Chiu

Plaintiff Vanloan Johnson brought a complaint against Dr. John T. Chiu for medical malpractice and negligent maintenance of the laser machine that malfunctioned during a skin treatment, causing her injury. The trial court granted summary adjudication on the medical malpractice claim and later denied summary judgment on the negligent maintenance claim. The case was sent to a second judge for trial. Chiu brought another motion to dismiss the negligent maintenance claim, but this time he called it a motion in limine. The second judge also denied the motion. Not happy with the ruling, Chiu sought extraordinary relief. That was denied. For reasons not explained in the record, the case was assigned to a third judge for trial. Chiu brought his motion in limine once again and this time the judge granted it. Chiu argued in his in limine motions that Johnson was foreclosed from proceeding on her negligent maintenance cause of action because the court had previously granted him summary adjudication on the medical malpractice cause of action. (See Flowers v. Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center (1994) 8 Cal.4th 992 [ 35 Cal.Rptr.2d 685 , 884 P.2d 142 ] (Flowers).)

Although…