"Partial Final Award" Did Not Constitute An Award Immediately Reviewable By Superior Court. Maplebear, Inc. v. Donna Busick, No. A151677 (1/2 8/21/18) affirms the trial court's order dismissing Maplebear's (Instacart's) petition to vacate an award, which award was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Instacart is a same-day grocery delivery service, and the dispute […]
Civil Penalties Or Victim Specific Statutory Damages? Lawson v. ZB, N.A. et al., and ZB, N.A., et al. v. Superior Court of San Diego, D071279 & D071376 (4/1 12/19/17) (Benke, Huffman, Haller), is the latest skirmish in the ongoing battle waged between employers and employees over whether Private Attorney General Act of 2004 […]
Waiver, Invited Error, And Sharp Practices Doom The Appeal. Justice Ikola grabs the reader by the lapels in the opening lines of Diaz v. Professional Community Management, Inc., G053909 (4/3 certified for pub. 11/8/17) (Ikola, O'Leary, Aronson): "A 'sharp practice' is defined as a 'dealing in which advantage is taken or sought unscrupulously. […]
San Francisco Trolley Operator's Writ Petition And Motion To Vacate Go Off The Rails. San Francisco Trolley on Market St. 2012. Carol M. Highsmith, photographer. Library of Congress. Appellant's procedural quagmire is underscored by the following statement of the Court of Appeal: "In a somewhat puzzling argument, appellant contests his own standing to challenge the […]
Plus The Court Of Appeal could Not Review Merits Of The Dispute, Which Included Legal And Factual Bases Of The Arbitrator's Award. After William Schwartz arbitrated with Joel Schwartz, the arbitrator declared William the prevailing party and awarded William $264,559.89 in fees and costs. The Superior Court confirmed the award, and Joel timely […]
How Do You Like Them Zombie Cookies? "I walked with a Zombie." 1943. The Ninth Circuit granted a petition for a writ of mandamus and vacated the district court's order that had granted Turn, Inc.'s motion to stay a putative class action and compel arbitration with Turn, Inc., the alleged user of "zombie" cookies. […]
Partial Final Award Here Was Not A Final Award. When I read, "[a]fter a rather convoluted multi-year path, the parties agreed to arbitration in lieu of the superior court litigation," I had a queasy feeling that the parties are not at the end of that path. Nor were my expectations disappointed in Kaiser Foundation […]
Courts Like To Conserve Judicial Resources. In Chango Coffee, Inc. v. Applied Underwriters, Inc., B267358 (2/3 5/26/17) (Johnson (Michael), Edmon, Aldrich), the trial court denied a renewed motion brought by defendant to compel arbitration of a complaint brought by Chango Coffee, Inc. Defendant appealed the order denying a renewed petition brought under Cal. […]
No Appeal From Order Denying Motion To Vacate Arbitration Award. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal without prejudice in Porter v. AG Arcadia, LLC, No. B276183 (2/5 2/28/17) (Turner, Kriegler, Kin) (unpublished). Defendants appealed from an order denying a motion to vacate an arbitration award. The problem? “No appeal may be taken from an […]
A Trap For The Unwary . . . Kum Tat Limited v. Linden Ox Pasture, LLC, No. 14-17472 (9th Cir. 1/13/17) (Hurwitz, Lucero, Graber) presents a trap for the unwary. Plaintiff Kum Tat Limited sued in California state court in connection with its attempted purchase of residential property for approximately $40M, after its attempted purchase […]