California’s First District Court of Appeal holds that the doctrine of substantial compliance applies to Proposition 65 pre-suit notice requirements, reversing a trial court that dismissed a toxic-substances lawsuit for failing to identify a responsible individual by name in the notice.
The Ninth Circuit holds that under its binding precedent in Filice, California state claim preclusion law—not federal law—governs the preclusive effect of FTCA judgments, and a statute-of-limitations dismissal has no preclusive effect under California law.
First District affirms bail bond forfeiture, holding that a trial court’s on-the-record acknowledgment of an off-the-record explanation for a defendant’s nonappearance suffices to retain jurisdiction over the bond under Penal Code section 1305.1.
Second District holds that an employee’s erratic and irrational behavior at work — including statements about killing his stepmother and inanimate objects laughing at him — did not charge employer with knowledge of a mental disability under FEHA, because disability was not the ‘only reas
Fourth District affirms that People failed to prove teenage accomplice guilty of murder under current law at section 1172.6 evidentiary hearing, but remands to redesignate his manslaughter conviction as attempted robbery rather than dismissing the case entirely.
Sixth District holds that an electric bicycle is not a ‘motor vehicle’ under the Vehicle Code, and the DMV cannot suspend a rider’s driver’s license for refusing a blood-alcohol test after being stopped while riding an e-bike under the influence.
Ninth Circuit holds that an automobile manufacturer that was not a party to a consumer’s lease agreement with a dealership cannot enforce the lease’s arbitration or delegation clause, reaffirming Kramer v. Toyota and applying the California Supreme Court’s Ford Motor Warranty Cases
Ninth Circuit vacates a Northern District of California ruling that found fluoride in drinking water at 0.7 mg/L poses unreasonable health risks, holding the judge violated the party presentation principle by commandeering the evidentiary record over both parties’ objections.
The Third District Court of Appeal held that a renewed LPS conservatorship begins on the date the court issues its reappointment order, not retroactively on the day after the prior conservatorship expired.
The Fourth District held that a judgment creditor cannot use the spousal exception to levy a third party’s bank accounts without a court order when the marriage supporting the levy was bigamous and void from its inception.