Supreme Court of California Decisions 2022
Date: December 29, 2022
Docket Number: S264219
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that a law enforcement officer's act of shining a spotlight for illumination does not ipso facto constitute a detention under the Fourth Amendment, but rather, the proper inquiry requires…
Date: December 19, 2022
Docket Number: S266305
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeal finding that it had no duty to independently review an order denying a petition for postconviction relief under Cal. Penal Code former section 1170.95, which…
Date: December 12, 2022
Docket Number: S268437
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming the judgment of the juvenile court finding true that Minor had committed one count of violating Cal. Penal Code 288.5 and order probation, thus…
Date: December 5, 2022
Docket Number: S262010
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeal upholding the trial court's finding that trial may continue in Defendant's absence under Cal. Penal Code 1043(b)(2) because the absence was voluntary,…
Date: December 1, 2022
Docket Number: S263923
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed Defendant's conviction for conspiracy to commit murder, holding that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction. After a jury trial, Defendant and his codefendants were found…
Date: November 28, 2022
Docket Number: S141080
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior convicting Defendant, following a jury trial, of first degree murder and sentencing him to death, holding that Defendant failed to demonstrate that alleged errors…
Date: November 17, 2022
Docket Number: S118147
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction for kidnapping to commit rape, murder, attempted carjacking, assault with intent to commit rape, and receiving stolen property, and Defendant's sentence of death, holding…
Date: November 17, 2022
Docket Number: S253593
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that the language in the insurance policy at issue in this case provided liability coverage for right-of-seclusion violations litigated under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA),…
Date: November 17, 2022
Docket Number: S265172
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal ruling that Proposition 36, the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012, stripped sentencing courts of the discretion to impose concurrent terms for felonies that…
Date: August 29, 2022
Docket Number: S165998
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death but struck the enhancement that Defendant committed the murder for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association…
Date: August 29, 2022
Docket Number: S262032
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal holding that a sidewalk picket purporting to protest a real estate company's business practices after the company evicted two long-term residents from their…
Date: August 29, 2022
Docket Number: S266003
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal reversing the judgment of the trial court ruling that the exception to landowners' negation of their statutory duty of care to keep their property safe for…
Date: August 25, 2022
Docket Number: S099844
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions and life sentences for first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, and drug-related offenses, holding that Defendant was not entitled to relief on his…
Date: August 25, 2022
Docket Number: S254554
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals affirming Defendant's conviction of assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm and assault by means of force likely to cause great bodily injury,…
Date: August 25, 2022
Docket Number: S266854
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming Defendant's convictions and sentences, holding that the gang penalties imposed by the trial court were unsupported by the evidence. Defendant was…
Date: August 22, 2022
Docket Number: S259954
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal denying Petitioner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus seeking resentencing under People v. Gallardo (2017) 4 Cal.5th 120, holding that the Gallardo rule…
Date: August 22, 2022
Docket Number: S265668
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal concluding that an instructional error in Defendant's criminal trial was not prejudicial and thus did not require reversal, holding that the instructional…
Date: August 18, 2022
Docket Number: S260736
Justia Opinion Summary: In this dispute over whether Plaintiff's claims premised on the packaging and video of Michael, an album of music billed as Michael Jackson's first posthumous release, were subject to the album marketers' motion to…
Date: August 15, 2022
Docket Number: S262663
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeals reversing the judgment of the trial court affirming the findings of the Commission on State Mandates rejecting the claims brought by Plaintiffs, several…
Date: August 15, 2022
Docket Number: S271265
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeal affirming the judgment of the probate court denying Petitioner's petition to issue the predicate findings he needed to support an application to the federal…
Date: August 11, 2022
Docket Number: S051968
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the determination of the trial court finding Defendant guilty of first-degree murder, except as modified to strike an enhancement under former Cal. Penal Code 667.5, subdivision (b), and…
Date: August 11, 2022
Docket Number: S262634
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal in this dispute , holding that Oakland did not show on demurrer that its challenged fees at issue in this case were exempt from the voter approval…
Date: August 8, 2022
Docket Number: S266606
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeal affirming the judgment of the trial court denying Appellant's petition for resentencing under Senate Bill No. 1437, holding that certain special circumstance…
Date: August 4, 2022
Docket Number: S266254
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that liability under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Cal. Civ. Code 51, was not available in this case, where Plaintiff alleged that he was sexually assaulted by fellow students and a school district…
Date: August 1, 2022
Docket Number: S252702
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal reversing the trial court's order dismissing counts one through four of the combined information in this criminal case, holding that Cal. Penal Code 954's…
Date: August 1, 2022
Docket Number: S258574
