Beware when filing new trial motions: if you are relying on it to extend your time to appeal, be mindful that it is heard within the statutory 75-day period. In Choochagi v. Barracuda Networks, Inc. (D6 Dec. 30, 2020) No. H045194, a jury returned a defense verdict for employer on employee's disability discrimination and wrongful termination claims....
I have written before about California state court cases holding that failing to exercise discretion is an abuse of discretion. The same rule applies in federal courts, as the recent case of Rembert v. A Plus Home Health Care Agency, LLC (6th Cir. Jan. 25, 2021) No. 20-3454 out of the Sixth Circuit illustrates in the context of attorney...
This recent opinion discusses two appeals, both of them dismissed on procedural grounds. The first appeal was dismissed as moot because the appellant failed to obtain a stay of the order on appeal. The second was dismissed as premature because the appellant filed the appeal too early. Both of these kinds of errors are what...
If you find yourself back in the trial court after a remand by the Court of Appeal, things are supposed to be much the same as before. Yet sometimes, things are not the same. This case provides one example: after a perfectly routine order granting attorney fees, defendant appeals the fee order, which is, likewise, perfectly...
After hitting publish on my recent piece suggesting some ways you might bring unpublished opinions to the court's attention, I remembered another example I blogged about in October: A recent (published) decision out of the First Appellate District [People v. Am. Surety Co. (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 1, 2020) D1d2 case no. A157154] upheld the validity of...
I tell clients arbitration awards are virtually unassailable on appeal. After this $3.4 million award in an employment dispute was reversed on appeal in Brown v. TGS Mgm't Co., LLC (D4d3 Nov. 12, 2020) No. G058323, that may technically still be true: but, I am not going to say it anymore. Employee Brown works in the very...
Most attorneys know that citing unpublished decisions in California courts is prohibited under California Rules of Court rule 8.1115(a). The rule is emphatic: an unpublished or depublished opinion "must not be cited or relied on by a court or a party in any other action." There are only two exceptions in the statute, and they are narrow: one...
Before your next summary-judgment motion, be sure to read Sandoval v. County of San Diego (9th Cir. Jan. 13, 2021) No. 18-55289, holding that perfunctory evidentiary objections are disallowed, and summarizing other objections that simply don't apply on summary judgment. In Sandoval, a man on probation swallowed a lethal amount of meth rather than let deputy sheriffs find...
The Discovery Act provides for mandatory sanctions for discovery abuses unless the court finds the offending party acted with substantial justification or the sanction would be "unjust." Plaintiffs in Kwan Software Eng'g, Inc. v. Hennings (D6 Dec. 2, 2020) No. H042715, a high-stakes (the complaint sought $255 million) and multi-party Silicon Valley litigation over "cyber-squatting," gave false deposition testimony,...
Last week, Bryan Garner's LawProse lesson was on succinctness, noting that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once told him that "Eye fatigue sets in well before page 50." The appellant in Semmerling v. Bormann, No. 19-3211 (7th Cir. Jan. 5, 2021) was not in danger of reaching page 50. Instead, he kind of went a...
In this commercial eviction case in Lee v. Kotyluk (D4d3 Jan. 7, 2021) No. G058631, defendant-tenant filed a motion in limine for judgment on the pleadings, asserting a defect in landlord's three-day notice to quit. The trial court granted the motion and entered judgment for the tenant. Plaintiff-landlord appealed the judgment. The prevailing defendant-tenant then obtained an...
...But that's nitpicking, innit? In the lease dispute in KJ Investment Group v. American Heritage College, (D4d3 Oct. 1, 2020) No. G058270 (unpublished), defendant, fresh off a loss on its challenge to the judgment against it, filed a second appeal, this time to the award of about $80,000 in fees. (At under six figures, I'd say...
Failing to timely seek fees after judgment does not forfeit the right to seek postjudgment fees, holds the Second District, Division Six in Vincent v. Sonkey (D2d6 Dec. 29, 2020) No. B293251. After obtaining a default judgment of $123,000 on a lease agreement, plaintiff failed to file a motion for attorney fees. Defendant then moved to set...
In this dissolution proceeding in Nevai v. Klemunes (In re Marriage of Nevai) (D3 Dec. 29, 2020) No. C086584, wife, who had quit her engineering career to raise the couple's child, asked for monthly permanent support of $10,000 from husband, who earned between $16,000 and $18,000 per month. Wife also asked that husband be ordered to pay...
Most attorneys will, at some point or another in their careers, find they have failed to make a court appearance. When that happens, an order to show cause (OSC) will issued requiring the attorney to explain to the court what happened. Hopefully, the attorney can give a good reason for the absence and avoid sanctions....
