Justia California Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Plaintiff filed suit against defendants, alleging that they had violated the duty of loyalty owed to her under the Rules of Professional Conduct by pursuing her business partner's interests in the underlying dissolution and copyright actions. Plaintiff alleged that she had an implied attorney-client relationship with each defendant based on her status as a 50 percent owner of Purposeful Press, the company she and her business partner created. The trial court denied defendants' special motion to strike pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (the anti-SLAPP). In this case, plaintiff's claims arise out of defendants’ breach of professional obligations they allegedly owed to plaintiff as the result of an implied attorney-client relationship arising out of defendants’ representation of Purposeful Press. The court concluded that defendants failed to establish that plaintiff's claims arise from protected activity and did not address the second step of the anti-SLAPP analysis. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Sprengel v. Zbylut" on Justia Law

Defendant was accused by his step-daughter of sexual molestation when she was between the ages of 10 and 15 years old. A jury convicted defendant of 15 felonies, including rape, forcible lewd acts upon a child, aggravated sexual assault upon a child by oral copulation, aggravated sexual assault upon a child by sexual penetration, dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, and possession of child pornography. The jury acquitted him of one alleged rape (winter break rape). The court of appeal directed the trial court to enter a verdict of acquittal of an alleged June 2007 rape, for lack of substantial evidence, and ordered retrial on the remaining sexual abuse charges on juror misconduct grounds. The convictions for dissuading a witness and possession of child pornography were unaffected. During retrial, although the alleged Winter Break and June 2007 rapes were not charged, evidence of them was admitted to attack and bolster victim's credibility. The jury found defendant guilty of two counts of forcible lewd touching of a child under age 14 and hung on nine other charges. The court of appeal affirmed, upholding the admission of evidence of the uncharged rapes without informing the jury of the prior acquittals. The court found several instances of prosecutorial misconduct, which it referred to the State Bar. View "People v. Poletti," on Justia Law

Attorney William Salzwedel appealed a $96,077.14 judgment surcharging him for excessive attorney's/trustee's fees, medical expert fees, and costs incurred while acting as the temporary trustee of the Moore Family Trust. The court concluded that substantial evidence supports the finding that the fees were unreasonable, and Salzwedel's trust accounting demonstrates that the fees and expenses were excessive. The court found that Salzwedel was repeatedly warned that he had a conflict of interest acting as trustee and as the attorney for a mentally impaired client in a conservatorship proceeding. He had never served as a trustee or been involved in a conservatorship before but perceived it as a license to zealously fight for Moore no matter what the cost. The court denied Salzwedel's remaining claims and affirmed the judgment. View "Friend v. Salzwedel" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, an attorney, appealed from the revised judgment entered by the trial court following this court’s reversal with instructions to enter a new judgment in Chodos v. Borman. Plaintiff contended that the trial court erred when it failed to include postjudgment interest in the final judgment, with interest to run on the $1,717,921 from September 19, 2013, the date of the original judgment. Defendant argued that interest should only run from the date of entry of the judgment following remittitur, November 14, 2014. The court held that interest ran on the $1,717,921 judgment from the date of the original judgment - September 19, 2013 - and that plaintiff is entitled to the costs claimed and interest on those costs from that date. Accordingly, the court modified and affirmed the judgment. View "Chodos v. Borman" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs Robert Coldren and his wife Brook sued defendants Hart, King & Coldren, Inc. (HKC) and William Hart asserting several causes of action arising out of Coldren’s departure from his law practice at HKC. Defendants appealed an order disqualifying HKC’s counsel, Grant, Genovese & Barratta LLP (Grant Genovese), who had been representing both Hart and HKC. The court held there was an unwaivable actual conflict between the two. The court concluded a conflict existed because Coldren was a 50 percent shareholder of HKC, and HKC would have duties to Coldren that were in conflict with Hart’s interests in defeating the litigation. Accordingly, the court ordered Hart to confer with Coldren on the appointment of “neutral” counsel for HKC. The Court of Appeal reversed: Coldren sued both Hart and HKC directly, "not derivatively," on essentially the same claims. The Court surmised Hart’s interest was perfectly aligned with HKC’s interest in seeing Coldren’s claims defeated. Coldren’s contended he could sue his company and then, because he is a 50 percent shareholder, have a say in its defense. "That is not the law." Moreover, the COurt concluded Grant Genovese’s duty of loyalty, as counsel for HKC, ran to HKC, not its shareholders. HKC was free to defend itself and assert relevant counter claims to the detriment of Coldren. View "Coldren v. Hart, King & Coldren" on Justia Law

