Judge: Robert B. Broadbelt, Case: 24STCV19012, Date: 2025-01-16 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 24STCV19012    Hearing Date: January 16, 2025    Dept: 53

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles – Central District

Department 53

MOVING PARTY:                 Defendant Caesarstone USA, Inc.     

RESPONDING PARTY:       Plaintiff William Landa Verde

Motion to Strike

The court considered the moving and opposition papers filed in connection with this motion.  No reply papers were filed.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff William Landa Verde (“Plaintiff”) filed this Complaint for Toxic Injuries against, inter alia, defendant Caesarstone USA, Inc. (“Defendant”) on July 30, 2024.

Defendant now moves the court for an order striking from Plaintiff’s Complaint (1) the prayer for punitive damages (Compl., Prayer No. 4), and (2) the allegations requesting punitive damages (Compl., ¶¶ 1130, 1148, 1170).

The court denies Defendant’s motion to strike Plaintiff’s prayer for punitive damages and related allegations because Plaintiff has pleaded facts to establish that (1) Defendant is guilty of malice, oppression, and fraud, based on, inter alia, Defendant’s (i) decision to market its artificial stone product with the knowledge, at the time it began producing and exporting its product in 1987, that (A) it was extremely toxic and dangerous, (B) it contained a high concentration of silica and the extreme hazard it posed to fabricators, and (ii) concealment of the nature and severity of the hazards of its product, by, for example (A) making misleading statements about the product in the Safety Data Sheet issued in 2012, including by stating that inhalation of dusts, smoke, and vapors may cause upper respiratory tract irritation when it instead causes chronic and severe lung disease (i.e., silicosis and resultant death), and (B) making misleading statements about the product in the Safety Data Sheet issued in 2012 by stating that overexposure to silica can cause silicosis, when the truth (known to Defendant) is that silicosis is caused by inhalation of small amounts of silica, and (2) advance knowledge and conscious disregard and authorization of an act of malice, oppression, and fraud on the part of Defendant’s officers, directors, and managing agents since those corporate officers are alleged (i) to have known of the toxic and dangerous nature of the product and (ii) to have ratified Defendant’s decision to market its product in conscious disregard of their knowledge of the danger of the product.  (Civ. Code, § 3294, subds. (a), (b); Compl., ¶¶ 59 [Plaintiff fabricated certain of Defendant’s Caesarstone products], 245, 247, 259, 274-276, 279, 280, 282-283, 285, 352, 1129.)

ORDER

            The court denies defendant Caesarstone USA, Inc.’s motion to strike.

            The court orders plaintiff William Landa Verde to give notice of this ruling.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

DATED:  January 16, 2025

_____________________________

Robert B. Broadbelt III

Judge of the Superior Court