January 2013 Archives

Lawrence Brown challenged a court order denying his motion to dismiss a commitment petition filed against him pursuant under the Sexually Violent Predator Act. He argued that the court erred because the SVPA commitment petition was not filed while he was in lawful custody.

When the SVPA commitment petition was filed, Brown was in custody pursuant to a 45-day hold. Brown claimed the hold was invalid because it was issued without the requisite good cause, and it was not the result of a good faith mistake of fact or law.

A California appellate court disagreed.

The California Supreme Court clarified this week that the theory of continuous accrual can be applied to unfair competition claims.

Jamshid Aryeh runs a copy business under the name ABC Copy & Print. Canon Business Solutions used to lease copiers to Aryeh. The leases required Aryeh to pay monthly rent for each copier, subject to a maximum copy allowance. Copies in excess of the monthly allowance required payment of an additional per copy charge.

Does a mandated reporter have a duty to report abuse when he's responsible for that abuse?

According to a recent decision from California's Fifth Appellate District Court, the Fifth Amendment trumps the mandatory reporting law.

Say farewell to Pendergrass.

The California Supreme Court on Monday overruled the 78-year old limitation on the fraud exception to the parol evidence rule, finding that the ruling was "ill-considered."

Last week, the California Supreme Court concluded that the primary assumption of risk doctrine, though most frequently applied to sports, applies to bumper car rides.

The court further concluded that an amusement park's limited duty of care under the primary assumption of risk doctrine -- the duty not to unreasonably increase the risk of injury over and above that inherent in the low-speed collisions essential to bumper car rides -- did not extend to preventing head-on collisions between the cars.

A man sneaks into a woman's bedroom after seeing her boyfriend leave for the night. He then has sex with the woman while pretending to be the boyfriend. Is it rape?

No, according to California's Second District Court of Appeal. Although, the answer would probably be yes if the woman was married.