To excuse compliance with a contractual term, “the impossibility of performance must attach to the nature of the thing to be done and not to the inability of the obligor to do it.” (Hensler v. City of Los Angeles (1954) 124 Cal.App.2d 71, 83 (Hensler).) Impossibility means not only strict impossibility, but also “`impracticability because of […]
Category: California
Adverse employment action
CACI No. 2509. “Adverse Employment Action” Explained [Name of plaintiff] must prove that [he/she/nonbinary pronoun] was subjected to an adverse employment action. Adverse employment actions are not limited to ultimate actions such as termination or demotion. There is an adverse employment action if [name of defendant] has taken an action or engaged in a course […]
Damages under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act
A successful plaintiff under FEHA may recover the following: back pay (also referred to as back wages or lost earnings) (see Govt C §12965(c). Commodore Home Sys., Inc. v Superior Court (1982) 32 C3d 211.); front pay (or lost future earnings) to offset future pecuniary losses until he or she finds appropriate new employment; actual and general compensatory damages, including […]
Gender discrimination in the workplace
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (as well as Title VII) makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, “because of the . . . sex . . . of any person, . . . to discriminate against the person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.” (Gov.Code § […]
Civil extortion
“Extortion is the obtaining of property from another, with his consent … induced by a wrongful use of force or fear….” (Pen.Code, § 518.) Fear, for purposes of extortion “may be induced by a threat, either: [¶] … [¶] 2. To accuse the individual threatened … of any crime; or, [¶] 3. To expose, or […]
Promissory estoppel
The Restatement Second of Contracts, section 90 (hereafter Restatement section 90), subdivision (1) provides as follows concerning claims for promissory estoppel: “A promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action or 905*905 forbearance on the part of the promisee or a third person and which does induce such action or forbearance is binding if injustice […]
Employee’s duty of loyalty to employer
California The duty of loyalty arises not from a contract but from a relationship-here, the relationship of principal and agent. Agency is “the fiduciary relationship that arises when one person (a `principal’) manifests assent to another person (an `agent’) that the agent shall act on the principal’s behalf and subject to the principal’s control, and […]
Duty to mitigate damages in breach of contract cases (California)
Although it is well settled that a party aggrieved by a breach of contract must take reasonable steps to mitigate or minimize its damages, see, e.g., Fair v. Red Lion Inn, 943 P.2d 431, 437 (Colo. 1997), it is a similarly well-settled principle of contract law that an aggrieved party cannot be required to accept […]
Intentional infliction of emotional distress (California and Colorado)
California A cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress exists when there is “`”`(1) extreme and outrageous conduct by the defendant with the intention of causing, or reckless disregard of the probability of causing, emotional distress; (2) the plaintiff’s suffering severe or extreme emotional distress; and (3) actual and proximate causation of the […]
Copyright protection for music compilations (9th Cir)
From Skidmore v. ZEPPELIN, 952 F. 3d 1051 – Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit 2020 I. THE 1909 COPYRIGHT ACT The world of copyright protection for music changed dramatically during the twentieth century and those changes dictate our analysis here. The baseline issue we address is the scope of Wolfe’s copyright in the unpublished composition […]