In D'Braunstein v. California Highway Patrol, published March 12, 2025, a divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for the defendant officer. The officer arrived at the scene of a single-vehicle auto accident, in which the plaintiff crashed his car into a concrete wall along a freeway onramp. The plaintiff…
In Ryan v. County, published February 28, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 3 affirmed in part and reversed in part a judgment after jury trial. A surgeon on the staff of a county hospital was terminated after his medical staff privileges lapsed and were not renewed. He alleged he was terminated for whistle-blowing…
In Murphy v. City of Petaluma, published November 25, 2024, the First District Court of Appeal, Division 1 affirmed summary judgment in favor of the defendant city and two of its paramedics. The plaintiff was involved in a head-on collision. The defendant paramedics responded to the scene. They asked the plaintiff questions to determine her involvement…
In Carley v. Aranas, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court order denying a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. The plaintiff was an inmate in state prison. She was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2013. In 2013, the FDA began approving direct acting antivirals as a new treatment that cured…
In Perez v. City of Fresno, published April 15, 2024, a divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the defendant city, police officers, and paramedic. The sheriff’s office received a call of a man acting erratically, including sprinting through the street. City officers encountered the plaintiffs’ decedent before deputies…
In Rossi v. Sequoia Union Elementary School District, published August 25, 2023, the Fifth Appellate District affirmed dismissal after demurrer was sustained in this case and in two other related appeals arising out of similar circumstances. During the State of Emergency declared due to COVID-19, the State Public Health Officer issued an order requiring K-12 schools to…
In Alexander v. Nguyen, published August 25, 2023, the 9th Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment in a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 case. The plaintiff was a pretrial detainee who was being treated at a state mental hospital until he was competent to stand trial on a criminal charge. While he was there,…
In County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court (Doctors Medical Center of Modesto), published July 10, 2023, the California Supreme Court reversed a lower appellate court decision directing a trial court to sustain a demurrer. Under the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, Health & Safety Code section 1304 et seq., if a medical…
In Let Them Choose v. San Diego Unified School District, published November 22, 2022, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 1 affirmed a trial court judgment determining that the defendant school district's COVID-19 requirements were preempted by state law. The district adopted a "Vaccination Roadmap" requiring students 16 or older to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in…
In Kernan v. Regents of the University of California, ordered published September 20, 2022, the First District Court of Appeal, Division 4 reversed summary judgment for the defendant Regents. On November 4, 2016, the plaintiff went to the defendants' hospital for a procedure to rotate her healthy fetus to a head-first position. There was no indication…