TGV, LLC v. First American Title Company
30-2016-00855526
Defendant First American Title Company?s motion to strike portions of Plaintiff TGV, LLC?s complaint is granted in part with 15 days leave to amend.
PUNITIVE DAMAGES
Punitive damages cannot be pled in conclusory terms.? Instead, the facts supporting a claim for punitive damages must be set out clearly, concisely, and with particularity.? (Smith v. Superior Court (1992) 10 Cal.App.4th 1033, 1041-1042.)? However, ?it has long been recognized that ?(t)he distinction between conclusions of law and ultimate facts is not at all clear and involves at most a matter of degree.??? (Perkins v. Superior Court (1981) 117 Cal.App.3d 1, 6.) ??What is important is that the complaint as a whole contain sufficient facts to apprise the defendant of the basis upon which the plaintiff is seeking relief.?? (Ibid.)? In ruling on a motion to strike, the Court should ?read allegations of a pleading subject to a motion to strike as a whole, all parts in their context, and assume their truth.?? (Clauson v. Superior Court (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 1253, 1255; see Perkins v. Superior Court, supra, 117 Cal.App.3d at p. 6 [?stricken language must be read not in isolation, but in the context of the facts alleged in the rest of petitioner?s complaint.?].) In addition, ?[w]hen the defendant is a corporation, ?[a]n award of punitive damages against a corporation . . . must rest on the malice of the corporation?s employees.??? (Wilson v. Southern California Edison Co. (2015) 234 Cal.App.4th 123, 164 [citingCruz v. HomeBase (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 160, 167].)? Here, the Complaint pleads punitive damages in conclusory terms, lacking sufficient facts to support punitive damages.
In addition, Plaintiff?s inclusion of the amount of $300,000 in paragraph 21 and in its prayer for punitive damages violates Civil Code section 3295, subdivision (e).
The court strikes: (1) paragraph 21 of the complaint, on page 5, lines 11-17, in its entirety; and (2) the prayer for relief at page 7, between lines 17-18.? The court declines to strike paragraphs 22 and 28.
ATTORNEY?S FEES
In order to recover attorney fees, a party must allege that the party is entitled to such fees pursuant to a provision in a contract between the parties, or is entitled to them under a relevant statute. (Code Civ. Proc., ? 1021.)? Here, as Exhibit A to the Complaint shows, there is an attorney?s fees provision.? For the purposes of this motion to strike, the court need not determine whether Plaintiff will ultimately be able to recover attorney?s fees.? The court denies the motion to strike prayer for relief at page 7, between lines 18-19.
On the court?s own motion, the 10/3/2016 case management conference is rescheduled to November 18, 2016, at 9 am in this Department.
Defendant shall give notice of the ruling and of the continued case management conference.