OPINION CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J. — Rodney E. Donkin and Mary E. Donkin, a married couple, executed a revocable trust in 1988 (the Family Trust) as part of their estate planning, naming their four children as equal primary beneficiaries after they both had died. 1 Rodney died in 2002. Shortly before her death in 2005, Mary executed a second amendment to the Family Trust instrument (hereafter the Trust's Second Amendment) altering the provisions governing the allocation of the Family Trust's...
OPINION BAXTER, J. — An indictment charged defendants Jeffrey Burum and James Erwin with aiding and abetting the receipt of bribes by members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and with conspiring with those supervisors and others to have them accept bribes in exchange for the supervisors' approval of a $102 million payment to settle litigation between Burum's company and the county. The People intended to prove that Burum (the payor of the bribes) and Erwin (acting as Burum's...
OPINION LIU, J. — We granted a request from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, to address the following issue of state law pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 8.548: Does Civil Code section 2527 compel speech in violation of article I, section 2 of the California Constitution Civil Code section 2527 requires prescription drug claims processors to compile and summarize information on pharmacy fees and to transmit the information to their...
OPINION CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J. — Plaintiffs Richard Sander, Joe Hicks, and the (California) First Amendment Coalition requested that the State Bar of California (State Bar) provide them access to information contained in its bar admissions database, including applicants' bar exam scores, law schools attended, grade point averages, Law School Admissions Test scores, and race or ethnicity. Plaintiff Sander sought this information in order to conduct research on racial and ethnic disparities in...
OPINION CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J. — In California, an individual with a disability who is between 18 and 22 years of age and has not yet earned a regular high school diploma is entitled to continue to receive special education and related services, even while incarcerated in a county jail, so long as certain prerequisites have been satisfied. (Ed. Code, 56040, subd. (b); see id., 56000, 56026, subd. (c)(4); all unlabeled statutory references are to the Education Code.) Like the other...
OPINION CHIN, J. A jury convicted defendant Joseph Kekoa Manibusan of two counts of first degree murder and one count each of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, and second degree attempted robbery. It also found true special circumstance allegations of multiple murder, drive-by murder, and felony murder, and enhancement allegations of discharging a firearm from a vehicle causing great bodily injury or death, personal use of a firearm, and a prior juvenile conviction of assault with a...
OPINION CORRIGAN, J. — This case concerns the admissibility of doctors' reports in workers' compensation proceedings. The Court of Appeal granted writ review and annulled decisions by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (the Board) restricting the admission of reports from a doctor retained by petitioner Elayne Valdez. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND A. The Relevant Statutes Division 4 of the Labor Code sets out an extensive, regulated system for compensation and medical treatment of...
OPINION CHIN, J. — A developer wanted to build 96 condominiums on a parcel of land. As a condition of obtaining a permit to do so, the city required the developer to set aside 10 condominium units as below market rate housing and make a substantial cash payment to a city fund. The developer proceeded with the construction but challenged in court these requirements pursuant to a statute that permits a developer to proceed with a project while also "protest[ing] the imposition of any fees,...
OPINION LIU, J. — In Sonic-Calabasas A, Inc. v. Moreno (2011) 51 Cal.4th 659 [ 121 Cal.Rptr.3d 58 , 247 P.3d 130 ] ( Sonic I ), we held as a categorical rule that it is contrary to public policy and unconscionable for an employer to require an employee, as a condition of employment, to waive the right to a Berman hearing, a dispute resolution forum established by the Legislature to assist employees in recovering wages owed. We further held that our rule prohibiting waiver of a Berman...
OPINION WERDEGAR, J. — Under California's "one final judgment" rule, a judgment that fails to dispose of all the causes of action pending between the parties is generally not appealable. (Code Civ. Proc., 904.1, subd. (a); 1 Morehart v. County of Santa Barbara (1994) 7 Cal.4th 725 , 740-741 [ 29 Cal.Rptr.2d 804 , 872 P.2d 143 ] ( Morehart ).) This case poses the question whether an appeal may be taken when the judgment disposes of fewer than all the pled causes of action by dismissal...
