Basically, relief will be denied if the plaintiff is guilty of wrongful conduct in the same transaction/circumstances under which he/she/it seeks relief. For example:
KENDALL-JACKSON WINERY, LTD., Petitioner, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF STANISLAUS COUNTY, Respondent; E. & J. GALLO WINERY, Real Party in Interest.
(Superior Court of Stanislaus County, No. 153296, Hugh Rose III, Judge.)
(Opinion by Thaxter, Acting P. J., with Harris and Buckley, JJ., concurring.) [76 Cal.App.4th 971]
COUNSEL
Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley, Daniel E. Alberti, Mark G. Bonino, Mary A. Kiker and Kathryn C. Curry for Petitioner.
No appearance for Respondent.
Blecher & Collins, Maxwell M. Blecher, Steven J. Cannata; Damrell, Nelson, Schrimp, Pallios & Ladine, Roger M. Schrimp; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, George A. Yuhas and Laurie Chambers for Real Party in Interest.
OPINION
THAXTER, Acting P. J.—
The doctrine of unclean hands does not deny relief to a plaintiff guilty of any past misconduct; only misconduct directly related to the matter in which he seeks relief triggers the defense. (11 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (9th ed. 1990) Equity, § 10, p. 686.) The trial court found that Kendall-Jackson Winery, Ltd. (Kendall-Jackson), the defendant in a malicious prosecution action, had no relevant evidence that the plaintiff, E. & J. Gallo Winery (Gallo), acted with unclean hands in relation to its claim and ordered summary adjudication for the plaintiff on Kendall-Jackson's unclean hands defense. The novel issue presented is this: When "unclean hands" is raised as an affirmative defense to a malicious prosecution claim, is the relevant misconduct limited to that which affected the defendant's decision to file and pursue the prior lawsuit? We hold it is not; misconduct in the particular transaction or connected to the subject matter of the litigation that affects the equitable relations between the litigants is sufficient to trigger the defense.
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