CA Pub. Decisions

Plaintiff's claim that he was terminated for advising coworkers to keep notes to "protect" themselves and to bring their complaints of unfair working conditions to management in violation of the public policy favoring disclosure of such conditions was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, which gives the National Labor Relations Board exclusive jurisdiction over claims that an employee was terminated for engaging in "concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection."

Trial court erred in allowing property owners' expert to testify as to severance damages in eminent domain case despite owners' failure to establish that the temporary construction easement that was the subject of the action interfered with or injured their actual intended use of their property. Where award of litigation expenses was based in part on huge variance between settlement offer and damages award, and a major portion of the damages award was the product of erroneously admitted testimony, award of litigation expenses had to be reconsidered on remand.

Plaintiff, who fell from a horse during a guided trail ride, did not release the provider of the horse and guide from liability for injuries caused when guide suddenly caused his horse to gallop without warning the other riders, thereby causing plaintiff's horse also to gallop. Express release of liability resulting from tendency of horses to "run and bolt uncontrollably...without warning and without apparent cause" did not clearly and unambiguously inform an ordinary person untrained in the law that its purpose and effect was to exempt defendant from liability for its own negligence. Where guide admittedly knew that many riders were inexperienced or unskilled, and defendant stated in writing that it endeavored to provide skilled guides so that riders could enjoy the activity even if unskilled themselves, triable issue existed as to whether guide's sudden action increased the risk inherent in the activity, precluding summary judgment based on primary assumption of risk.

Man shown by paternity tests to be biological father of dependent child, whose mother was unmarried, had standing to move to set aside voluntary declaration of paternity by mother's boyfriend.

Trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting new trial based on misconduct of juror who, contrary to instructions, referred in deliberations to his specialized training and experience as reasons for his conclusion regarding "hotly contested" issues.

A modification decision.

Where minor declines to admit allegations against him and calls for a contested jurisdictional hearing, the minor no longer qualifies for deferred entry of judgment consideration under Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 791(b). Juvenile court, upon finding that minor committed an offense qualifying as a "wobbler," has a mandatory duty to determine whether the offense is a felony or a misdemeanor.

Optional service contracts sold by computer manufacturer to its consumers at time of computer purchase are not tangible personal property and are exempt from taxation, even if computers and service contracts are sold for a single lump-sum price, without a separate statement on the invoice of the charge for the service contract.

Vehicle Code Sec. 21, which allows a city or county to adopt an ordinance establishing a pilot program to implement procedures for declaring a motor vehicle to be a public nuisance when used in commission of certain crimes and for removing the vehicle--excluding forfeiture--and which generally prohibits local regulation of "matters covered" by code, expressly preempted city ordinance authorizing the seizure and forfeiture of vehicles used to solicit prostitution. Trial court's award of attorney fees to individual who challenged ordinance was proper because challenge served public interest by forcing city to abandon ordinance and comply with state law, trial court's opinion was ultimately validated by supreme court, ruling affected a large class of persons, and financial burdens of litigation outweighed individual's personal financial interest in challenging ordinance. Individual was not entitled to additional award of fees under Code of Civil Procedure Sec. 1021.5 where he was not initial prevailing party and only later became a prevailing party because other individual's successful appeal to supreme court provided positive precedent.

Uniform Trade Secrets Act does not authorize an award of attorney fees when a claim of misappropriation of a patent or a trademark is made in bad faith; the act applies only to trade secrets. Defendants were not entitled to attorney fees based on licensing contract's indemnification clause, where clause required plaintiff to indemnify defendants from any claims or lawsuits, including attorney fees, resulting from a breach of the contract or a claim that defendants' "exploitation of any rights in the Technology and the Marks herein licensed infringes or violates any patent, copyright, trademark or other right of any third party" and suit involved no finding of any breach of contract by plaintiffs, and involved claims of infringement by parties to the litigation, not by third parties.

Coastal Commission has the power to unilaterally designate environmentally sensitive habitat areas and thereby prevent development prior to the certification of a local coastal program. Coastal Commission has the power to prevent development on property several miles from the ocean on the grounds that the development will impair scenic and visual resources of a coastal zone that extends further inland.

Plaintiff raised triable issues as to timeliness of her claims of age and race discrimination in violation of Fair Employment and Housing Act by presenting evidence supporting a reasonable inference that defendant engaged in acts some within the one year limitations period each of which was intentionally discriminatory. Where plaintiff was employed as a nursing instructor, evidence that defendant substantially reduced plaintiff's teaching assignments and that this reduction in classes was attributable to race and age was sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact concerning whether plaintiff suffered an adverse employment action. Evidence that plaintiff's supervisor made a racial comment about plaintiff, an African American, to a coworker and also made derogatory racial comments to plaintiff concerning her African American coworkers, and that supervisor substantially reduced plaintiff's teaching assignments and excessively monitored plaintiff's classroom performance when plaintiff was allowed to teach would permit a reasonable trier of fact to infer that plaintiff's race motivated supervisor's conduct in taking away the majority of her teaching assignments and giving them to instructors who were not African American, and in monitoring plaintiff's performance while not monitoring the nursing instructors who were not African American, and thus raised a triable issue of fact as to whether supervisor's conduct constituted actionable racial harassment.

Where long time California resident sued asbestos manufacturer based on exposure that occurred in another state before plaintiff moved here, and defendant had no office in the latter state, did not engage in tortuous conduct in that state, and did not rely on protection of that state's laws in engaging in the conduct that resulted in the suit, relative interests of California and the state in which the alleged exposure occurred were such that it was error to apply the latter state's statute of repose.

Emergency medical technicians are health care providers protected by the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act. Negligence of EMT in operating an ambulance qualifies as professional negligence when the EMT is rendering services that are identified with human health and for which he or she is licensed.