5/20/2024 - US Court Allows at Least 8 of Ashley's Claims to Proceed

On May 20 2022 the US Court in the Northern District of California, SF Division, issued a ruling allowing eight of my legal claims against Apple Inc to proceed. Apple had filed a Motion to Dismiss some of my claims (allowing some to stay) and the US Judge only granted Apple's motion for two claims, but allowed eight claims to proceed and provided me leave to amend another seven claims.

The US Judge ok'd the following claims to go forward: Nuisance (toxic tort for silicon fab emissions), Ultrahazardous activities (same), Breach of Good Faith & Fair Dealing, Tamney claim (termination in violation of public policy), Cal. Labor Code § 98.6 (retaliation for labor complaints), § 6310 (retaliation for safety complaints), Cal. B&P Code § 17200 (unfair business practices - injunctive relief against Apple over Gobbler and other user studies), and IIED (fear of cancer due to chemical exposure).

He also granted leave to amend for: RICO 1962(c) and (d), Bane Act, Ralph Act, NIED, Cal. Labor Code § 1102.5, and breach of implied contract (making me no longer an at will employee and can only be fired for cause) -- and also leave to amend to add additional allegations within some of the claims above.  I have until June 17 to file the updated complaint and then Apple has until July 15 2024 to respond.

A Pro Se plaintiff walking out of federal court, in a lawsuit against one of the most powerful companies in the world, after a motion to dismiss, with EIGHT claims intact, and another SEVEN claims which could still be added (so, potentially a total of fifteen viable claims), is extremely unusual. The Judge also allowing leave to amend a RICO claim by a pro se plaintiff is also very unusual - leave to amend is only granted if its possible the claim could be plausible.

I'm pleased with the decision and grateful to finally get my day in court.

The docket is here: 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67772913/gjovik-v-apple-inc/

The complaint is here: 
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.417952/gov.uscourts.cand.417952.47.0.pdf

The decision is here:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.417952/gov.uscourts.cand.417952.73.0.pdf