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