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
Judge Orrick grants summary judgment for Comerica Bank on its acceleration of a $5.9 million commercial real estate loan to Alexander Group, LLC, holding that the loan documents are unambiguous and that Alexander Group triggered acceleration by missing payments and failing to provide required corpor
Judge Illston transfers a Social Security ALJ’s disability-accommodation suit against the SSA Commissioner to the Central District of California, where the plaintiff’s assigned hearing office is located, applying the federal-employee venue provisions of Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act and the c
First District holds California courts may exercise specific personal jurisdiction over Citgo Petroleum in coordinated climate-damages litigation brought by California cities and counties, based on Citgo’s longstanding gasoline supply contracts with California retailers.
Fourth District reverses a preliminary injunction that had blocked San Bernardino County from awarding its exclusive EMS contract to a fire-services bidder over incumbent AMR, holding the County retained discretion to weigh proposals and was not required to advance only the highest-scoring bid.
After a bench trial in a consumer class action against an online skincare seller, the magistrate judge concluded that the seller’s customer-management software vendor was not liable on aiding-and-abetting or conspiracy theories under California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act because the p
Eastern District of California dismisses Sierra Railroad’s contract and declaratory relief claims against Comcast as time-barred under California’s four-year statute of limitations, holding that promises to ‘try’ to resolve a dispute and a continuing failure to pay do not tol
Eastern District of California grants summary judgment for ConAgra in a long-running employment discrimination case, holding that a Civil Rights Department complaint with only conclusory check-box allegations does not exhaust administrative remedies under California’s Fair Employment and Housi
Eastern District of California vacates a Supplemental Security Income denial and remands for further administrative proceedings, holding that the Social Security Administration’s administrative law judge failed to adequately evaluate the supportability of a treating physician’s opinions
Judge Chen awards Food & Water Watch and its co-plaintiffs $5,263,705 in attorneys’ fees and $496,745 in costs after their landmark Toxic Substances Control Act trial verdict on water-fluoridation risks against EPA, applying San Francisco complex-litigation lodestar rates and a 1.3x multiplier
Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha dismissed with prejudice a § 1983 suit against a Los Angeles court reporter who allegedly delayed producing family-law transcripts, holding that plaintiff could not show actual prejudice because his underlying state-court cases were barred by the California litigation pri
Judge Stephen V. Wilson remanded a Ford lemon-law case back to state court, joining the consensus of California district courts that the economic loss rule and the California Supreme Court’s Rattagan v. Uber decision do not categorically bar negligent-repair claims against dealerships.
Judge Donato grants summary judgment for Alameda County and jail medical staff in a pretrial detainee’s § 1983 case alleging denial of pain medication (Gabapentin) and interference with legal mail, holding that providing Cymbalta and a documented treatment course met the objective deliberate-indiffe
Judge Michelle Williams Court denied remand of a personal-injury case against Costco that was removed more than one year after filing, finding plaintiff’s eight-month service delay and five-month discovery delay constituted bad faith under 28 U.S.C. § 1446(c)(1).
Judge Martínez-Olguín dismisses a putative wage-and-hour class action by a public-transit bus driver, holding that his California Labor Code claims are preempted by Section 301 of the LMRA because the CBA between MV Transportation and Teamsters Local 315 triggers the statutory exemptions for unioniz
Judge Martínez-Olguín grants MV Transportation’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in the parallel PAGA action by the same WestCAT bus driver, holding that the Section 301 preemption analysis applies just the same to a PAGA representative action as it does to a class wage-and-hour suit.
Judge Breyer dismisses with prejudice a pro se plaintiff’s second-round constitutional suit attacking the NLRB’s denial of a 2021 labor grievance, holding that there is no waiver of sovereign immunity, no private right of action under the Tenth Amendment, and no Bivens remedy in this novel context.
Judge Sunshine Sykes remanded a FedEx age- and disability-discrimination suit, holding the in-state supervisor was not fraudulently joined: California law excepts discrimination and retaliation from Workers’ Comp Act preemption, and the supervisor’s alleged conduct could plausibly suppor
Magistrate Judge Autumn Spaeth reversed a Social Security disability denial because the ALJ summarized medical evidence without identifying which testimony she found not credible or explaining what evidence contradicted that testimony, failing the clear-and-convincing standard required by Brown-Hunt
Judge Stephen V. Wilson remanded a Chevrolet Colorado lemon-law case, holding GM could not show even the $50,000 Magnuson-Moss amount-in-controversy threshold because actual damages were measured by payments actually made ($37,410.95), the conclusory willfulness allegation did not support adding civ
Judge Lin denies remand in a Song-Beverly suit over a 2019 GMC Sierra, applying the majority Ninth Circuit rule that a vague lemon-law complaint without vehicle-value allegations does not start the 30-day removal clock and finding the amount in controversy easily exceeds $75,000 once the willful-vio
Judge Gilliam declines interlocutory review of a Bankruptcy Court ruling that the PSLRA’s automatic discovery stay does not shield non-party Directors and Underwriters from third-party subpoenas served by claimants in the PG&E bankruptcy, even though the Directors and Underwriters are also defe
Judge Stephen V. Wilson remanded a Chevrolet Volt lemon-law case after applying the Song-Beverly mileage offset (86,841 miles before first repair) to reduce damages from $42,682 to $11,794, leaving the case below both the $50,000 MMWA and $75,000 diversity thresholds.