» 2019

$21.5 million wrongful-death/personal-injury judgment affirmed

Cruz v. Mathenge (Cal. Ct. App., Feb. 26, 2019, No. B286067) 2019 WL 926498, reh’g denied (Mar. 22, 2019), review denied (May 15, 2019) Affirmance of $21.5 million wrongful-death and personal-injury judgments for plaintiffs arising out of defect in Nissan QX 56 SUV. Read More

$12.5 million retaliation/discrimination judgment affirmed

Pearl v. City of Los Angeles (2019) 36 Cal.App.5th 475 Affirmance of $12.5 million judgment in favor of the plaintiff in a retaliation/discrimination lawsuit. Read More

$10.8 million personal-injury judgment affirmed

Cobb v. County of Los Angeles (Cal. Ct. App., May 1, 2019, No. B287090) 2019 WL 1929976 Affirmance of $10.8mm judgment in favor of plaintiff who was run over with a forklift by a county employee. Read More

$4.3 million breach-of-fiduciary duty judgment affirmed

Alkayali v. Boukhari (Cal. Ct. App., Apr. 5, 2019, No. E066230) 2019 WL 1499478 Affirmance of $4.3 mm breach-of-fiduciary duty judgment for plaintiff. Read More

$1.6 million personal-injury judgment affirmed

Lewis v. Ukran (2019) 36 Cal.App.5th 886 Affirmance of $1.6mm judgment for plaintiff. The case holds as a matter of first impression, that “in a contested case, a party (typically a defendant) seeking to reduce an award of future damages to present value bears the burden of proving an appropriate method of doing so, including an appropriate discount rate. A party (typically a plaintiff) who seeks an upward adjustment of a future damages award to account for inflation bears the burden of proving an appropriate method of doing so, including an appropriate inflation rate.” Read More

$1.3 million personal-injury judgment affirmed

Lujan v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Cal.Ct. App., Sept. 11, 2019, No. B287730) Affirmance of $1.13 million personal-injury judgment against the MTA by bus rider who suffered multiple displaced fractures of his ribs after being thrown across bus during a sudden turn. Read More

Denial of Kaiser’s motion to compel arbitration affirmed

Brown v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. (Cal. Ct. App., June 20, 2019, No. E069356) 2019 WL 2539179 Affirmance of trial court’s denial of Kaiser’s petition to compel arbitration of the plaintiff’s bad-faith case, on the ground that Kaiser’s electronic-enrollment system did not fully comply with Health & Safety Code § 1363.1. Read More

Reversal of trial awarding plaintiff only nominal damages and finding for defense on loss-of-consortium claim

Pierce v. Gray (Cal. Ct. App., May 2, 2019, No. G055432) 2019 WL 1941625 Obtained a reversal of a nominal damages award for the plaintiff and a defense verdict on her husband’s loss-of-consortium claim, based on trial court error in excluding the testimony of her medical expert concerning her medical-expense damages. Read More

Court of Appeal changes its tentative opinion based on Jeffrey Ehrlich’s oral argument

Ferradas Soliz v. City of Big Bear Lake (Cal. Ct. App., July 16, 2019, No. E067555) 2019 WL 3162453 The jury’s verdict awarded the plaintiff over $1 million for past and future medical expenses, but only $50,000 in past general damages and $0 for future general damages. The appellate court’s written tentative opinion was to affirm. Gary Dordick hired Jeffrey Ehrlich to handle the oral argument after the court had issued its tentative opinion. In his oral argument he convinced the court to change its ruling; its final opinion held that the verdict was inadequate as a matter of law and that the plaintiff was entitled to a new trial on damages. Read More

Summary judgment reversed in food-poisoning case

Spellman v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (Cal. Ct. App., Nov. 20, 2019) Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 20762, No. G.056221 Plaintiff sued Chipotle for damages suffered as result of food poisoning at Chipotle. The trial court granted summary judgment for Chipotle. Gary Dordick hired Jeffrey Ehrlich to argue the appeal. In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeal reversed the summary judgment. Read More