1DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2026/3/12 - Mar 12, 2026
argument1DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2026/3/12
California First District Court of Appeal
1h 17m
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What procedural rules did the judges set before starting the oral arguments?
Okay, good morning. Thank you for being here. Please be seated and we'll get started straight away. Let me just get our name tags figured out here. Let me just say for everyone's benefit before we get going that we have a number of cases on the calendar. We the justices have read all the briefs. We know the arguments. So when you do present your argument, be as focused as you can and be as concise as you can. We don't need preliminary background information. We're pretty much on top of it. So having said that, why don't we go ahead and get started with the first case and that's Cordero versus Gelati Construction. I see that people are already ready to go, so let's start with an entry of appearance, starting with the appellant.
Juan Flores for plaintiff and appellant, Leonardo Cordero.
Good morning. Hassan Al-Rakabawi for respondent, Gelati Construction.
All right, thank you both very much. Let me make one other note before we get going, and that is the judges on this panel are not going to include Justice Langhorne-Wilson, who's sitting here to my right. She's not on the panel. Justice Behnke is on the panel. She is on the screen. You can see her there. Good morning. And she was unable to be here in person today, so she'll be participating remotely. So it'll be Justice Behnke, myself, and Justice Smiley. With that, I think we can get going. Let's start with the appellant's attorney, Mr. Flores, and you can get us started.
Good morning, Your Honors. I'd like to start by mentioning that in this case, there may be issues regarding comparative fault. There may be issues regarding whether appellant and whether his employer's actions were a superseding cause that resulted in the injury. However, the question before the court is whether there's a bar to duty. And as the court has reviewed, the evidence in the record demonstrates that Gilotti took various actions in preparing the work area for Camblin's iron workers and for ensuring that there was safe access.
Well, you're trying to argue that there's an exception under Prevet because Gilotti retained some control over the work site. Is that correct?
That's correct, Your Honor. All right. And in a motion for summary judgment, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Gilotti's actions included walking the area each morning, inspecting the work area, and then determining what sort of corrective actions were necessary in order to provide Camblin's ironworkers with safe ingress and egress into their work area, and then for providing safe conditions within Bent 10, where Mr. Cordero was working at the time of the incident. Gelati's superintendent testified that these actions were taken to ensure that Camblin's iron workers were not walking through mud. But there was no
evidence that I recall, and you can correct me, that Gelati ever in any way sort of delegated the duty, I mean, did not delegate the duty of maintaining safety over to the construction company itself, the subcontractor.
And as it relates to the delegation of safety, that's related to the work that Mr. Cordero was doing. However, access, ingress, and egress, and then the conditions within Bent 10, that aspect of the work was never delegated. And Gilotti's responsibilities for access and the site conditions at Bent 10 were an ongoing responsibility for Gilotti. In fact, even after Mr. Cordero's injury, Gilotti went to the work area and put down walking planks, which it did not do in the first instance after inspecting the work area and assisted him in getting out of the excavation.
It seems to, you seem to be suggesting that there's no limit to Prevet, in other words, because in every instance, the general contractor is going to exercise some involvement in the worksite and your argument is that here the involvement that Gilotti had necessarily means that it retained control. So when would Prevett ever apply in your argument?
Your Honor, prevent would apply in situations where the hirer did not take any sort of action or assume any sort of responsibility in this situation over site conditions at Bent 10 and over ingress and egress for Bent 10.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What procedural rules did the judges set before starting the oral arguments?
0:20–15:29
2
How did counsel for Cordero argue that Gelati retained control over site conditions at Bent 10?
15:29–30:20
3
What legal tests did the court use to decide whether the Pre‑empt doctrine applies in the Cordero case?
30:20–40:12
4
Why did the appellant argue that there is no factual dispute about Gelati’s duty in the Cordero case?
40:12–47:50
5
How did the parties frame the jurisdictional issues in the Sheehan vs. City of Alameda case?
47:50–56:35
6
What arguments did Coleman present about the validity of the commissioner’s authority and the alleged procedural defects?
56:35–1:07:58
7
How did the Kaiser Permanente parties raise procedural and evidentiary errors affecting the verdict?
1:07:58–1:12:29
8
What were the final rulings and next steps announced by the panel at the end of the session?
1:12:29–1:16:57
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