Individuals requested documents under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, 6250) from Newark Unified School District. The District inadvertently included 100 documents that, the District contends, are subject to attorney-client or attorney work product privileges. Within hours of the release, the District sent e-mails asking for return of the documents. The recipients cited section 6254.5, contending that inadvertent release had waived the privileges. Under that statute, the disclosure of a document to the public waives any claim by an agency that the document is exempt from release. The District filed suit, seeking return or destruction of the documents. The trial court granted a temporary restraining order preventing dissemination, but ultimately agreed that section 6254.5 effected a waiver of confidentiality. The court of appeal reversed, finding that the legislative history demonstrates the intent to prevent public agencies from disclosing documents to some members of the public while asserting confidentiality as to others. Waiver as a result of an inadvertent release, while not necessarily inconsistent with that intent, was not within its contemplation. To harmonize section 6254.5 with Evidence Code 912, which has been construed not to effect a waiver of the privileges from an inadvertent disclosure, the court construed section 6254.5 not to apply to inadvertent release. View "Newark Unifed Sch. Dist. v. Super. Ct." on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed suit alleging claims for breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, and legal malpractice, and defendants moved to strike the entire complaint as to the individual plaintiffs Klotz and Spitz because defendants had no independent legal duty to plaintiffs nor did they act for their personal financial gain. Plaintiffs alleged that a former business associate of theirs, Stephen Bruce, who was a client of defendants, conspired with defendants to unlawfully withdraw from plaintiff SageMill and to usurp a nascent business opportunity of SageMill. The trial court denied the motion. The court reversed the trial court‘s order on plaintiffs‘ second cause of action for conspiracy as to the individual plaintiffs Klotz and Spitz, finding that any advice defendants gave Bruce arose from an attempt to contest or compromise a claim or dispute, and thus was within the ambit of section 1714.10. The court affirmed as to the remaining claims. View "Klotz v. Milbank,Tweed, Hadley & McCloy" on Justia Law

Plaintiff Law Firm of Marc Grossman represented a student of defendant Victor Elementary School in a civil action arising from an assault that took place at the school. Plaintiff, in the name of the law firm, filed a petition for writ of mandate in the trial court under the Public Records Act seeking documentation reflecting the amount of money spent defending the litigation. That petition was denied, so relief was sought from the Court of Appeal, which granted the petition. Upon issuance of the remittitur, plaintiff filed a Memorandum of Costs seeking, among other costs, attorneys’ fees for the petition. The trial court granted defendant’s motion to tax costs, denying attorneys’ fees. Plaintiff appealed the denial of attorneys’ fees. On appeal, plaintiff argues the trial court erred in denying fees on the ground plaintiff represented itself in the trial court. Agreeing with plaintiff, the Court of Appeal reversed. View "Law Offices of Marc Grossman v. Victor Elementary School Dist." on Justia Law

Smith, a California partnership, hired attorney Moncrief to perform due diligence for its purchase of equipment from Texas Hill in Arizona. Texas Hill was represented by Clark, an Arizona attorney. Moncrief performed a UCC search, called Clark, and left a voicemail. Clark called Moncrief in response and represented that Texas Hill was the sole owner of the equipment. Afterwards Clark sent Moncrief an e-mail, stating: “I have been the attorney for Texas Hill . . . and can state unequivocally that the cooling equipment you are buying is free and clear and is owned by Texas Hill.” Based on Clark’s representations, Moncrief advised Smith to go forward with the purchase. Smith later learned that Texas Hill did not own the equipment when they completed the transaction; New York Community Bank had acquired an interest in the equipment. Smith sued Moncrief for legal malpractice. Moncrief cross-complained against Clark. Clark moved to quash service, arguing that California lacked personal jurisdiction over him. The court granted the motion. Clark’s conduct and his intentional misrepresentations were required to close the sale. Clark personally availed himself of the benefits of California when he reached into California to induce Moncrief’s client to complete the purchase. Moncrief’s claims arise out of Clark’s contacts with California. lark has not demonstrated that exercise of jurisdiction would be unreasonable. View "Moncrief v. Clark" on Justia Law

Aeolus and Debtors owed plaintiffs over five million dollars pursuant to an arbitrator's ruling. Before plaintiffs obtained a judgment confirming the arbitration award, Aeolus entered into a security agreement with Zhejiang and Zhejiang filed a blanket lien attaching to all of Aeolus's assets. After plaintiffs obtained the judgment, Debtors filed for bankruptcy. Plaintiffs hired Keehn as counsel in order to obtain discovery and challenge Zhejiang's lien as a fraudulent transfer. Plaintiffs subsequently substituted Landsberg for Keehn as bankruptcy counsel. Plaintiffs discovered that Keehn missed the deadline to investigate and attack the lien. Plaintiffs ultimately accepted an amount for $1.6 million less than the arbitration award. Plaintiffs then filed suit against Keehn and Landsberg for malpractice. The trial court granted summary judgment for each defendant. The court concluded that the trial court correctly decided that plaintiffs' malpractice claim was not tolled until the completion of the mediation and that the one-year statute of limitations had expired by the time plaintiffs filed their suit. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Shaoxing City v. Keehn & Assoc." on Justia Law