A magistrate judge in the Eastern District of California recommends reversing a Social Security disability denial because the administrative law judge gave no reasons for partly discrediting the claimant’s symptom testimony and never explained what ‘conservative treatment’ meant in
Eastern District of California vacates a Supplemental Security Income denial and remands, holding that the administrative law judge misread the claimant’s testimony about caring for teenage children, two-to-three-hour-per-week volunteering, sweeping with breaks, and driving as inconsistent wit
Eastern District of California preliminarily approves a $9 million settlement of a federal securities class action against Origin Materials, Inc. and its CEO over allegedly misleading statements about the construction timeline of its Origin 1 and Origin 2 manufacturing plants.
Eastern District of California denies a motion to dismiss civil rights claims brought by a man who alleges Stanislaus County deputies broke his arm and deployed a police dog while he was surrendering, holding that the Heck v. Humphrey bar does not foreclose his Fourth Amendment excessive force claim
Eastern District of California denies a pro se commercial truck driver’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking the California DMV from cancelling his commercial driver’s license over his failure to produce proof of citizenship or lawful permanent resident status.
Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha dismissed pro se plaintiffs’ fifth duplicative lawsuit alleging a $22 billion mining-royalty price-fixing conspiracy, granted defendants’ motion for § 1927 sanctions for bad-faith ex parte filings (despite two prior warnings), and ordered plaintiffs to show ca
Judge R. Gary Klausner denied a remand motion in a Foot Locker premises-liability case, holding that ‘Employee Sam’ — identified only by first name and physical description — remained a fictitious defendant whose California citizenship must be disregarded under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b)(1).
Judge John F. Walter sua sponte ordered defendants to show cause why a Textron-related case should not be remanded after Alliance Ground International’s filings inconsistently identified it as both ‘Inc.’ and ‘LLC,’ leaving the court unable to verify whether complete di
Judge Sunshine Sykes denied remand of a Chevrolet Silverado lemon-law case where GM documented $67,065.58 in actual damages and plaintiff specifically alleged willfulness based on eight unsuccessful repair attempts, allowing civil penalties to push the amount in controversy to about $128,833 — well
Magistrate Judge Illman approves a $42,800 attorney fee under Social Security Act § 406(b) for counsel who secured $200,027 in past-due disability benefits for his client on remand, finding an effective hourly rate of about $1,350 reasonable and ordering the EAJA offset.
Judge Sunshine Sykes denied remand of a Wayfair wrongful-termination suit, counting $32,302 in past lost wages plus 1:1 ratios for emotional-distress and punitive damages to reach roughly $96,908 — well above the $75,000 diversity threshold. Plaintiff’s mitigation argument was rejected because
Judge Seeborg upholds the Provider Reimbursement Review Board’s denial of an unopposed reinstatement request after four major Bay Area hospitals — Contra Costa Regional, SF General, Stanford, and UCSF Medical Center — accidentally withdrew their entire FY 2007 Medicare outlier payment appeals while
Judge Martínez-Olguín dismisses with leave to amend a pro se mandamus petition by a developmentally disabled adult and his stepfather seeking SSA action against a representative payee that allegedly stopped paying his rent, holding the petitioners had not exhausted SSA administrative procedures.
Judge David O. Carter sua sponte remanded a Walgreens wrongful-termination case after refusing to credit speculative emotional-distress, punitive, and attorneys’ fees damages — leaving only $24,327 in past lost wages, well below the $75,000 threshold. He used the opinion to call on Congress to
Judge Christina Snyder allowed negligence and unjust enrichment claims to proceed in a $75,000 stolen-bicycle case against Kitzuma and BikeExchange, holding that Carmack Amendment preemption could not be resolved at the motion-to-dismiss stage because the operative pleading did not clearly character
Judge Hernán D. Vera remanded a janitor’s FEHA discrimination and wage-and-hour suit to state court, rejecting the employer’s argument that the plaintiff’s possible undocumented status and the IRCA/Hoffman back-pay defense created federal-question jurisdiction under Grable. The cou
Chief Judge Seeborg dismisses without leave to amend a former BART electrician’s common-law wrongful-termination/constructive-discharge claim, holding that under Lopez v. Southern Cal. Rapid Transit District a California public entity cannot be sued in tort without an authorizing statute.
Magistrate Judge Hixson grants in part Mixedbread AI’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, dismissing AI startup co-founder Julius Lipp’s conversion and California Penal Code § 496 claims under the economic loss rule, while leaving the breach-of-contract counts intact.
Magistrate Judge Pedro V. Castillo denied remand of a 2021 GMC Yukon lemon-law case, holding GM had no duty to investigate beyond the complaint and the documented $78,776 in actual damages plus civil penalties (twice actual damages, supported by at least five repair attempts) brought the amount in c
Magistrate Judge Pedro V. Castillo denied remand of a 2019 Chevy Silverado lemon-law case, holding documented actual damages of $54,232 plus civil penalties (twice actual damages, supported by at least ten repair attempts) brought the amount in controversy to roughly $162,698 — well over the $75,000
Judge Breyer adopts a magistrate’s report and recommendation dismissing pro se plaintiff Chikodi Chima’s second federal lawsuit against 26 defendants — lawyers, social workers, police, financial institutions, and the City and County of San Francisco — arising from a state-court child custody dispute
Magistrate Judge Pedro V. Castillo denied remand of a 2022 Chevy Silverado lemon-law suit where actual damages were modest ($34,932) after the mileage offset, but specific willfulness allegations and six repair attempts justified including civil penalties (twice actual damages), bringing the amount
Magistrate Judge Tse declines to tax costs against Vincent Bryant — an unhoused plaintiff now in a vegetative state after being shot in the face by Berkeley police — applying all five Ninth Circuit factors that justify departing from the Rule 54(d)(1) presumption favoring the prevailing party.
Magistrate Judge Maria Audero reversed an SSI denial for a claimant with schizoaffective disorder and depression, holding the ALJ failed to provide specific, clear, and convincing reasons to discount his subjective symptom testimony — and warned that ALJs cannot rely on isolated periods of improveme