Supreme Court of California Decisions 2017
Date: December 28, 2017
Docket Number: S232218
Justia Opinion Summary: During a retrial of a second degree murder charge, after a previous jury failed to reach a verdict on that charge but convicted defendant of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, the trial court erred if it…
Date: December 28, 2017
Docket Number: S236728
Justia Opinion Summary: Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required to discharge the People of the burden of establishing that a petitioner is ineligible for resentencing under the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012. The Court of Appeal reasoned…
Date: December 21, 2017
Docket Number: S231260
Justia Opinion Summary: The trial court violated Defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial when it found a disputed fact about the conduct underlying Defendant’s assault conviction that had not been established by virtue of the…
Date: December 21, 2017
Docket Number: S233898
Justia Opinion Summary: In this appeal arising from a demurrer, Plaintiffs could allege a cause of action against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation for warning label liability. The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal, which directed…
Date: December 18, 2017
Docket Number: S234617
Justia Opinion Summary: The trial court in this case should enter a final judgment from which Plaintiff can appeal. Plaintiff sued Defendant. The trial court dismissed some of Plaintiff’s claims with prejudice. In order to permit Plaintiff to…
Date: December 11, 2017
Docket Number: S175851
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court denying Defendant’s automatic motion to modify the jury’s verdict of death and imposing a judgment of death in this case in which Defendant pleaded guilty to two…
Date: December 11, 2017
Docket Number: S235549
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was found incompetent to stand trial and was involuntarily committed for three years. Defendant was never made the subject of a conservatorship. Shortly after his release, the district court obtained a…
Date: December 7, 2017
Docket Number: S089311
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of two counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder and sentencing him to death. The court held (1) Defendant was not…
Date: December 4, 2017
Docket Number: S226036
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part the decision of the court of appeal in this case concerning the application of constitutional limitations to a statutorily authorized ground water…
Date: December 4, 2017
Docket Number: S226596
Justia Opinion Summary: On a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, as on direct appeal, error under People v. Chiu, 325 P.3D 972 (Cal. 2014), requires reversal unless the reviewing court concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury…
Date: November 30, 2017
Docket Number: S230793
Justia Opinion Summary: A person convicted before Proposition 47’s (the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act”) passage for vehicle theft under Cal. Veh. Code 10851 may be resentenced under Cal. Penal Code 1170.18 if the person can show the…
Date: November 27, 2017
Docket Number: S216566
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal ruling that a court’s error in failing to issue a statement of decision as required by Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 632 is not reversible per se but is subject to…
Date: November 27, 2017
Docket Number: S227243
Justia Opinion Summary: The Agricultural Labor Relations Act’s (ARLA) “mandatory mediation and conciliation” (MMC) statute neither violates equal protection nor unconstitutionally delegates legislative power. Further, employers may not refuse…
Date: November 27, 2017
Docket Number: S227270
Justia Opinion Summary: For the reasons set forth in a companion case issued today, Gerawan Farming, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the Supreme Court held that the court of appeal correctly rejected Employer’s defense that Union…
Date: November 13, 2017
Docket Number: S044693
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of two counts of first-degree murder and other crimes and sentencing him to death but remanded the case to the trial court for…
Date: November 13, 2017
Docket Number: S235412
Justia Opinion Summary: A landowner does not have a duty to assist invitees in crossing a public street when the landowner does no more than site and maintain a parking lot that requires invitees to cross the street to access the landowner’s…
Date: August 31, 2017
Docket Number: S095868
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of death imposed by the trial court in connection with Defendant’s conviction of first degree murder, holding that Defendant’s waiver of his right to a jury trial on penalty was…
Date: August 31, 2017
Docket Number: S227106
Justia Opinion Summary: The scan data gathered by automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology in this case was not subject to Cal. Gov't Code 6254(f)’s exemption for record of investigations. Petitioners filed a request under the…
Date: August 28, 2017
Docket Number: S234148
Justia Opinion Summary: An initiative proposed to repeal an existing Upland ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries, to adopt regulations permitting and establishing standards for up to three dispensaries, and to require that each pay…
Date: August 28, 2017
Docket Number: S234148A
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of California held that, in light of the text and other indicia of the purpose associated with the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions, Cal. Const., art. XIII C, section 2 does not limit…
Date: August 28, 2017
Docket Number: S234269
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2012, plaintiff filed suit against Doe No. 1, a public entity, alleging that she was molested by defendant's employee when she was a high school student from 1993-1994. After the claim was denied, she filed this…
Date: August 24, 2017
