Excerpt: ...e, allows a party to bring a special motion to strike a meritless SLAPP suit at an early stage of the litigation. Rusheen v. Cohen, supra, at pp. 1055–1056; Gerbosi v. Gaims, Weil, West & Epstein, LLP (2011) 193 Cal.App.4th 435, 443. Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 prescribes a two‐step process for courts to follow in determining whether a cause of action constitutes a SLAPP. Navellier v. Sletten (2002) 29 Cal.4th 82, 88. In the first ...

Excerpt: ...3 cases where Plaintiff Castillo may not have seen the commencement of the injury‐producing event but she perceived it while it was occurring and understood her child was being injured. Thus, the facts sufficiently support bystander NIED as against a demurrer. 1Zuniga v Housing Authority (1995) 41 Cal.App.4th 82 2Ortiz v. HPM Corp.(1991) 234 Cal.App.3d 178 3 In re Air Crash Disaster Near Cerritos (9th Cir. 1992) 967 F.2d 1421 Defendants' Motion...

Excerpt: ...levant to the analysis; how Plaintiff characterizes the incident in question and the statements Mr. Halpern makes are not offered for the truth but as background to the motion. Motion: The motion is granted to the extent that Mr. Justin Monical, as the person most knowledgeable, is ordered to comply with the deposition notice and make reasonable efforts, within the District, to obtain information related to the categories in the Deposition Notice...

Excerpt: ...te the action is initially set for trial, whichever is later, unless the court otherwise permits.” However, this motion could not have been brought earlier because the decision Defendants cite as barring the first three causes of action was only recently decided on April 7, 2022, three days after the initial trial date. Since Code of Civil Procedure section 438, subdivision (e) provides the court discretion to allow for a latefiled motion (impo...

Excerpt: ...l briefing be filed and served according to Code. No further briefing has been filed and the Court interprets this as each party's request that the Court now decide the motion based on the prior pleadings filed. Motion: The motion is granted. Whether a defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction in the forum state involves two separate factors. Namely, (1) the basis for jurisdiction or the existence of a constitutionally‐sufficient basis for ...

Excerpt: ...h 486 [holding arbitration was proper for claims against both the manufacturer and retailer under an arbitration provision with language the same as the one currently at‐issue].) The agreement is not unconscionable. The Fourth District Court of Appeal has taken the position that “[t]o describe a contract as adhesive in character is not to indicate its legal effect.... [A] contract of adhesion is fully enforceable according to its terms [Citat...

Excerpt: ...d failures to act—the alleged failure to maintain the hotel, failure to inspect and keep the hotel free of bed bugs, and failure to warn Plaintiffs the room being rented to them was infested with bedbugs. To hold that these allegations support the intentional tort of battery would be to greatly expand battery to include most negligence claims, as virtually all negligence injuries involve some sort of harmful or offensive contact resulting from ...

Excerpt: ...FAC) comprised of over 1121 paragraphs (not including the 186 paragraph Prayer of the FAC), seeks to hold Seller's Choice and Reyes, an escrow officer and escrow company, liable based upon a series of loan transactions. According to Plaintiffs' FAC, Plaintiffs entered into various loans with co‐defendant Kevin Zhang and/or his entities, and that Plaintiffs suffered damages because Plaintiffs did not receive the loan monies, and instead the loan...

Excerpt: ...hat the allegations are ambiguous, uncertain and unintelligible pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 430.10, subdivision (f) is overruled, because based upon a review of Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint (FAC), and taking the allegations of Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint as a whole, Plaintiffs' FAC and specifically, Plaintiffs' Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, and Eleventh Causes of Action contained therein are not so vague or so ambiguous or u...

Excerpt: ...g the motion in his Report Number 11. On March 4, 2022, Plaintiff filed a request for Oral Argument on this Motion before the Referee and on April 27, 2022, in Report #12, the Referee recommended that the Court deny the request. Plaintiff then directly requested that the Court consider oral argument on the Motion and the Court granted it. After considering the written papers filed in support and in opposition, the Court's tentative is to grant th...

Excerpt: ...G's initial deposition even without prior knowledge of the purported new evidence. Alternative causation is virtually a ubiquitous defense in personal injury cases. (See e.g. the District's answer to the complaint.) As a result, good cause has not been shown for a second deposition as to topics “a,” “b,” and “e.” The “additional information” topic is simply too broad and therefore good cause has not been shown for topic “h.” M...

Excerpt: ...t while corporations are nominal defendants in shareholder derivative suits, they are actually plaintiffs. (Forrest, supra, 58 Cal.App.4th at p. 74; Blue Water, supra, 192 Cal.App.4th at p. 489 [explaining such corporate entities are “actually plaintiffs in the eyes of the law.”].) Defendants' opposition is premised almost entirely on Opinion 1999‐153 (attached to Exh. B to Sichi's declaration) and its interpretation of what is now rule 1.1...

