Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: law question on companies

Your hypothetical question involves the kind of analysis where a case could take a lot of twists and turns depending upon additional facts. That having been said, you're probably looking at a summary judgment motion in terms of true grounds for a court order. Also, the no-brainer is that if Jack's has an attorney and you write a letter insinuating that he'd better check his facts on prior purchases to avoid getting burned on malicious prosecution, its an inexpensive shot at getting movement in the correct direction. If you are involved in a situation similar to this hypo, you should have an attorney review the paperwork promptly because there are a plethora of other responses that may be legally necessary and appropriate. There is no way to give real legal counsel based on this short hypo and so the short answer response here cannot be relied upon as appropriate legal advise for your particular situation.

Re: law question on companies

The company should hire a lawyer who knows what she's doing rather than a student who cheats on her homework by posting her assignment on this site.

Re: law question on companies

Dismissal? Most LawGuru users who write us about lawsuits want to know how to win them. However, suits are indeed often, indeed usually, dismissed prior to trial and final judgment. By far the greatest number of dismissals are voluntary, at the request of the parties following an out-of-court settlement or after binding arbitration.

Involuntary dismissals also sometimes terminate a lawsuit short of trial and judgment. I can think of about three common scenarios. One is that the defendant establishes that the court in which the suit is filed lacks jurisdiction. This happens more often in Federal court, where the rules for establishing jurisdiction are more limiting. There can also be a failure to get personal jurisdiction over a party, e.g., by defective service. Occasionally, a suit is brought by a party that lacks standing to sue, perhaps because it is a suspended corporation, a minor, or not the real party in interest.

Suits are often dismissed following a demurrer or motion for summary judgment. The former alleges that the plaintiff cannot win because of defects that are disclosed on the face of the complaint. If the court believes that the defects are incurable, the demurrer will be sustained without leave to amend, effectively terminating the suit, and a dismissal will follow. Note that demurrers only work against fatally-flawed complaints and they cannot be used to assert facts or seek a ruling on the merits of plaintiff's suit. A motion of summary judgment asks the court to grant judgment without trial on the merits in somewhat similar fashion, but is usually brought at a later stage of the case and the moving party asserts that trial is unnecessary because there is no material factual dispute, that the only disputes relate to the proper application of the law to the facts.

In the situation you describe, more likely than not neither party is entitled to a dismissal on any ground and the case will have to be settled or it will go to trial.