The Second District reversed summary judgment for State Farm, finding triable issues on whether a pinhole pipe leak met the policy’s seepage exclusion and whether the insurer acted in bad faith by reversing its own coverage determination.
The Sixth District ordered a trial court to reinstate blood-alcohol evidence in a DUI murder case, holding that a defendant’s breath-test request is irrelevant to blood-draw warrant probable cause and that the implied consent statute does not override a valid warrant.
The Second District vacated a murder conviction because the trial court improperly added and underlined ‘unintentionally’ in the voluntary manslaughter jury instruction, misleading the jury about when heat of passion applies.
The Second District upheld LA’s post-COVID eviction-threshold ordinance as a valid exercise of city police power, but struck down its relocation-assistance mandate as preempted by the Costa-Hawkins Act.
The Ninth Circuit held that a public university violated a professor’s First Amendment rights by investigating and reprimanding him for inserting a counter-statement to a recommended land acknowledgment in his syllabus.
The Ninth Circuit held that Loper Bright’s elimination of Chevron deference does not undermine AEDPA’s deferential standard in habeas cases, reversing a district court’s grant of relief to a California death-row inmate.
California appeals court holds that Humboldt County can be sued for failing to enroll a 40-year court reporter in CalPERS and losing her personnel records, establishing that pension enrollment and record-keeping are mandatory duties enforceable under Government Code section 815.6.
Ninth Circuit orders EPA to strengthen regulation of decaBDE, a toxic flame retardant, holding the agency failed to justify exemptions for recycling, waste disposal, wastewater, and sewage sludge under TSCA’s expedited rulemaking mandate.
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.
The Ninth Circuit holds that when a racially biased juror is discovered and removed before a verdict is accepted, courts must apply the Remmer framework’s heavy presumption of prejudice—and reverses a tax-fraud conviction because the government could not rebut that presumption.