Success in the Court of Appeal of the State of California

We are pleased to announce that the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, Division Two, in Case number B228431, as affirmed in full our client's trial court judgment.

We filed the underlying lawsuit on behalf of our client on May 22, 2009. Our client had been defrauded out of his business. Defendants ever uncooperative in every stage of litigation, especially when it came to responding to discovery. The case was set for jury trial on August 2, 2010. Defendants brought a last minute ex parte application to delay the trial, which the trial court rightfully denied.

Trial commenced as scheduled. After a seven-day jury trial, the jury returned a general verdict on all counts against all Defendants. The Hon. Mark V. Mooney signed the Judgment on Verdict after Jury Trial on August 30, 2010. Judgment Debtors brought Motion for New Trial, which motion was denied. Then, Judgment Debtors gave notice of Appeal.

The appeal was assigned to The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, Division 2. We assisted client in defending the appeal, and filed Respondent's Reply Brief on April 18, 2011. The three-judge panel of the District Court of Appeal ("DCA") heard oral arguments on September 23, 2011, at the Courthouse on 300 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, California 90013. On October 11, 2011, the DCA issued its Opinion, affirming the judgment in full. The decision was authored by Justice Kathryn Doi-Todd, and justices Judith Ashermann-Gerst and Victoria M. Chavez concurred on the opinion.

Originally, the California Supreme Court was the only appellate court in the State of California. With the growth of the State and increase in number of cases, the Legislature amended the California Constitution in 1904 and authorized the establishment of lower appellate courts. Today, California Courts of Appeal are broken into 6 appellate districts. The district is subdivided into 8 divisions. There are four justices in each division, but each case is heard by a randomly selected panel of three justices. Notably, trial courts throughout California are bound by published opinions from all appellate districts. Auto Equity Sales vs. Superior Court (Hesenflow), 57 Cal. 2d 450 (1962).

Photo of the Ronald Reagan Building courtesy of Wikipedia. For further information, refer to the web site of Court of Appeal, or run a search on Google.

Robin Mashal is a California litigation attorney and the managing shareholder of Century City Law Group, APC, located at 1801 Century Park East, Ninth Floor, Los Angeles, California 90067-2302.  He is licensed before all courts of the State of California, the United States District Court for the Central District of California, United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. He can be reached at (310) 286-2000.