Excerpt: ... Court (Ingrassia) (2003) 114 Cal.App.4th 475, 480‐81) the privacy right is personal to the individual and “does not survive but dies with the person.”1 (Lugosi v. Universal Pictures (1979) 25 Cal.3d 813, 821‐22, overruled by statute on other grounds per Timed Out, LLC v. Youabian, Inc. (2014) 229 Cal.App.4th 1001, 1008; Catsouras v. Department of California Highway Patrol (2010) 181 Cal.App.4th 856, 869‐70; Flynn v. Higham (1983) 149 C...

Excerpt: ...finition of "professional negligence" in Code Civ. Proc., § 340.5, has four elements: (1) a negligent act or omission to act by a health care provider in the rendering of professional services; (2) which act or omission is the proximate cause of injury or wrongful death; (3) provided that such services are within the scope of services for which the provider is licensed; and (4) which are not within any restriction imposed by the licensing agency...

Excerpt: ...Inc. v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (2014) 231 Cal.App.4th 471, 487, fn.8 [“Filing a document makes it a part of the permanent court file, whereas lodging a document makes it only temporarily a court record.”]; Beltone Electronics Corp. v. Superior Court (1978) 87 Cal.App.3d 452, 455 [Lodging documents is “the temporary deposit of the documents in conjunction with a motion to file, until the court determines them to be relevant. In the event ...

Excerpt: .... § 2032.320, subd. (a).) The notice of motion must state the time, place, identity and specialty of the examiner, and the manner, conditions, scope and nature of the examination. (Code Civ. Proc. § 2032.310, subd. (b).) Defendants' motion does not contain any Notice of Defense Medical Exam and there is no indication one has ever been served. The motion identifies the specialties of the examiners, but it does not state the time, place, or ident...

Excerpt: ...h Lindsey Defendants seek to enforce arbitration is not demonstrated. As for compelling arbitration of Richard and Dorothy Landsverks' claims, the 2012 Agreement is an agreement with “LFG Family Office Services” and the Lindsey Defendants do not provide any analysis or discussion of the basis under which they may compel arbitration under the 2012 Agreement. As for the 2018 Agreement between the Landsverks and Lindsey Financial, Inc., the othe...

Excerpt: ...ndant District served its responses and on February 11, 2021, it served a supplemental response to one of the at‐issue RFPs. (Halpern Decl. at ¶¶2‐3; Miller Decl. at ¶¶1‐2, Exh. B.) Plaintiff's Motion to Compel was filed on June 24, 2021. This discovery dispute was reviewed and considered by a discovery referee. On March 3, 2022, the Court granted Plaintiff Nicole's Motion for Reconsideration of the ruling by the Discovery Referee. A mo...

Excerpt: ...ce to Plaintiff of the continued date but there is no notice in the court's file. In considering the merits, the Court notes that the action was originally set for trial on May 25, 2021 for a trial date of February 7, 2022. This was well within the two year statute for discretionary dismissals. This trial was only continued, again on the Court's own motion as a result of COVID. Defendants filed their motion prior to the February trial date and th...

Excerpt: ...onsider the Court's file without judicial notice. 1. Demurrer to Second Cause of Action for False or Fraudulent Registration: The demurrer is overruled. The new cause of action is not necessarily inconsistent with the Court's ruling on the prior demurrer. Rather than allege infringement of their own validly registered mark, Cross‐ Complainants now allege that Plaintiff and Cross Defendant committed fraud in the procurement of the federal and st...

Excerpt: ...riting.” (Code Civ. Proc., §§2030.300, subd. (c); 2031.310, subd. (c); 2033.290, subd. (c).) After a telephonic meet and confer it was agreed Defendant would have three weeks to respond to the meet and confer letter with a commensurate extension for Plaintiff to bring his motion to compel. This was confirmed via an email exchange on August 26, 2021. (Carter Decls., ¶5; Exh. D.) This would extend the deadline to Thursday, September 23, 2021. ...

Excerpt: ...The Court reserves the right to exclude any such evidence upon proper objection or allow the evidence during the trial depending upon what occurs at trial. The denial or grant of these motions is without prejudice. As to any motion granted, the parties are ordered to refrain from conveying to the jury any of the evidence excluded without first obtaining permission of the Court outside the presence of the jury. Furthermore, it is the obligation of...

Excerpt: ...ned Motion to Transfer: The motion is denied. Defendant failed to meet her burden of demonstrating no exception to the general venue rule applies, in particular Code of Civil Procedure section 395, subdivision (b).1 Subdivision (b) provides another “statutory exception to the general venue rule …” in cases involving certain consumer obligations. (Fontaine v. Superior Court (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 830, 836.) It is undisputed that the recovery...

Excerpt: ... the parties on notice that should this occur again, the Court will continue the hearing and consider the issuance of sanctions against the non‐ complying party. First Cause of Action for Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED): The demurrer is overruled. Plaintiff concedes that this cause of action is based only on direct liability for negligent infliction of emotional distress as opposed to a claim based upon bystander liability. In...

Excerpt: ...mit Defendants to only filing an Answer even though the proposed pleading was an Answer. Therefore this objection is overruled. First Cause of Action for Fraud: The demurrer is sustained, with thirty days leave to amend. The allegation that Defendants knew the promises were false when made is absent or what representations were made by whom and what authority either defendant had to speak on behalf of the entity. Second Cause of Action for Conver...