Tentative ruling roundup, Dec. 5

• Personal injury: Riverside Superior Judge Kira Klatchko partially granted a summary judgment (Katzler v. Trt Holdings|PSC2004806) 
  • A family sued the Omni Resort in Palm Springs after their son fell off a golf cart driven by a hotel employee. The boy was unconscious, and could not remember what happened, and the driver did not see what happened either. The family sued for motor vehicle and three types of negligence. Klatchko granted summary judgment for the negligent entrustment and negligent hiring causes of action, but denied the motion for summary judgment as it relates to motor vehicle, negligence and vicarious liability.
• Personal injury: school molestation: Riverside Superior Judge Carol Greene denied a summary judgment (Doe v. Riverside County Office Of Education|CVRI2100301) 
  • The family of a female student sexually molested by former North High School teacher John Torrez sued the Riverside Unified School District. Torrez pleaded no contest to two charges of oral copulation with a minor and unlawful intercourse with a minor May 19, 2019. He is on probation until Oct. 9, 2023. In this civil case, the school district moved for summary judgment. The court found that the school district’s arguments are unpersuasive, and that their evidence did not prove their arguments for dismissal.
• Personal injury: tenants and building supervision: Riverside Superior Judge Chad Firetag sustained with leave to amend a demurrer (Betancourt v. Group V San Bernardino|CVRI2200460) 
  • A Riverside family is suing their residential property manager, claiming they allow rat and cockroach infestations, hazardous wiring, flooding, mold and drug addicts on the property. The court’s ruling throws out their claims for failure to provide a habitable dwelling, breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment and housing discrimination, but grants them leave to amend their argument. Their claims for negligence and nuisance remain. The court ruled that their failure to provide a habitable dwelling claim fails because it is a contract-based claim, but the defendants are property managers, not the owner, who would be a party to the lease contract.
• Breach of contract: Riverside Superior Judge O.G. Magno granted a demurrer (Gleason v. PNC Bank National Assocation|CVRI2202169) 
  • Plaintiff claims PNC Bank breached a duty of good faith when it failed to refund stolen money. Since the plaintiff did not identify any terms of a contract, his claim of breach of contract fails. His negligence cause also fails because he did not identify any duty of care PNC allegedly breached. He keeps his claim that the bank violated the Electronic Fund Transfers Act. 

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