Judge: Thomas D. Long, Case: 24STCV09473, Date: 2024-12-19 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 24STCV09473    Hearing Date: December 19, 2024    Dept: 48

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

On April 15, 2024, Plaintiffs Trevor Schmidt, Tracy Caldwell, Susanna Hernandez, Jeny Vasquez, and Mary Reyes filed this action against Defendant Los Angeles Unified School District.

On October 4, 2024, Defendant filed a demurrer.

In the demurrer, Defendant explains that Plaintiffs and others filed Case No. 21STCV45243 against Defendant and others.  (Demurrer at pp. 7-8.)  This Court takes judicial notice of the pleadings and orders in that case.

The 700+ page second amended complaint in Case No. 21STCV45243 alleged 51 causes of action, including all causes of action alleged in this action.  (Michaels Decl. ¶ 5 [chart of claims] & Ex. D [SAC].)  On August 29, 2023, the Court “[found] that Plaintiff’s SAC remains fatally uncertain,” and continuous deficiencies after repeated leave to amend was “illuminating in that it strongly indicates that the deficiencies here cannot, and will not, be remedied through leave to amend.”  (Michaels Decl., Ex. G.)  The Court therefore sustained a demurrer without leave to amend.  On September 26, 2023, the Court entered judgment “in favor of Defendants Los Angeles Unified School District, its Board, individual Board Members Kelly Gonez, George McKenna, Monica Garcia, Scott Schmerelson, Nick Melvoin, Tanya Ortiz Franklin and Jackie Goldberg, Superintendent Megan Reilly, and Rob Lester, as to all claims and against all Plaintiffs named in the Second Amended Complaint, including its appendices, and that Plaintiffs take nothing by way of their Second Amended Complaint.”  (Michaels Decl., Ex. H.)

“[I]t is generally held that a demurrer which is sustained for failure of the facts alleged to establish a cause of action, is a judgment on the merits.”  (Kanarek v. Bugliosi (1980) 108 Cal.App.3d 327, 334.)  It therefore appears that Plaintiffs’ claims in this action may be barred by res judicata due to Case No. 21STCV45243, and the Complaint here fails to state a valid cause of action.  A complaint that fails to state facts constituting a cause of action is “not drawn in conformity with the laws of this state and [is] thus properly subject to the court’s own motion to strike under section 436, subdivision (b).”  (Lodi v. Lodi (1985) 173 Cal.App.3d 628, 631.)

Accordingly, an Order to Show Cause Re: Striking Complaint Under CCP 436(b) and Dismissing Action For Failure to State a Claim is scheduled for February 18, 2025 at 8:30 a.m.

The Hearing on Demurrer - without Motion to Strike is continued to February 18, 2025 at 8:30 a.m.

The parties are ordered to brief the issue of whether this action is barred by res judicata.  The parties are also ordered to address the merits of the Complaint’s second cause of action, which was not addressed in the demurrer.  The briefs must be filed no later than February 7, 2025.

Moving party to give notice.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SMCDEPT48@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit.  If all parties in the case submit on the tentative ruling, no appearances before the Court are required unless a companion hearing (for example, a Case Management Conference) is also on calendar.

         Dated this 19th day of December 2024