Supreme Court of California - December 2006 Opinion Summaries

People v. Williams

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Sentencing
In an automatic appeal in a death penalty case, the conviction and sentence are affirmed in their entirety over claims of error regarding: 1) a...

City of Goleta v. Superior Court of Santa Barbara County

Construction, Government Law, Property Law & Real Estate
In a case involving the Subdivision Map Act, the court finds that the city of Goleta, a newly incorporated city, had discretion to disapprove a final...

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians v. Superior Court of Sacramento County

Constitutional Law, Elections, Government Law, Indian Law
In a case involving the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity, the court finds that California, through its Fair Political Practices Commission...

In re Burton

Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus
An order to show cause issued in habeas proceedings for a prisoner under a death sentence is discharged where petitioner failed to prove that his...

Fair v. Bakhtiari

Contracts, Dispute Resolution & Arbitration, Evidence
In the context of Evid. Code section 1123(b), which states that a signed settlement agreement reached through mediation is exempt from the general...

People v. Trujillo

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Sentencing
In a felony case in which a trial court found that a prior conviction was not a strike for "Three Strikes" Law sentencing purposes, a court of...

Philadelphia Indem. Ins. Co. v. Montes-Harris

Contracts, Injury & Tort Law, Insurance Law, Transportation
If coverage under an excess policy is sold to a rental car customer in reasonable reliance on the rental car agent-s inspection of the customer-s...