4th District Court of Appeal, Family Law, Litigation
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November 3, 2026
The Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of a mother's request for attorney's fees against a grandfather seeking visitation, holding that Family Code section 7605 applies only to Uniform Parentage Act proceedings and that juvenile dependency exit orders are not UPA judgments.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Litigation
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October 29, 2026
The Fourth District affirmed. A party answering a request for admission must admit every portion that is true and deny or qualify only the remainder. Even if the request bundled several propositions and the restaurant group did not prove every detail, Hagestad could not deny the
4th District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law
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October 26, 2026
The Fourth District reversed and directed issuance of a writ requiring payment. Nothing in the collective bargaining agreement limited the retroactive increases or stipends to employees who remained on staff when the board approved the deal. The benefits were tied to service during the covered school year, and the former teachers had performed that work. Reading an unwritten continuing-employment condition into the agreement would create unequal compensation among equally qualified teachers for the same period of service.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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October 22, 2026
The Fourth District reversed. Section 11358(d) states that qualifying cultivation conduct is punishable by imprisonment under Penal Code section 1170(h). Section 1170(h)(4), in turn, expressly provides that nothing in that subdivision prevents a court from granting probation or suspending sentence, or a defendant from seeking relief under section 17(b). Reading those provisions together makes a subdivision (d) offense eligible for treatment as a misdemeanor.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Family Law
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October 22, 2026
The Fourth District affirmed. Section 1218 and Family Code section 271 address different conduct and serve different purposes. Section 1218 permits a successful contempt movant to recover fees but does not create a reciprocal award for the alleged contemner. Section 271, by contrast, is a family-law sanction designed to encourage cooperation, settlement, and proportionate litigation. Applying section 271 to conduct occurring during contempt proceedings does not convert section 1218 into a reciprocal fee statute.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Litigation, Real Estate Law
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October 21, 2026
The Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of FortiFi's anti-SLAPP motion, holding that recording PACE assessment liens is not protected prelitigation activity and that Diplomat's fraud-based claims do not arise from FortiFi's later litigation conduct in a receivership action.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Personal Injury & Tort
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October 21, 2026
The Court of Appeal affirmed summary judgment for a school district on negligent hiring, supervision and retention claims over a teacher's 1978–1979 sexual abuse of a student, holding that the plaintiff offered no evidence that district supervisors knew or should have known of the danger and that the district's lack of 40-year-old records did not create a triable issue.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Labor & Employment Law, Litigation
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October 21, 2026
The Court of Appeal reversed an order requiring plaintiffs to reimburse an employer's workers' compensation lien because the trial court lost jurisdiction when plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the entire action with prejudice before the employer moved for reimbursement.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
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October 21, 2026
The Court of Appeal affirmed the juvenile court's order transferring H.J. to adult criminal court after a Proposition 57 fitness hearing, finding substantial evidence supported the determination that H.J. was not amenable to rehabilitation within the two-year juvenile jurisdiction period.
4th District Court of Appeal, Estate Planning, Probate and Tax Law, Litigation, Probate
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October 14, 2026
The Fourth District, Division Three, affirmed an order denying attorney fees to a trustee sued individually, holding that a probate court's equitable power protects the trust estate and does not supply a freestanding basis for fees incurred in a trustee's personal defense.
4th District Court of Appeal, Construction Law, Insurance Law, Litigation
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October 14, 2026
The Fourth District held that valid rescission for a contractor’s material application misrepresentations also eliminated an additional insured’s coverage.
4th District Court of Appeal, Estate Planning, Probate and Tax Law, Probate
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October 13, 2026
The probate court explained, “California follows the American Rule which holds that attorney fees incurred in litigation are not recoverable unless authorized by statute or contract.” The court found no contract or statute authorized the recovery of fees here.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Family Law
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October 12, 2026
The Fourth District held that a later section 387 removal does not restart reunification when the children were already removed at the initial disposition.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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October 12, 2026
The Fourth District required case-specific comparators and reliable, relevant statistics to establish good cause for Racial Justice Act discovery.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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October 9, 2026
This decision clarifies the application of Penal Code section 654's 'single physical act' test in the context of two distinct Vehicle Code offenses that both require causation of bodily injury as part of their actus reus.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Personal Injury & Tort
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October 9, 2026
This decision reinforces the strict limits Daimler and Ford place on personal jurisdiction over foreign manufacturers in California.
4th District Court of Appeal, Family Law
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October 9, 2026
This decision reinforces the deference appellate courts give to juvenile courts' detriment findings at review hearings, particularly where a parent's partial compliance and ongoing behavioral concerns—such as missed drug tests and minimization of past abuse—support continued reunification services.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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October 9, 2026
This decision clarifies that the categorical bar to section 1172.
4th District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Litigation, Real Estate Law
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October 7, 2026
A published California appellate decision revived residents’ claims that Stanton failed to meet affordable-housing replacement and relocation-planning duties during a long-running neighborhood acquisition project.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
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October 6, 2026
People v. U.S. Fire Insurance: Surety Remains Liable After Failure to Arrange Required GPS.
4th District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law
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October 2, 2026
A school district could not classify a teacher as temporary merely because she covered hours relinquished through permanent teachers' voluntary job sharing.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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September 30, 2026
The Court of Appeal held that attached human hair is part of the body, not personal property under Penal Code section 211. California generally regulates human tissue through specialized statutes rather than ordinary property law, and no statute converts hair severed and taken in a continuous act into property as the Legislature has done for crops and fixtures.
4th District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Business Transactions, Constitutional Law
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September 28, 2026
The CPUC could not retroactively demand millions under reimbursement rules that failed to give fair notice and that agency staff themselves viewed as unclear.
4th District Court of Appeal, Banking & Finance, Collections & Creditor Rights, Litigation
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September 28, 2026
Authorized partial payments may restart California's six-year limitations period for enforcing a promissory note, creating a triable issue here.
4th District Court of Appeal, Litigation, Real Estate Law
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September 28, 2026
A judgment's generic prevailing-party label does not establish fee entitlement when the successful claim did not enforce CC&Rs or another fee-bearing agreement.