Primary practice area
Fourth District reverses summary judgment for general contractor in $73 million emissions testing equipment dispute, holding that whether the equipment becomes a fixed part of the structure for purposes of the contractor licensing finished products exemption is a question of fact when supported by conflicting expert testimony.
The Ninth Circuit grants a stay pending appeal of an Arizona district court injunction that had struck the word ‘operation’ from the state’s birth-certificate-amendment statute, leaving Arizona’s surgical-verification requirement in place while the merits appeal proceeds.
Second District affirms summary judgment for medical group under the going and coming rule in case where employee struck a bicyclist while turning into a parking lot during her morning commute, holding that the employee’s permission to work from home on certain days did not convert her home into a second worksite for purposes of the day in question.
The Ninth Circuit stays a sweeping district court injunction that had restricted federal officers’ use of non-lethal crowd-control munitions and ordered ICE agent uniforms redesigned, holding the underlying First Amendment retaliation theory unlikely to succeed and the relief overbroad and improperly class-wide.
The Ninth Circuit stays a Portland district court injunction barring federal officers from using tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside an ICE facility, holding that nearby apartment residents likely have no substantive-due-process right to be free from incidental chemical exposure.
Third District affirms denial of anti-SLAPP motion to strike a cross-complaint challenging the validity of an air quality management district’s underlying interpretive policy, holding that the cross-complaint did not arise from the district’s protected enforcement activities.
First District holds that a probation condition allowing the probation department to incarcerate a defendant for up to 120 days without a court hearing improperly delegates judicial authority and that denying custody credit for residential treatment requires a knowing waiver under Penal Code section 2900.5.
Second District affirms denial of Blue Origin’s motion to compel arbitration of former employee’s FEHA sexual harassment and other claims, holding that the arbitration agreement is both substantively and procedurally unconscionable due to lack of mutuality and one-sided carve-outs, and that severance is not appropriate.
Fourth District grants writ of mandate striking a $25,000 attorney’s fee condition the trial court had imposed sua sponte on the plaintiff’s leave to amend her complaint, holding that Code of Civil Procedure section 473 does not authorize fee awards as conditions of amendment.
The Ninth Circuit grants the United States an injunction pending appeal barring California from enforcing the No Vigilantes Act’s visible-identification requirement against federal officers, holding that the law likely violates the Supremacy Clause by directly regulating the federal government’s performance of its functions.