A man who tortured a 23-year-old man before zipping his body in a suitcase and throwing him into the San Francisco Bay saw his murder conviction upheld Friday by a California appeals court. The court agreed with the California attorney general that language in the jury’s instructions on the definition of poison was incorrect but harmless.

(Subscription required) The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the State Bar may require attorney Thomas John Spielbauer to satisfy a civil fraud judgment before returning to active practice, even though the misconduct involved a nonclient.

Auto insurance companies in California can continue to charge higher rates for unmarried drivers than for married motorists because evidence shows they’re more likely to get into accidents and file claims, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

The Court of Appeal for this district has reversed an award of punitive damages in the amount of $250,000, holding that it cannot stand in the absence of evidence as to the appellant’s financial worth, and observing that an ability to pay cannot be inferred from evidence that that the woman owns a house in Woodland Hills and applied more than $500,000 of her own money to fixing the house she was claiming, in probate proceedings to be hers.