California Appellate Report

What surprised me most about this opinion was the very last line. The opinion itself is savage . Savage. It affirms the imposition of $10,000 in discovery sanctions against a law firm -- The Va...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/05/masimo-corp-v-vanderpool-law-firm-cal.html

Justice Corrigan authors a powerful opinion that holds that it's not permissible for the police to conduct a Terry stop just because someone's in a high crime area and pretending to tie his sho...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/05/people-v-flores-cal-supreme-ct-may-2.html

After reading the briefs, I too suspect -- as the trial court found -- that Mr. Kwan did in fact aid and abet the stealing of electricity for a marijuana grow house in Sacramento, notwithstandin...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/05/sacramento-utility-dist-v-kwan-cal-ct.html

I readily concede that I know only a tiny bit about what it takes to become an attorney in California if you've graduated from an unaccredited law school. I know that you've got to pass the "baby...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/pell-v-nunez-9th-cir-april-30-2024.html

The California Supreme Court should grant review of this Court of Appeal opinion . Even if it's right. Whether you're convicted of murder, and thus spend most or all of the rest of your life in p...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/people-v-fay-cal-ct-app-april-29-2024.html

This seems like an easy decision with which to comply -- as long as you're aware of it beforehand. Can a judge order someone to pretrial mental health diversion? Yes. Of course. Can a judge ord...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/people-v-berlin-cal-ct-app-april-26-2024.html

Given that marijuana is legal in Alaska and that the feds generally don't prosecute the stuff, it seems incredibly harsh to entirely deprive someone of his livelihood -- here, taking away James F...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/fejes-v-faa-9th-cir-april-23-2024.html

This opinion of the California Supreme Court -- in response to the Ninth Circuit's certified question -- is unanimous, and reading Justice Evans' opinion , you can potentially see why. She does a...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/ruelas-v-county-of-alameda-cal-supreme.html

I'm fairly confident that this is all about pretext. But given that the Supreme Court is fine with allowing pretextual traffic stops, my sense is that the police officers here did an admirable jo...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/us-v-ramirez-9th-cir-april-18-2024.html

I'm not exactly sure why Justice Wiley decided to publish this opinion , since it seems fairly clearly to make no new law and merely holds -- consistent with legions of precedent -- that in emplo...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/kuigoua-v-dept-of-veterans-affairs-cal.html

Two thoughts sprung to my mind when I read this opinion : (1) What an incredible waste of taxpayer money when a county (here, Santa Cruz County) sues a city (here, the City of Santa Cruz) over ...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/city-of-santa-cruz-v-superior-court-cal.html

Judges Forrest and Thomas disagree on whether the law is "clearly established" that it's not okay for police officers to use continuous force (e.g., by kneeling on someone's back) to someone who...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/perez-v-city-of-fresno-9th-cir-april-15.html

That darn Westlaw. Always messing up circuit precedent by placing an unjustified red flag on cases that were not, in fact, overruled. So sayeth Judge Graber. (Fixing the problem here .)

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/us-v-medina-lopez-9th-cir-april-12-2023.html

Michael Lewis, age 37, has a lengthy rap sheet, and his latest offense was a first-degree murder conviction (he shot the victim half a dozen times at close range) in August 2022 for which he rece...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/people-v-lewis-cal-ct-app-april-10-2024.html

Everything that Judge Callahan says and does here is exactly right . And -- full disclosure -- I say that even though I have a good friend who is the COO of the losing party. It's an appeal that...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/casola-v-dexcom-9th-cir-april-10-2024.html

Pretty much everyone -- including but not limited to Earl Warren to Stanley Mosk -- thought that California didn't allow one person to run for two different offices at the same election. But th...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/weber-v-superior-court-cal-ct-app-april.html

Since nothing in the federal or state constitutions expressly requires the governor of California to act on commutation petitions within a set timeframe, it's fairly clear that the governor can t...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/dilbert-v-newsom-cal-ct-app-april-8-2024.html

I get what Justice Gilbert is saying in his dissent here . I really do. And it's true that the defendant here appears to have been caught on a home video camera entering the home; that he was app...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/people-v-uriostegui-cal-ct-app-april-5.html

One of the slightly bad things about having old(er) people around is that they might be stuck in the traditional way of doing things and unjustly resistant to new ideas. But one of the relative...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/us-v-hansen-9th-cir-april-3-2024.html

I'm confident that Justice Baltodano is right here , and it points out an interesting way to avoid arbitration that I hadn't considered before. Yes, when Jazmin Vazquez first started working at S...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/vasquez-v-sanisure-corp-cal-ct-app.html

There's no reason why the police have to search your backpack (without a warrant) after they've already released you from the police station. None. Zero. The Supreme Court has said it's fine fo...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/us-v-sapalasan-9th-cir-april-1-2024.html

Justice Stratton doesn't exactly pay lavish compliments to Loeb & Loeb -- or its attorneys -- in this opinion . A guy (Sadlier) enters into an agreement with a company (Medallion Film) to help ...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/04/medallion-film-llc-v-loeb-loeb-llp-cal.html

After reading this opinion , I am definitely going to start my own business and follow the same gameplan. Sorrento Therapeutics is a San Diego biotech company that was rapidly going broke; it h...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/03/zenoff-v-sorrento-therapeutics-inc-9th.html

I know the Ninth Circuit was trying to be nice; indeed, generous. But appellant's counsel not only "cite two cases that do not appear to exist," but also "misrepresent the facts and holdings of n...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/03/grant-v-city-of-long-beach-9th-cir.html

It's kinda nice when resolving an appeal essentially just boils down to reading a fairly straightforward statute. Like here . Neptune (you know, the cremation company) sells the whole "pre-need...

http://calapp.blogspot.com/2024/03/neptune-management-co-v-cemetery.html