Docket Number: S238309
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner’s constitutional challenges to Proposition 66, the Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016, did not warrant relief. Proposition 66, which was approved by California voters in the November 2016 election,…
Date: August 17, 2017
Docket Number: S222227
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed Defendant’s conviction of misdemeanor battery of a peace officer, holding that the People failed to prove that the victim, a member of the City of Santa Barbara harbor patrol, was a “peace…
Date: August 10, 2017
Docket Number: S228277
Justia Opinion Summary: The interim adverse judgment rule applies when a trial court had initially denied summary judgment on the basis that a lawsuit had sufficient potential merit to proceed to trial but concluded after trial that the suit…
Date: July 31, 2017
Docket Number: S223536
Justia Opinion Summary: In this real estate purchase transaction the Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeal’s judgment reversing the trial court’s denial of an award of attorney fees. Here Seller brought a breach of contract action against…
Date: July 27, 2017
Docket Number: S222472
Justia Opinion Summary: The Interstate Commerce Termination Act (ICCTA) preempts state regulation of rail transportation, and in this case, the application of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to North Coast Railroad Authority…
Date: July 24, 2017
Docket Number: S230906
Justia Opinion Summary: Under the Criminal Justice Realignment Act of 2011 (Realignment Act) incarcerated parolees facing revocation under Cal. Penal Code 1203.2 are entitled to a timely preliminary hearing. At issue in this case was whether…
Date: July 24, 2017
Docket Number: S232114
Justia Opinion Summary: To find that an inmate was armed with a firearm during the commission of the inmate’s challenged third strike offense under the Three Strikes law, a court reviewing a Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 (the Act) recall…
Date: July 20, 2017
Docket Number: S075725
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions for two counts of first degree murder and related crimes and Defendant’s sentence of death. The court held (1) any error in the trial court’s restriction of…
Date: July 20, 2017
Docket Number: S226416
Justia Opinion Summary: The first clause of Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code 300(b)(1) authorizes a juvenile court to exercise dependency jurisdiction over a child without a finding that a parent is at fault or blameworthy for her failure or inability…
Date: July 17, 2017
Docket Number: S219811
Justia Opinion Summary: The Medical Board of California did not violate patients’ right to privacy under Cal. Const. art. I, 1 when it obtained data from the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), California’s…
Date: July 13, 2017
Docket Number: S223603
Justia Opinion Summary: The Attorney General and various environmental groups challenged on several grounds an EIR accompanying a regional development plan for the San Diego area that was intended to guide the area’s transportation…
Date: July 13, 2017
Docket Number: S227228
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted reviewing this PAGA action to consider the scope of discovery available in PAGA actions. The court held that, in non-PAGA class actions, the contact information of those a plaintiff purports to…
Date: July 10, 2017
Docket Number: S231315
Justia Opinion Summary: The Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Juvenile Division, issued a protocol addressing the process by which minors are found incompetent and later found to have attained competency. The Supreme…
Date: July 6, 2017
Docket Number: S221980
Justia Opinion Summary: Homeowners who sought and were granted a permit from the California Coastal Commission to build a new seawall and repair their beach access stairway, subject to several mitigation conditions, forfeited their challenge…
Date: July 3, 2017
Docket Numbers: S223825, S223676
Justia Opinion Summary: In these two cases, the Supreme Court held that Proposition 47’s definition of “unreasonable risk of dangerous to public safety” does not apply to resentencing proceedings under the Three Strikes Reform Act. In People…
Date: July 3, 2017
Docket Number: S228193
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed Defendant’s conviction of first-degree murder, holding that the trial court's admission of the confession of Defendant’s accomplice violated Defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to confront her…
Date: June 29, 2017
Docket Number: S222329
Justia Opinion Summary: The County of Los Angeles can impose a documentary transfer tax on a written instrument that transfers beneficial ownership of real property from one person to two others if the document reflects an actual transfer of…
Date: June 29, 2017
Docket Number: S225589
Justia Opinion Summary: Charges that constitute compensation for the use of government property are not subject to Proposition 218’s voter approval requirements. To constitute compensation for a property interest, however, the amount of the…
Date: June 29, 2017
Docket Number: S231709
Justia Opinion Summary: Neither People v. Arbuckle, 587 P.2d 220 (Cal. 1978), nor its progeny support the view that a defendant’s ability to enforce the guarantee that the judge who accepts a plea bargain will impose the sentence (the…
Date: June 26, 2017
Docket Number: S232639
Justia Opinion Summary: Independent contractors are not categorically excluded from Cal. Gov’t Code 1090, which prohibits public officers and employees from making contracts in which they have a financial interest when they act in their…
Date: June 19, 2017
Docket Number: S078895
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior court convicting Defendant of one count of first degree murder, thirteen counts of robbery, and two counts of attempted robbery and sentencing Defendant to death.…
Date: June 15, 2017
Docket Number: S230104