OPINION WERDEGAR, J. — A jury in San Diego County Superior Court convicted defendant Bryan Maurice Jones in 1994 of the first degree murders of JoAnn Sweets and Sophia Glover (Pen. Code, 187, 189; all further statutory references are to this code unless otherwise indicated), attempting to murder Maria R. and Karen M. ( 664, 187), and committing forcible rape, sodomy and oral copulation against Karen M. ( 261, subd. (a)(2), 286, subd. (c), 288a, subd. (c)). The jury further sustained...
OPINION KENNARD, J. Sheriff's deputies shot and killed Shane Hayes when he came toward them with a large knife in his raised right hand. The deputies had come to the home in response to a call from a neighbor who said she had heard screaming. When the deputies arrived, Shane's girlfriend, Geri Neill, told them that earlier in the evening, Shane had tried to kill himself. The deputies entered the house, and the incident that led to this lawsuit then transpired. Shane's daughter brought this...
OPINION CHIN, J. — This case presents questions regarding how the Board of Equalization (Board) may assess the value of an electric powerplant for purposes of property taxation. The issue is complicated by the circumstance that, with exceptions not relevant here, assessors may not include the value of intangible assets and rights in the value of taxable property. (Cal. Const., art. XIII, 2; Rev. & Tax. Code, 110, 212; Roehm v. County of Orange (1948) 32 Cal.2d 280 [196 P.2d 550] (...
OPINION WERDEGAR, J. — Public school students with diabetes who cannot self-administer insulin are normally entitled under federal law to have it administered to them during the schoolday. This case presents a dispute over whom state law permits to administer that insulin. The dispute arises against the background of a long-standing shortage of school nurses and a class action in federal court alleging the state's schools have failed to ensure diabetic students actually receive legally...
OPINION WERDEGAR, J. — This case presents a challenge under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Pub. Resources Code, 21000 et seq.) 1 to the approval by defendant Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority (Expo Authority) of a project to construct a light-rail line running from Culver City to Santa Monica. Once completed, the transit line is to be operated by real party in interest Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Plaintiff Neighbors for...
OPINION LIU, J. This case presents the issue of how petroleum refinery property should be valued for purposes of taxation. In 1979, in response to the passage of Proposition 13 and related constitutional and statutory enactments, the state Board of Equalization (Board) enacted a rule for assessing the value of most industrial property. (See Cal. Code Regs., tit. 18, 461.) Under that rule, the value of fixtures, including machinery and equipment, was assessed separately from the value of...
OPINION CORRIGAN, J. — May a claim of unlawful business practice under California's unfair competition law be based on violations of a federal statute, after Congress has repealed a provision of that statute authorizing civil actions for damages We hold that it may, when Congress has also made it plain that state laws consistent with the federal statute are not superseded. DISCUSSION (1) The federal Truth in Savings Act (TISA; 12 U.S.C. 4301 et seq.) regulates banks' disclosures to...
OPINION CORRIGAN, J. — This case arises at the intersection of the unfair competition law (UCL; Bus. & Prof. Code, 17200 et seq.) and the Unfair Insurance Practices Act (UIPA; Ins. Code, 790 et seq.). The question is whether insurance practices that violate the UIPA can support a UCL action. In Moradi-Shalal v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Companies (1988) 46 Cal.3d 287 , 304 [ 250 Cal.Rptr. 116 , 758 P.2d 58 ] ( Moradi-Shalal ) we held that when the Legislature enacted the UIPA, it did not...
OPINION CORRIGAN, J. — Under Evidence Code section 1108, 1 in the trial of sexual offense charges, evidence the defendant committed another sexual offense may be admissible to prove that the defendant has a propensity to engage in such conduct. This case raises two questions. First, if the proffered conduct occurred before the defendant had reached the age of 14, must the prosecution establish that the defendant knew the conduct was wrongful and was thus capable of committing a crime, as...
OPINION CORRIGAN, J. — We granted review to decide whether one may conspire to actively participate in a criminal street gang. 1 One can. When an active gang participant possessing the required knowledge and intent agrees with fellow gang members to commit a felony, he has also agreed to commit the gang participation offense. That agreement constitutes conspiracy to commit the offense of active gang participation, and may be separately charged once a conspirator has committed an overt act....