Two recent unpublished cases remind that appeals are lost for failing to designate a sufficient appellate record, and, when challenging findings as lacking substantial evidence in support, for citing only evidence supporting reversal rather than supplying the evidence to support the judgment. In the real estate nondisclosure case in Newstart Real Estate Inv. v. Huang (D2d8 Dec....
When the trial court issues a tentative ruling, counsel often will "submit" on the tentative and give no further argument. On occasion I have noticed counsel saying they "stipulate" to the tentative. I have always taken this as a slip of tongue of no real consequence. Do not be misled: there is a consequence. "Stipulating"...
Expert declarations opposing summary judgment ordinarily do not need an extensive analysis, and evidentiary objections ordinarily must be ruled upon or else deemed denied. But in a 2-1 decision out of the Fourth Appellate District, Division Three in Menges v. Dep't of Transp., G057643 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 24, 2020), that was not the case. After...
In this commercial lease dispute, the trial court abused its discretion in not one, not two, but three different ways when it awarded contractual fees to the losing defendant. In Waterwood Enterprises, LLC v. City of Long Beach (D2d1 Dec. 18, 2020) No. B296830, landlord claimed the city was liable for substantial repairs to a property that...
Bookmark Penal Code section 496 and Bell v. Feibush (D4d3 2013) 212 Cal.App.4th 1041, if you have not already, which together hold that failing to pay back a loan could subject the borrower to penalties for civil theft: treble damages, plus attorney fees. No need to establish the wrongdoing via a criminal conviction first. This is a...
You may be surprised to learn that an attorney's 25% referral arrangement discussed orally with the client, and reduced to a writing signed by the client, is not enough to satisfy rule 1.5.1 of the State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct requiring the client's "consent" to any fee division. So held the Third District in Reeve...
Take care in drafting your notice of appeal, but if you notice you have made an error, all is not lost. The California Supreme Court's January 2020 opinion in K.J. v. Los Angeles Unified School Dist. (Cal. Jan. 30, 2020) 8 Cal.5th 875 will guide you through your effort to save a malformed notice of appeal. In that...
Appellant and attorney sanctioned a blistering $56,000 for their frivolous appeal. (Malek Media Group LLC v. AXGC Corp. (D2d3 Dec. 16, 2020) No. B299743.) After a business dispute was decided against him, appellant decided to trawl the internet for dirt on the arbitrator, who, he discovered, was a founding member of GLAAD and maintained a Twitter...
Trial by reference will become very common, I suspect, as trial courts continue to limit their availability due to Covid. A key advantage over arbitration: preservation of the right of review via postjudgment motions and appeal. You may also give your referee authority to hear postjudgment motions and, if appropriate, to conduct a new trial. But...
In Doe v. Regents of the University of California (1st Dist., Div. 4 Nov. 30, 2020) No. A158704 (unpublished), a third-year med student at UCSD examined a 12-year-old girl brought in by her mother for a potential eating disorder, but conducted the examination of the girl's breasts and genitals without a chaperone, in violation of University policy. After a...
If new evidence is truly in reply to an argument raised for the first time in an opposition, the trial court abuses its discretion in excluding it. New evidence may not be submitted by an anti-SLAPP movant on reply. (See Jay v. Mahaffey (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 1522, 1537 (Jay).) So the trial court struck three reply declarations...
One bit of conventional wisdom that’s frequently heard about appellate review in California is that if a Court of Appeal opinion isn’t published, seeking Supreme Court review is a hopeless task. This week, we’re looking at the data to see if that’s true – civil cases in this post, criminal in the next. The short...
You have a deep bag of tricks as a respondent on appeal to win affirmance of your judgment. One of those tricks is forfeiture: if appellant did not raise an argument below, it is forfeit on appeal. Done. Dead. Your judgment is affirmed. But in United States v. Ngumezi, No. 19-10243 (9th Cir. Nov. 20, 2020),...
A recent case out of the Fourth Appellate District in Orange County affirms a finding of contempt against an attorney for his conduct during a 15-minute settlement conference, including persistent interruptions and calling opposing counsel a liar, without explanation. In the opinion, the Court draws a line between zealous advocacy and bullying tactics: "[i]nterrupting an opponent's...
If you question witnesses at trial close to the line of privileged communications, be sure the judge gives the mandatory instruction, if your adversary asks for it, against drawing improper inferences under Evidence Code § 913. Also, asking about a client's intent in communicating with counsel is no different than asking about the communications themselves. Those are the...
