Daniel Fisher News
Chokehold victim can't sue Brazilian jiu-jitsu organization
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A man who took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu at age 49 and was injured sparring with another man can’t sue the national organization affiliated with the studio where he was hurt, a California appeals court ruled.
San Diego's school COVID vaccine mandate rejected by court
SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - San Diego can’t impose a Covid vaccine mandate on students because state law governs which vaccinations are required to attend public school, an appeals court ruled, rejecting arguments officials had to act to protect students and the school district from liability.
Lawyers' effort to call a neurosurgeon a 'debt collector' fails at appeals court
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A neurosurgeon who outsources all of his billing to a debt-collection firm isn’t subject to California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, an appeals court ruled, rejecting a lawsuit by a woman who claimed she was harassed over a bill stemming from her husband’s trip to the emergency room.
Software exec gets new trial over firing from 'boys club' firm
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A woman who said she was fired from a Swiss software company after a high-ranking executive told her she’d never succeed because it was a “boys club” and accused her of being a “bitch” can proceed with her lawsuit, a California appeals court ruled.
California court: Disability not a viable reason to dismiss juror
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A woman who lost a malpractice lawsuit against her anesthesiologist will get a second chance after a California appeals court ruled a defense lawyer improperly challenged two potential jurors because they had disabled family members.
New trial for case that exposed insurers to billions in damages
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A California appeals court ordered a new trial for a lawsuit that produced a state Supreme Court decision exposing life insurance companies to billions of dollars in damages, by ruling a 2013 law applied to retroactively to every policy sold in the state.
Life insurer gets huge win in court, as class action rejected in California
SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge refused to certify a class action that could have exposed life insurers to billions of dollars in damages, saying the proposed class was too broad and the lead plaintiff wasn’t typical of other claimants lawyers sought to bundle into one massive case.
San Diego dealt blow in wrongful death lawsuit; Police didn't watch one-hour instruction video
SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - Family members of a motorcyclist who crashed after leading police on a 100-mph chase might win money from the City of San Diego because police officers didn’t spend a required hour a year watching videos on how to conduct vehicular pursuits.
'WHT CHOCO' on price tag could be false advertising, Calif. court rules
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Consumers could be misled into believing Target’s White Baking Morsels contain white chocolate because the price tag had the abbreviation “WHT CHOCO,” a California appeals court ruled, reviving a class action a trial judge had dismissed after finding no reasonable consumer could have been deceived.
Police training videos at issue in lawsuit over motorcyclist’s crash
SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - Family members of a motorcyclist who crashed after leading police on a 100 m.p.h. chase might win money from the City of San Diego because police officers didn’t spend a required hour a year watching videos on how to conduct vehicular pursuits.
Murdered teacher, school district not liable for classroom shooting
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - A California school district and the estate of a teacher who was shot and killed by her estranged husband aren’t liable for the incident in which a student was also murdered, an appeals court ruled, finding no evidence the district created a “dangerous condition” by failing to bar visitors from the school or install locks on doors.
Appeals court sides with jury instead of judge in $850K slip-and-fall
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A trial judge was wrong to throw out an $850,000 verdict in favor of a man who claimed he slipped and fell on water that spilled out of a restaurant employee’s cart full of dirty dishes, an appeals court ruled, rejecting the restaurant’s explanation of what happened “made little sense.”
Life insurers face billions in liability for their actions before California changed the rules
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Life insurance companies doing business in California face billions of dollars in potential liability as plaintiff lawyers seize upon a state Supreme Court ruling that applies a 2012 law to tens of thousands of policies sold years before.
Case against Uber over death of highly intoxicated Univ. of San Diego student transferred
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - Uber and two of its drivers won a change of venue in a lawsuit accusing them of responsibility for the death of a University of San Diego student who vomited in one vehicle and ran away from a second, dying miles away after being hit by two cars on the highway.
.jpg)
California court closes door on website-accessibility lawsuits
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A California appeals court may have closed the door on a once-lucrative area of the law for plaintiff attorneys, ruling the websites of internet-only retailers are not “places of public accommodation” under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Sotheby's might be liable for $4 million in missing diamonds
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Sotheby’s Inc. might be liable for handing $4 million in diamonds to a man who promptly disappeared, a California appeals court ruled, reversing a trial judge’s decision dismissing the case.
Court overturns $3 million punitive damages award in case of Old Spice talcum powder
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A California appeals court reversed a $3 million punitive-damages award against a former supplier of cosmetic talc, ruling there wasn’t evidence the company’s executives knew their product contained dangerous amounts of asbestos when the plaintiff claimed his exposure.
Industry group loses constitutional challenge to California's Private Attorney General Act
SANTA ANA, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - A lobbying group for California businesses lost a constitutional challenge to a state labor law that allows citizens to act as private attorneys general, as an appeals court rejected claims the law violates the separation of powers.
Latest opioid ruling puts MDL judge further out of step on public nuisance
A federal judge soundly rejected the “public nuisance” theory behind most opioid litigation, further isolating the judge in charge of thousands of similar lawsuits who has consistently ruled in favor of plaintiffs on this very question.
Uber not liable for sexual assaults by fake drivers, court rules
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Uber Technologies had no duty to protect women who got into cars driven by men who sexually assaulted them even though the ride-app company knew people were printing out official-looking Uber stickers on home computers and using them to lure victims, a California appeals court ruled.