New CA Torts Case
New CA Tort Case
Can a plaintiff recover emotional distress damages under Dillon v. Legg if, at the
time of the car crash, she was not aware of the causal connection between
her daughter's injuries and the defendants' alleged negligence?
Last month, the California Supreme Court addressed this issue. Below is my one-paragraph summary of this new decision:
Downey v. City of Riverside (2024) _ Cal.5th _ , 2024 WL 3491142: The California Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal’s order affirming the trial court’s orders sustaining defendants’ demurrer, without leave to amend, to plaintiff’s complaint alleging negligence under Dillon v. Legg (1968) 68 Cal.2d 728 (Dillon). Plaintiff, the mother of daughter Jayde Downey, was giving driving directions to her daughter over a cell phone and heard the event when her daughter was severely injured in a car crash. The trial court, and later the Court of Appeal, concluded that plaintiff could...
New CA Civil Procedure/Torts Case
Last month, the California Supreme Court published a new decision addressing this issue. To find out what they decided, watch the video and read my case summary below.
New CA Code of Civil Procedure/Torts Decision
L.A. Unified School Dist. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County (2023) 14 Cal.5th 758: The California Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision, and concluded that Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 (b)(1), which allows the recovery of treble damages when a plaintiff suing in tort for childhood sexual assault proves that the assault was as the result of a cover up, cannot be awarded against a public entity because they are prohibited by Government Code section 818 which specifies that a public entity may not be held liable in tort for damages imposed primarily for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant. (June 1,...