Justia Opinion Summary: In this lawsuit challenging the sufficiency of an environmental impact report (EIR) prepared by California's Department of Water Resources (DWR) the Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the decision of the…
Date: July 28, 2022
Docket Number: S080276
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant, following a jury trial, of eleven counts of first-degree murder and sentencing him to death, holding that Defendant was not entitled to…
Date: July 21, 2022
Docket Number: S138052
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder and sentencing Defendant to death, holding that there was no reversible error…
Date: July 21, 2022
Docket Number: S262081
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the appellate court concerning whether a party in default has standing to file a motion for a new trial asserting legal error relating to…
Date: June 30, 2022
Docket Number: S261247
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming the judgment of the trial court against a hospital based on violations of the Labor Code and the Unfair Competition Law, holding that the lower…
Date: June 27, 2022
Docket Number: S104665
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the order of the trial court entering judgment upon the jury's verdict that Defendant committed first degree murder, robbery, burglary, and firearm possession by a felon and sentencing him to…
Date: June 27, 2022
Docket Number: S150509
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior court convicting Defendant of two murders and finding true the special circumstances that one murder occurred during the commission of a robbery, that the other…
Date: May 26, 2022
Docket Number: S263375
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that Proposition 57, a measure that amended the law governing the punishment of juvenile offenses in adult criminal court by requiring hearings to determine whether the offenses should instead by…
Date: May 26, 2022
Docket Number: S267576
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming the judgment of the trial court granting Plaintiff's postural motion seeking attorney's fees in the amount of $169,602 under the Song-Beverly…
Date: May 23, 2022
Docket Number: S258966
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that the additional hour of pay an employer must pay an employee if the employer unlawfully makes the employee work during all or part of a meal or rest period constitutes "wages" that must be…
Date: May 19, 2022
Docket Number: S113962
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior court finding Defendant guilty of first degree murder and the jury's findings of the lying-in-wait special circumstance and the special circumstance allegations…
Date: April 28, 2022
Docket Number: S261812
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case regarding conservatorships authorized by the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act for persons gravely disabled by a mental disorder or chronic alcoholism the Supreme Court held that, for purposes of the right…
Date: April 25, 2022
Docket Number: S265910
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the juvenile court, holding that the juvenile court committed serious errors by proceeding with a hearing to determine its jurisdiction over a child and disposition of a…
Date: April 21, 2022
Docket Number: S095223
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of the first-degree murder of his father and the second-degree murders of his stepmother and stepsister and…
Date: April 11, 2022
Docket Number: S139702
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of first-degree murder and death sentence, holding that there was no prejudicial error. After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of the first-degree murder of a…
Date: April 7, 2022
Docket Number: S261747
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming Defendant's life sentence for his conviction of conspiracy to commit home invasion robbery under Cal. Penal Code 186.22(b)(4), holding that the…
Date: March 7, 2022
Docket Number: S258019
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming the judgment of the trial court sustaining Well Fargo Bank, N.A.'s demurrer to Plaintiff's negligence claim, holding that Plaintiff was not…
Date: March 7, 2022
Docket Number: S259522
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the appellate court granting a writ of mandate directing the trial court to issue a new order denying Ford Motor Company's motion to exclude all of Plaintiff's proffered…
Date: February 24, 2022
Docket Number: S262487A
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that Cal. Civ. Code 3333.2 applies to a physician assistant who has a legally enforceable agency relationship with a supervising physician and provides services within the scope of that agency…
Date: January 31, 2022
Docket Number: S058734
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the the trial court convicting defendants Karl Holmes, Herbert McClain, and Lorenzo Newborn of three counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, and one count of…
Date: January 27, 2022
Docket Number: S266001
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that Cal. Labor Code 1102.6 governs whistleblower retaliation claims brought pursuant to Cal. Labor Code 1102.5. Since 2003, section 1102.6 has prescribed a framework for presenting and evaluating…
Date: January 20, 2022
Docket Number: S257658
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal affirming the decision of the trial court to sentence Defendant to three years for robbery with a twenty-five-years-to-life enhancement under Cal. Penal Code…
Date: January 13, 2022
Docket Number: S258498
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that Curtis Olson failed to show the requisite "minimal merit" on a critical element of his breach of contract claim and thus could not defeat Jane Doe's anti-SLAPP motion. Doe and Olson each…
Date: January 13, 2022
Docket Number: S263569
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that costs related to unused photocopies of trial exhibits and demonstratives are not categorically recoverable under Cal. Civ. Code Proc. 1033.5(a)(13) but that they still may be awarded in the…
Date: January 3, 2022
Docket Number: S070250A
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions for first degree murder and other crimes and Defendant's death sentence, holding that any found or assumed errors were individually harmless and that there was no…
Date: January 3, 2022
Docket Number: S259999
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation acted within the authority provided by Cal. Const. art. I, 32(b) when it adopted regulations prohibiting early parole consideration under the…
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