On April 17, 2021, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health (“Department”) revised its protocol for restaurants to permit increased activities in light of the County’s Orange Tier reopening.

The changes include:

• Allowing restaurants to have live outdoor entertainment. Live entertainment operations are allowed outdoors only.  Performers must be at least 12 feet away from seated customer groups.
• Allowing restaurants to host private events when the restaurant is not operating for regular business. Private events are subject to a separate protocol and restaurants ...

On Saturday, April 17, 2021, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) released its much-anticipated guidelines for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

On April 13, 2021, during a town hall with the Independent Restaurant Coalition, SBA associate administrator Patrick Kelley stated that the program was not robust enough to serve all eligible applicants and urged administrators to apply on the first day the program opens. He suggested that a demonstration of strong demand could lead to Congress opening additional funding for the program.

Eligible Entities

Eligible ...

On April 8, 2021, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance regarding the temporary 100-percent deduction for food and beverage purchased from restaurants.

Beginning January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2022, businesses can deduct 100% of their food or beverage expenses paid to restaurants if the business owner (or an employee of the business) is present when food or beverages are provided, and as long as the expense is not lavish or extravagant under the circumstances.

The guidance defines eligible restaurants to include businesses that ...

The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a district court decision dismissing a case for lack of standing, finding that an advocacy group must demonstrate that it affirmatively diverted resources to combat alleged false claims to maintain standing in a false advertising litigation.

The case, Friends of the Earth, et al. v. Sanderson Farms, Inc., Case No. 3:17-cv-03592 (N.D. Cal.), was originally filed by multiple advocacy groups in 2017 against Sanderson Farms, Inc., a poultry farming company.  Plaintiffs alleged that defendant violated both the California False Advertising Law and ...

On April 6, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) announced agency actions to advance the safety of leafy greens.

First, the FDA announced that it was releasing a report of its investigation on the Fall 2020 outbreak of E. coli linked to the consumption of leafy greens. The report found that the outbreak, which caused 40 reported domestic illnesses, was linked via whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and geography to outbreaks traced back to the California growing region associated with the consumption of leafy greens in 2019 and 2018. The FDA investigated the outbreak ...

On April 6, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to lift all COVID-19 virus restrictions by June 15, 2021. The full reopening is contingent on both (1) sufficient vaccine supply to ensure that all Californians age 16 and over who wish to be inoculated are able to do so and (2) stable and low hospitalization rates. The full reopening would mean an official end to California’s color-coded tier system.

It remains unclear what restrictions may remain under the full reopening but Governor Newsom specified that some form of mask mandate will remain. The California ...

In some circumstances an insurer’s duty to settle may arise even in the absence of a demand by the claimant within policy. The recent case of Planet Bingo, LLC v. The Burlington Insurance Company, 2021 DJDAR 2510 (March 18, 2021) is the latest decision to address this point.

In Planet Bingo, the insured manufactured handheld gaming devices. Those devices were distributed in the U.K. by Leisure Electronic Limited. Leisure leased some of the Planet Bingo’s devices to Beacon Bingo, which operated a bingo hall in London.

In September 2008 there was a fire at Beacon’s bingo hall ...

Both Los Angeles and Orange County are now eligible to move from the Red Tier into the Orange Tier of COVID-19 reopening guidelines under the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. 

On March 30, 2021, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced that while it satisfied the numbers requirement to move into the Orange Tier, it would wait until April 5 to permit businesses to operate at increased capacity.

On April 5, Los Angeles County will officially adopt Orange Tier reopening rules to the Public Health Officer Order. Under these new rules, the following changes will take ...

Parties in an added-sugar class action pending in the Northern District of California are taking another shot at obtaining preliminary approval of a settlement reached between the parties. The case, Stephen Hadley et al. v. Kellogg Sales Co., Case No. 5:16-cv-04955, originally filed in 2016, alleges that Kellogg violated several California and New York laws by marketing many of their cereals with deceptive health and wellness claims that mask the cereals’ high added sugar content.  Plaintiffs specifically target roughly a dozen of Kellogg’s cereals. The challenged ...

As reported here, on March 19, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 95. This new law requires all California employers (including those with collective bargaining agreements) with 25 or more employees to provide paid supplemental sick leave to employees who are unable to work or telework due to certain COVID-19 related reasons. In-home supportive service providers are also required to provide paid supplemental sick leave to their providers.

The new COVID-19 supplemental sick leave must be provided on the oral or written request of the covered employee ...