Historically, courts typically refused to impose liability for negligence in the performance of a contract unless the plaintiff was a party to the contract. Thus, whenever a contractor provided services at a particular…
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/ Business Torts, Commercial Law & Contracts, Construction Law, Real Estate - Residential
A recent California appellate case clarifies the application of the statute of limitations to trust amendments.
In Smith v. Myers (2024) 103 Cal.App.5th 586, a dispute arose between the decedent’s children and his widow…
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/ Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning
With certain narrow exceptions (including in connection with the sale of the “goodwill” of a business), agreements restraining competition face an uphill battle in California. As a matter of public policy, California law…
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/ Business Organizations, Commercial Law & Contracts, Labor & Employment Law
The “right to alienate” (transfer) property is an important part of the legal “bundle of rights” regarding property ownership. But those rights, like most others, can be altered by court orders…
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/ Civil Procedure, Real Estate - Residential
In a prior LLC Jungle post — Think Carefully Before Forming an “Out of State” LLC — we reviewed a published opinion (Boschetti v. Pacific Bay Investments Inc.) holding that a claim for Judicial Dissolution of an LLC was subject…
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/ Business Organizations, Business Torts, Conflict of Laws, Finance & Banking
The path to bringing claims against local governmental entities, such as cities and counties, is one filled with obstacles that can deliver a fatal blow to the uninformed claimant’s claim. The creation of California’s…
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/ Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Government Contracting
Actions taken within business entities are sometimes deemed invalid due to procedural defects. For corporations, section 119 of the Corporations Code establishes a clear procedure by which defective actions can be ratified and…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure
Receivership is a provisional remedy within a court’s broad equitable jurisdiction. The statute most commonly used in obtaining a receivership is Code of Civil Procedure section 564. But other statutes sometimes apply, such as…
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/ Civil Procedure, Real Estate - Commercial
In 2022, The LLC Jungle covered the opinion Friend of Camden, Inc. v. Brandt in a post titled LLC Dissolution Vote Defeats Statutory Buyout. In the Friend of Camden case, the Court of Appeal held that an LLC membership vote in…
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/ Administrative Law, Business Organizations, Civil Procedure
Prior LLC Jungle posts have addressed the tricky issue of LLC managerial authority in the context of the LLC’s dealings with third parties...
As referenced in those posts, under Corporations Code section 17703.01, when an…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Commercial Law & Contracts, Real Estate - Commercial
Based on the 1978 voter initiative commonly referred to as “Proposition 13,” the government can reassess the value of real property for taxation purposes after a “change in ownership” of the property. The meaning of “change in…
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/ Business Organizations, Real Estate - Commercial, Taxation
California’s anti-SLAPP statute (Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16) aims to protect defendants from meritless lawsuits designed to chill “protected activity” — i.e., the exercise of rights of petition (litigation) or free…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure
The California Supreme Court recently addressed the complexities surrounding trust amendments in the case of Haggerty v. Thornton (2024) 15 Cal.5th 729. The case settled the confusion over potential conflicts between trust…
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/ Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning
A foreclosure sale purchaser attempting to evict a tenant on the property can encounter pitfalls, as made clear in a series of court cases in recent years. Here is a summary, capped by an update on a recently filed…
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/ Civil Procedure, Real Estate - Residential
Generally, California law treats parties to a commercial lease as sufficiently sophisticated, equal bargainers, capable of negotiating an agreement governing their relationship, such that it should be enforced and not disturbed…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Real Estate - Commercial
