The Fourth District conditionally reverses gang murder convictions, finding the trial court applied the wrong legal standards when denying Racial Justice Act motions and discovery requests based on the prosecution’s introduction of a rap song at trial.
The Fourth District holds that the CPRA’s “promptly available” production standard is a flexible, context-dependent requirement — not a fixed deadline — and sets out a multi-factor test for courts to evaluate agency compliance.
The Fourth District affirms a murder conviction where a suspect’s incriminating statements to a jailhouse undercover agent were admissible despite his prior Miranda invocation, because no known officer stimulated conversation after the invocation.
The Fourth District held that a judgment creditor cannot use the spousal exception to levy a third party’s bank accounts without a court order when the marriage supporting the levy was bigamous and void from its inception.
California’s Fourth District holds that check memo-line annotations labeling payments as “loan payment” are not sufficient written acknowledgments to revive a debt already barred by the statute of limitations.
Fourth District holds that a defendant’s appearance through counsel under Penal Code section 977 satisfies the appearance requirement for bail bond exoneration and that the trial court retained jurisdiction to award extradition costs after conditional exoneration.
Fourth District reverses summary judgment for general contractor in $73 million emissions testing equipment dispute, holding that whether the equipment becomes a fixed part of the structure for purposes of the contractor licensing finished products exemption is a question of fact when supported by c
Fourth District grants writ of mandate striking a $25,000 attorney’s fee condition the trial court had imposed sua sponte on the plaintiff’s leave to amend her complaint, holding that Code of Civil Procedure section 473 does not authorize fee awards as conditions of amendment.
Fourth District grants writ of mandate ordering reconsideration of misdemeanor diversion request in vehicular manslaughter case, holding that the trial court abused its discretion by denying diversion based solely on the inherent elements of the charged offense (negligence causing death) without ind
Fourth District holds that a court correcting a clerical error in an abstract of judgment is not required to conduct full resentencing or hear Romero motions, but exceeded its authority by modifying the underlying misdemeanor sentences during the correction process.
Fourth District affirms forcible rape and related convictions but holds that stayed sentences based on unused One Strike circumstances and the Habitual Sexual Offender law are unauthorized when the defendant is already sentenced under the One Strike law and Three Strikes law for the same offense.
Fourth District holds that impracticability of performance is an equitable defense that must be tried to the court rather than the jury and reverses a defense verdict in a breach of contract case arising from a Texas mortuary’s body mix-up that resulted in the wrong body being buried in San Di
Fourth District affirms a $9.4 million wrongful-death judgment against two brothers who falsely reported their deceased mother missing to police, triggering a phone call to a recovering-alcoholic brother whose resulting relapse caused his death.
Fourth District reverses a five-year DVRO for the second time, holding the trial court again denied the incarcerated respondent meaningful access to the courts by issuing the order without addressing his request to appear telephonically.
Fourth District affirms a juvenile court’s joint-and-several restitution order, holding the January 2025 amendment to Welfare and Institutions Code section 730.6 — which replaced joint-and-several liability with several liability based on percentage of fault — does not apply retroactively to a
Fourth District affirms a bench-trial finding that commercial tenants rebutted Civil Code section 1945’s presumption of month-to-month tenancy after their lease expired during COVID-19, where the tenants paid one month as a goodwill gesture and never agreed to continue.
Fourth District holds Proposition 65’s pre-suit notice regulation is directory rather than mandatory, and that substantial compliance — not strict compliance — governs the validity of the 60-day notice for private-enforcement actions.
Fourth District holds that a successful petitioner in a financial-elder-abuse trust dispute may recover attorney fees under Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657.5(a), even though he also defended against the wrongdoers’ competing cross-claim for elder abuse.
Fourth District holds a public employee ‘convicted’ of a job-related felony — by guilty plea — forfeits a portion of his pension benefits under Government Code section 7522.74, and that forfeiture is not undone when the felony is later reduced to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 17
Fourth District affirms denial of a Song-Beverly plaintiff’s attorney-fee motion as untimely, holding the motion had to be served within 180 days of the court-ordered dismissal date even though the parties had not formally filed a dismissal.
Fourth District affirms a felony arson conviction but reverses the state-of-emergency sentencing enhancement, holding the 2015 tree-mortality emergency proclamation did not extend statewide and the prosecution failed to prove the fire was in a designated hazard zone.
Fourth District reverses a second-degree-murder conviction, holding that statements obtained from a defendant during an undercover Perkins operation were inadmissible under Miranda because the suspect had invoked his right to counsel and a known law-enforcement officer continued to ‘stimulate&
Fourth District reverses summary judgment for Wal-Mart, holding California’s Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act allows employees to recover the $10,000 statutory damages award for ICRAA disclosure violations without proving any concrete injury such as an adverse employment decision.
Fourth District affirms convictions but remands for resentencing in a vehicle-theft case, holding the prosecutor’s and defense counsel’s use of a ‘dog drinking a slushy’ analogy to explain circumstantial evidence did not violate the Racial Justice Act.