The California Court of Appeal affirmed dismissal of a sidewalk trip-and-fall lawsuit against the City of West Hollywood, holding that filing suit before the city received the plaintiff’s Government Claims Act claim was a fatal, incurable defect.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed summary judgment for retired Boston firefighters who sought cash payouts for unused compensatory time, holding that derivative leave categories created through a vacation-redemption formula are neither contractually required nor ‘wages earned’ under the Wage Act.
The Tenth District affirmed the denial of a contempt motion in a divorce case, holding that failure to file timely objections to a magistrate’s decision and failure to provide the hearing transcript to the appellate court were fatal procedural defects.
The Tenth District affirmed a juvenile delinquency adjudication, holding that a magistrate who presided over a related co-defendant’s case was not required to recuse from the second juvenile’s hearing absent a showing of actual bias.
The Sixth District affirmed the trial court’s decision to exclude a minor child from a domestic violence protection order where a custody and visitation order already existed in juvenile court and limited evidence connected the child to the domestic violence.
The Fifth District affirmed summary judgment for deputies in a K-9 bite case, holding that claims alleging a duty to intervene in a K-9 attack are essentially battery claims governed by the one-year statute of limitations, not custodial negligence claims.
The Second District affirms judgment finding no proximate cause between established fiduciary breach and claimed damages in family real estate dispute, and forfeiture of amendment arguments.
The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a personal injury action against the City of Atlanta, holding that sending an ante litem notice to the correct street address but the wrong suite number did not substantially comply with OCGA section 36-33-5(f).
California’s Second District Court of Appeal holds that a plaintiff who sues a public entity before the 45-day claims-response period expires cannot cure the defect by voluntarily dismissing and refiling after the claim is denied.
The Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, reverses a district court that ended a $1.1 million civil forfeiture case as a discovery sanction, holding that the claimant established standing and gave the government enough information to investigate his ownership claim.