Legal Memos

Colonial Van & Storage, Inc. v. Superior Court (2022) 76 Cal.App.5th 487.  In this case, an employer allowed an employee to work from home and the employee was working from home during a business meeting when a family member of the employee assaulted a co-worker and a business associate.  The employer was granted summary judgment on the basis that the requirement of providing a safe place to work under Labor Code § 6400 did not apply to an off-site meeting place, and there was no basis upon which a duty of care could be imposed because of the unforeseeability of what happened.  There was no evidence that the employer could have prevented the harm, and the assault was also outside the scope of the employer-employee relationship.

Curtin Maritime Corp. v. Pacific Dredge & Construction, LLC (2022) 76 Cal.App.5th 651.  This is a SLAPP case.  The court noted that with respect to a claim under the unfair competition law, an appeal from an order denying the SLAPP motion did not become moot based on a voluntary dismissal of the underlying complaint, finding that the dismissal order, entered when the trial court proceedings were stayed pending appeal, was void on its face.  The trial court erred when it found a probability of prevailing because federal maritime law preempted the unfair competition claim based solely on allegations that a dredging vessel was not domestically built and thus was ineligible for coast-wise endorsement which the Coast Guard had exclusive authority to decide.

/lkb

Related Attorney(s):
Gregory L. McCoy