Weiss v. Othman CA4/3

Filed 11/6/24 Weiss v. Othman CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

MICHAEL WEISS et al.,

Plaintiffs and Respondents, G062685

v. (Super. Ct. No. 30-2018-01003632)

RAJAI A. OTHMAN et al., OPINION

Defendants and Appellants.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Craig L. Griffin, Judge. Affirmed in part. Reversed in part. Pacific Premier Law Group and Arash Shirdel for Rajai A. Othman and Amal Othman, Defendants and Appellants.

Siddiqui Law, Omar A. Siddiqui, Ryan A. Gonzales, Imran A. Kamil and Nicole A. Soma for Plaintiffs and Respondents. * * * This appeal stems from a default judgment entered against defendants Rajai Othman and Amal Othman. They contend the complaint fails to state any causes of action against them and, even if it did, the default judgment is void because it exceeds the amount alleged in the complaint. As we discuss, the complaint fails to allege a cause of action against Amal; the default judgment entered against her therefore must be vacated. We affirm the default judgment entered against Rajai because the complaint alleged several valid causes of action against him, and it put him on notice as to the amount at issue if he failed to defend himself. STATEMENT OF FACTS Plaintiff Michael Weiss owns Weistec Engineering, Inc. (collectively, Weistec), which manufactures car parts and imports luxury cars. Weistec previously employed defendant Mohammad Othman, who is Rajai and Amal’s son.1 While working at Weistec, Mohammad allegedly stole more than $300,000 by generating sales orders from Weistec’s customers and then directing those customers to make payments to his personal accounts. Mohammad also created false records in Weistec’s system related to these payments. Once Weistec shipped the order, Mohammad deleted evidence of the sales order and payment. Weistec alleged this was part of a conspiracy between Mohammad and Rajai to misappropriate Weistec’s funds and property. Weistec alleged Mohammad “diverted [these] funds from [Weistec]