July 2018

In Russell Road Food & Beverage v. Spencer 829 F.3d 1152 (9th Cir. 2016) , the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that trademark co-existence agreements are enforceable and assignable unless the contract provides otherwise.  The court noted that it did not consider the appellants argument that the trademark co-existence agreement is an executory contract that cannot be assigned without the consent of both parties, or that the assignee breached the co-existence agreement because it failed to raise those issues below.

In Young v. Remx, Inc. (2016) 2 Cal.App.5th 630, 633, a putative wage and hour class action lawsuit, plaintiff unsuccessfully appealed from the trial court’s order compelling arbitration of her individual claims, dismissing her class claims, bifurcating her representative claim pursuant to the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA; Lab. Code, § 2698 et seq.), and staying the PAGA claim pending completion of the arbitration on her individual claims.  The First District held that the death knell doctrine did not apply because the PAGA claim remained.

In Tikosky v. Yehuda (2018) 19 Cal.App.5th 1224 , the judgment creditor obtained an order to sell one of the debtor’s properties.  The senior lienholder paid the amount of the judgment lien, and the debtor moved to compel an acknowledgment of partial satisfaction.  The trial court denied the motion,and the court of appeal affirmed because the payment was not made on the judgment but for the judgment creditor refraining to sell the property.