On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in Liberty Surplus Insurance Corp. v. Ledesma and Meyer Construction Company, Inc. and People v. Gonzalez. (Briefs here; oral argument videos here and here.) Both were argued on the large March calendar and the opinions will be issued on the last regular filing day within the 90-day period. There is one more March opinion due — in three consolidated Proposition 47 cases (People v. Buycks, People v. Valenzuela, and In re Guiomar) — but it will file later because the court vacated submission when it ordered supplemental briefing last month.
At the Ninth Circuit’s request, the Supreme Court in Liberty Surplus will decide whether there is an “occurrence” under an employer’s commercial general liability policy when an injured third party brings claims against the employer for the negligent hiring, retention, and supervision of the employee who intentionally injured the third party. (Second District, Division Eight, Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Tricia Bigelow is the pro tem.) The opinion provides an edification opportunity: at oral argument of the case in his court, one Ninth Circuit judge said he had read five or ten times part of an earlier, relevant Supreme Court decision and he confessed, “I can’t for the life of me figure out what [the court was] trying to signal to the outside world.”
Gonzalez involves the question, was the trial court’s failure to instruct on murder with malice aforethought, lesser included offenses of murder with malice aforethought, and defenses to murder with malice aforethought rendered harmless by the jury’s finding of a felony murder special circumstance? (Second District, Division Seven, Court of Appeal Justice Laurie Zelon is the pro tem.)
The opinions can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.