Justia Opinion Summary: Cal. Civ. Code 1009(b), which limits the circumstances in which courts may find implied dedication of private coastal property, applies to property used by the public for nonrecreational vehicle access, as well as…
Date: June 15, 2017
Docket Number: S232582
Justia Opinion Summary: The rule announced in Bond v. United Railroads, 159 Cal. 270 (Cal. 1911), that the statute authorizing appeals of postjudgment orders covers denials of Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 663 motions remains valid. Plaintiff sued…
Date: June 8, 2017
Docket Number: S151362
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court denied Petitioner's petition for writ of habeas corpus seeking relief on the ground of juror misconduct, holding that Petitioner failed to prove his claim of misconduct. Petitioner was sentenced to…
Date: June 5, 2017
Docket Number: S076169
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder committed in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the special circumstances of multiple murder and murder during the attempted commission or commission of the…
Date: June 5, 2017
Docket Number: S219567
Justia Opinion Summary: An individual’s standing to sue under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 526a does not require the payment of a property tax, as an allegation that the plaintiff has paid an assessed tax to the defendant locality is sufficient under…
Date: June 5, 2017
Docket Number: S224476
Justia Opinion Summary: When an assessment on nonexempt property is challenged on the ground that the taxpayer does not own the property involved, the taxpayer must seek an assessment reduction through the assessment appeal process before the…
Date: June 1, 2017
Docket Number: S223763
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue was whether Defendant’s hand gesture unaccompanied by words or sound qualified as a “statement, made verbally” under Cal. Penal Code 422. Section 422 makes it a crime to threaten infliction of great bodily…
Date: June 1, 2017
Docket Numbers: S224724A, S224724, S240419
Justia Opinion Summary: During jury selection proceedings, three defendants joined in a Batson/Wheeler motion, arguing that the prosecutor improperly excluded prospective jurors on account of Hispanic ethnicity. The trial court denied the…
Date: May 25, 2017
Docket Number: S219970
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was involved in an accidental collision with a twelve-year-old boy riding on a scooter. Defendant stopped and checked on the boy. Defendant drove off when he saw the boy loaded into an ambulance. Defendant…
Date: May 25, 2017
Docket Number: S224472
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the application of the general rule that a litigant may appeal an adverse ruling only after the trial court renders a final judgment when a trial court has granted a petition for writ of…
Date: May 25, 2017
Docket Number: S232622
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff-taxpayers filed a complaint against the City of Los Angeles and the Director of the Los Angeles Zoo (collectively, the City) alleging that the zoo was abusing its elephants. The trial court granted summary…
Date: May 8, 2017
Docket Number: S224611
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court answered questions certified to it by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the construction of the state’s day of rest statutes, which prohibit an employer from causing his or her employees to…
Date: May 4, 2017
Docket Number: S229728
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that a claim alleging a discriminatory decision is not subject to a motion to strike simply because it contests an action or decision that was arrived at following speech of petition activity or…
Date: April 24, 2017
Docket Number: S233508
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner committed murder when he was sixteen years old and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The sentencing court did not give due consideration to the factors in Miller v. Alabama in imposing…
Date: April 21, 2017
Docket Number: S222726A
Justia Opinion Summary: Section 391.7’s prefiling process applies to self-represented plaintiffs who have been declared vexatious litigants. Plaintiff initiated an unlawful detainer action against Defendant. Defendant largely represented…
Date: April 17, 2017
Docket Number: S170957
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first degree murder with the special circumstances of killing a witness, murder, in the commission of kidnapping, and lying in weight. The jury also found Defendant guilty…
Date: April 10, 2017
Docket Number: S221530
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against Defendants, alleging that she was unlawfully terminated from employment. The complaint set forth two causes of action, one based on Cal. Health & Safety Code 1278.5(g) and one based on…
Date: April 6, 2017
Docket Number: S224086
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff opened a credit card account with Defendant Citibank, N.A. and purchased a credit protector plan. Defendant later amended the original agreement by adding an arbitration provision. The provision waived the…
Date: April 6, 2017
Docket Number: S226652
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and Defendants entered into a business relationship embodied in a series of oral and written agreements. Two of the written agreements contained clauses subjecting disputes arising out of the agreements to the…
Date: March 30, 2017
Docket Number: S227473
Justia Opinion Summary: This California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) dispute centered on whether an environmental impact report (EIR) must identify areas that might qualify as environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHA) under the…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: S225193
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a Canadian citizen, pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge. Defendant filed a motion to withdraw the plea on grounds of mistake or ignorance. The trial court denied the motion, concluding that it was…
