California Court of Appeal

In plaintiff's suit against the County of Los Angeles and a sheriff for negligence, claiming that the sheriff breached an unspecified statutory duty of care by failing to promptly serve a writ of execution on Sony BMG and MTV, arising from the death of plaintiff's son, for which an entertainer known as "Too Short" was responsible, trial court's judgment in favor of the plaintiff is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) no mandatory statutory duty was alleged or violated, and the trial court erred when it denied the county's motion for judgment on the pleadings and allowed the action to proceed to trial on a theory of common law negligence; 2) the county and its attorney have not shown that the trial court abused its discretion with regard to making an award of sanctions, and have made no effort to demonstrate any abuse of discretion as to the amount of sanctions; and 3) plaintiff's motion to dismiss the appeal and to impose sanctions is denied.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/27/2010
• Published 08/27/2010

Judges

• JOHNSON

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Henry Patrick Nelson, Montie S. Day