campuses," including as to Geoffrey Marcy, Sujit Choudhry, Graham Fleming, Neza AlSayyad, Alan Tansman, John Searle, Robert Van Houweling and Bryan Wagner. (Motion, p. 3, citing Hoffman Decl., Exhs. I through T.) The court has reviewed those exhibits and they appear to include reports of the same general nature as those so...

Excerpt: ...Complaint and application papers on Anthony Durulle (or Durelle) Waters and on the Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles ("DMV"). It does not appear that Plaintiff has done so. Plaintiff Sheila Gandy ("Plaintiff") shall appear and explain what efforts she intends to take in this regard. As discussed in that order, this action was initiated by a complaint or petition on May 30, 2019, alleging that Plaintiff's nephew Anthony Durulle (or Dure...

Excerpt: ...s to whether there is a current violation of section 1941.1(a)(1), and what Defendant Bruce H. Hoeger ("Defendant") has specifically done to remedy any such condition. In its order of May 31, 2019, the court noted that Defendant attested in a May 17, 2019 declaration that in February and March 2019, Ryan Gok, a PCC journeyman specialist, "patched and filled concrete, filled joints, caulked the perimeter of the building, and filled holes with conc...

Excerpt: ... any void judgment or order." A motion to set aside void judgment or order may be made at any time, and it is immaterial how the invalidity is called to the court's attention. (Schwab v. Southern California Gas Co. (2004) 114 Cal.App.4th 1308, 1320.) Among other things, the court may set aside a default that is void due to improper service. (Hearn v. Howard (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 1193, 1200; Ramos v. Homeward Residential (2014) 223 Cal.App.4th 14...

Excerpt: ..., on June 21, 2019. (See Supp. Decl. of Neeru Jindal, filed June 28, 2019.) Despite such timely notice, Plaintiff has not submitted opposition and has not voluntarily withdrawn the Notice of Lis Pendens, recorded on May 1, 2015 as instrument no 2015115535 in the Alameda County Recorder's Office ("Lis Pendens"), despite several requests. (See Request for Judicial Notice, Exh. A; Decl. of Neeru Jindal, ¶¶ 6-8 and Exh. A; Supp. Decl. of Neeru Jind...

Excerpt: ...ourt's accompanying tentative ruling on the motion for judgment on the pleadings. RPII moves for summary adjudication in its favor as to the three matters as to which it seeks a declaratory judgment in its complaint: (1) requiring the City of Oakland ("City"), the City of Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency ("Agency") and/or the Oakland Redevelopment Agency ("ORA") to respond in a timely manner to RPII's inquiries described in paragraph 10 of ...

Excerpt: ...hat cause of action, RPII seeks a declaratory judgment: (1) requiring the City, the City of Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency ("Agency") and/or the Oakland Redevelopment Agency ("ORA") to respond in a timely manner to RPII's inquiries described in paragraph 10 of the complaint; (2) "holding that a sale of a percentage of RPI's ownership interest for less than ... $38,000,000 net of costs does not constitute a liquidity event under the Loan D...

Excerpt: ...Procedure section 425.16 (the anti-SLAPP statute.) Additionally, Defendants seek to recover their attorneys' fees incurred in the defense of Plaintiff's complaint under C.C.P. section 425.16(c). C.C.P. section 425.16(b)(1) states that "[a] cause of action against a person arising from any act of that person in furtherance of the person's right of petition or free speech under the United States Constitution or the California Constitution in connec...

Excerpt: ...tion should be exercised liberally in favor of amendments, for judicial policy favors resolution of all disputed matters in the same lawsuit." (Kittredge Sports Co. v. Superior Court (1989) 213 Cal.App.3d 1045, 1047, citing Nestle v. Santa Monica (1972) 6 Cal.3d 920, 939.) Such liberality in allowing amendments is to be exercised "at any stage of the proceedings, up to and including trial," absent prejudice to the adverse party. (Atkinson v. Elk ...

Excerpt: .... (Though the notice of motion also refers to C.C.P. § 425.11 and "lack of or improper service of summons," there are no arguments and no evidence in this regard in the supporting memorandum or declaration.) First, Defendant has not made a sufficient showing for relief pursuant to section 473.5. That statute authorizes relief "[w]hen service of a summons has not resulted in actual notice to a party in time to defend the action...." (C.C.P. § 47...

Excerpt: ...ons in the Small Claims Court and/or submit their dispute to private arbitration." (Notice of Motion, p. 1.) Neither the notice of motion nor the supporting memorandum cites the statutory basis for such request. The request is based on the assertion that Defendant and Plaintiff Barclays Bank Delaware ("Plaintiff") are parties to a "Cardmember Agreement" that mandates that any disputes between the parties must be resolved through private arbitrati...

Excerpt: ...nsidered the moving papers, and allowing opposition and reply papers by June 25, 2019 and June 28, 2019, respectively. After considering the moving, opposition and reply papers filed on that schedule, the court rules as follows. First, the request for an order compelling Defendants Rahi Systems, Inc. ("Rahi") et al. (collectively "Defendants") to produce Mark Cohen for deposition pursuant to the Deposition Subpoena served on May 15, 2019 ("Subpoe...

Excerpt: ...ember 26, 2018, and amended responses on or about March 27, 2019. The motion seeks further responses to RPDs Nos. 17, 20 and 21 to SRC and to RPDs Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 7 to SBS. As to RPDs Nos. 17, 20 and 21 to SRC, the motion is GRANTED IN PART. These RPDs seek SRC's corporate stock ledgers, financial statements and general ledgers from 2014 to the date of production. The amended responses contain objections on grounds of overbreadth, burden, lack o...

Excerpt: ...� 335.1, which requires a cause of action for "injury to ... an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another" to be brought within two years. Plaintiff alleges the accident and injuries occurred on August 12, 2016. (SAC, Attachment 15, ¶ 1.) Plaintiff did not file the initial complaint in this action until October 17, 2018. Thus, absent "equitable tolling" or another basis to toll the statute of limitations, the cause of action wo...