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F.E.V. v. City of Anaheim
Prior state court judgment based on collateral estoppel effect of a federal court judgment is not entitled to res judicata effect after the federal court judgment was reversed on appeal. On a prior appeal, the state Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment dismissing plaintiff’s claims based on the collateral estoppel effect of a federal court…
Association des Eleveurs de Canards et d’Oies du Quebec v. Becerra
California’s law banning foie gras and other products made from force-fed birds is not preempted by the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act, since that act only prohibits states from imposing ingredient requirements, as opposed to restrictions on animal husbandry practices. The Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. § 467e) prohibits states from imposing “ingredient requirements”…
Lambert v. Nutraceutical Corp.
Uncertainty regarding class members’ damages does not prevent certification of a class as long as a valid method has been proposed for calculating those damages such as, here, a full refund of the purchase price based on defendant’s suggested retail price and the price the individual plaintiff paid. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f)’s 14-day…
Diego v. City of Los Angeles
While a police department could not legally discriminate against its employee police officers based on their ethnicity, it could legally take adverse employment action against them based on the race of the man they shot. This decision reverses a $4 million jury verdict in favor of two policemen who complained that they were discriminated against…
Campidoglio v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
The Home Owners Loan Act does not preempt a state law breach of contract claim that the bank miscalculated adjusted interest rates on loans, since common law breach of contract claims impose no requirements other than those the bank voluntarily assumed in its own agreements. The Home Owners Loan Act does not preempt a state…
Branch Banking & Trust Co. v. D.M.S.I., L.L.C.
The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”) preempts a Nevada law that limited deficiency judgments on foreclosure to the amount by which the price the owner paid to acquire the loan exceeded the foreclosure sale price. BB&T acquired three loans from the same group of defendants when it bought Colonial Bank’s assets from…
Johnson v. Open Door Community Health Centers
Plaintiff’s suit for physical injuries suffered when she tripped over a scale as she left a community health facility is governed by the two-year limitations period for ordinary negligence, not the shorter limitations period for claims against a health care provider’s negligent delivery of professional services. Plaintiff was a patient at the defendant medical center. …
United States ex rel. Welch v. My Left Foot Children’s Therapy, LLC
False Claims Act lawsuit was not subject to defendant employer’s arbitration clause in its contract with employee claimant, since it had no substantial connection to the employment relationship, and it was a claim by the United States, not the employee, against the employer. An employer’s arbitration clause was not phrased broadly enough to encompass a…
Miller v. Fortune Commercial Corp.
A fully trained service dog must be accommodated under federal law and Civil Code § 51; a service dog in training must also be accommodated under Civil Code §§ 54, 54.1, but only if accompanied by the disabled person, or a person licensed or otherwise qualified to train the dog. For purposes of the Unruh…
Roth v. Plikaytis
Trial court abused its discretion in declining to consider time records that had been filed with a previous attorney fee motion in the case and were incorporated by reference in a later attorney fee motion in the same case, since parties are permitted to incorporate by reference any paper previously filed in the action. Under…
Global Modular, Inc. v. Kadena Pacific, Inc.
A subcontractor’s commercial general liability insurance policy did not exclude coverage of water damage to the interiors of modular units it supplied since the damage was not the specific part of the units on which the subcontractor was then working nor the part on which the subcontractor incorrectly performed its work. A CGL policy’s exclusion…
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