Date: March 27, 2017
Docket Number: S231405
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether theft of access card account information is one of the crimes eligible for reduced punishment under Proposition 47. In 2014, Defendant pleaded no contest to a felony. Voters subsequently…
Date: March 23, 2017
Docket Number: S224985
Justia Opinion Summary: Under the terms of a spendthrift trust established by his parents, Defendant was entitled to receive over one million dollars, all to be paid out of trust principal. Before the trust’s first payment, Defendant filed for…
Date: March 23, 2017
Docket Number: S231171
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2014, the electorate passed the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (the Act), which reduced penalties for certain theft and drug offenses by amending existing statutes. The Act created the crime of “shoplifting,”…
Date: March 20, 2017
Docket Number: S099274
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first degree murder and other crimes. The jury found true special-circumstance allegations. After a penalty phase, the jury returned a verdict of death.The trial court…
Date: March 20, 2017
Docket Number: S218197
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded no contest to two counts of nonforcible lewd conduct. The trial court placed Defendant on probation, ordered him to register as a sex offender, mandated his participation in an approved sex offender…
Date: March 20, 2017
Docket Number: S231644
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of robbery. The jury found true allegations that Defendant personally used a firearm during both robberies. On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court…
Date: March 9, 2017
Docket Number: S230259
Justia Opinion Summary: In People v. Hosner, the Supreme Court held that an indigent criminal defendant facing retrial is presumptively entitled to a full and complete transcript of the prior proceedings. Defendant in this case was an indigent…
Date: March 6, 2017
Docket Number: S230510
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a minor, filed a complaint against Huntington Beach Union High School District (District), alleging that he was injured in a school football game. Plaintiff’s personal injury action accrued on October 31,…
Date: March 2, 2017
Docket Number: S218066
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner requested disclosure of thirty-two categories of public records from the City of San Jose, its redevelopment agency and executive director, and other elected officials and their staffs, seeking documents…
Date: March 2, 2017
Docket Number: S226779
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, Leticia Flethez, a former employee of San Bernardino County, filed an application with San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) for a service-related disability retirement and allowance.…
Date: February 27, 2017
Docket Number: S089609
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, two counts of assault by a life prisoner with malice aforethought, and possession of a sharp instrument by a prisoner. The jury also found…
Date: February 27, 2017
Docket Number: S208181
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1995, the Fish and Game Commission added to the list of endangered species coho salmon in streams south of San Francisco. In 2004, it joined this coho population with coho from San Francisco north to Punta Gorda.…
Date: February 23, 2017
Docket Number: S233096
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sued Bakewell Hawthorne, LLC and JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA, claiming that he fell and was injured on property owned by Bakewell and leased by Chase. Plaintiff made no disclosure of expert witnesses, but in…
Date: February 16, 2017
Docket Number: S225398
Justia Opinion Summary: During a three-year period, Defendant outbid Plaintiffs on twenty-three public works contracts to apply a slurry seal coating on various roadways in California. Plaintiffs jointly sued Defendant in five counties for…
Date: February 16, 2017
Docket Number: S228642
Justia Opinion Summary: Johnny Morales was sentenced to death. Appellate counsel filed in the superior court a “Motion to Preserve Files, Records, Evidence and Other Items Related to Automatic Appeal” seeking an order seeking preservation of…
Date: February 9, 2017
Docket Number: S227193
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of possessing cocaine base for sale and placed on three years of probation. The terms of Defendant’s probation barred him from possessing firearms or illegal drugs. Defendant offered no objection…
Date: January 26, 2017
Docket Number: S117489
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the course of a robbery with personal use of a deadly weapon. Defendant was sentenced to death. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) there was no Pitchess…
Date: January 23, 2017
Docket Number: S226529
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the Insurance Commissioner’s 2011 regulation (the Regulation) covering replacement cost estimates for homeowners insurance. A few weeks before the Regulation was to become effective, Association…
Date: January 19, 2017
Docket Number: S227393
Justia Opinion Summary: Eke Wokocha sued Sharp Memorial Hospital alleging that the Hospital’s negligence caused his quadriplegia. The jury found that the Hospital was negligent but that this negligence did not cause Wokocha’s quadriplegia.…
Date: January 19, 2017
Docket Number: S228049
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of rape of an intoxicated person and rape of an unconscious person. The convictions were based on the same act. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that Defendant could not be…
Date: January 5, 2017
Docket Number: S214058
Justia Opinion Summary: Under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, unless a plaintiff establishes a probability of prevailing on a cause of action arising from constitutionally protected speech or petitioning activity, the court must grant the…
