California Legal Brief

The Rule of David Kostandian v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., et al. is that a party moving to compel arbitration meets its initial burden by presenting a copy of the arbitration agreement and stating its terms verbatim, without needing to prove the agreement's validity or provide evidentiary support for corporate business names, under circumstances where the opposing party fails to dispute the agreement's existence.

The Rule of Harcourt v. Tesla, Inc. is that the consumer expectations test for product defect claims is inapplicable when the incident involves product misuse by a child in circumstances where ordinary consumers have no commonly accepted minimum safety assumptions about how the product should perform, under circumstances involving a two-and-a-half-year-old child accessing and operating a vehicle after the key fob was left inside and doors were left open.