Woo-Ming

BACKGROUND

The Complaints and Demurrers Plaintiff hired defendants to assist him in filing delinquent income tax returns and to represent him and his wife in proceedings before the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board. A few months later, plaintiff terminated defendants‟ services and demanded a refund. When the parties failed to reach an agreement on the amount of the refund, plaintiff initiated this action pro se by filing a form complaint stating a single cause of action for fraud based upon intentional or negligent misrepresentation. The factual allegations of plaintiff‟s complaint include that his credit card was billed without his permission; he was charged for services rendered after he terminated defendants‟ services; he was referred by defendants to Jennifer Shapiro, whom he assumed was an attorney and he was billed for her time at the “lawyer‟s rate”; he subsequently learned Shapiro is not an attorney and, consequently, “practically all of the PTG [Progressive Tax Group] invoice is fraudulent.” Defendants demurred to the original complaint on the ground (among others), that the complaint failed to allege all of the elements of a fraud cause of…