MediMarts, Inc., a marijuana dispensary, sued the City of San Jose, to prevent it from enforcing its ordinance imposing its Marijuana Business Tax and requiring MediMarts to submit tax returns disclosing the amount of its sales of cannabis-containing-products, on the...
Firm News
Court Jurisdiction and the Internet
A person in Texas posts on the internet angry denunciations of a man in California, posts his address and the names of his wife and children, and encourages physical attacks on their persons and property. Can the man sue the person from Texas in California?The answer...
No Insurance Coverage for Injuries to Unlicensed Contractor’s Workers
Your unlicensed contractor or handyman does not have workers compensation insurance. If the work requires a contractor's license, and your contractor doesn't have one, then you are the direct employer of the contractor and each of her employees. If you, the property...
Unaffordable Contracts Held Unendforceable
The Court of Appeal for San Jose has held that borrowers could sue the lender and the buyer at a foreclosure sale to have the loan held to be unenforceable, where the loan required payments $1000.00 per month higher than the borrowers' monthly income. That the...
Tenant Loses Rent-Controlled Apartment Due To Illegal AirBnB Use
Joelle Kraft had a rent-controlled apartment in Santa Monica which she posted on AirBnb and rented. Her landlord terminated the lease and sued to evict her on the grounds that the AirBnb rentals of the unit were illegal under Santa Monica law. The Santa Monica rent...
New Way to Hold Title to Your Home
There is a new way to hold title to real property in California, effective January 1, 2016. A "Revocable Transfer On Death Deed" is just what it sounds like. It is a deed recorded in the official county real estate records, which says who is going to be the owner...
Unlicensed Contractor Could Lose $23 Million
Again, a contractor has been caught performing work without a valid California contractor's license, and could lose $4,669,376 in unpaid charges and be required to pay back $18,331,911. This time it's Jacobs Engineering, one of the largest and most sophisticated...
Paperwork Still Counts. Don’t Start a Deal Without it,…Signed!!!
Tribeca negotiated the purchase of a portfolio of loans secured by real property, for $47 million. The contract required a $1 million deposit which would become non-refundable liquidated damages upon the waiver of contingencies. Tribeca negotiated a joint venture...
Rescission For Real Estate Misrepresentations Is Back
If undisclosed defects are bad enough that the buyers really don't want the property, rescission should be available and may be a better remedy than selling the property at a large loss and then waiting to see whether the loss can be collected from the sellers. In...
You Don’t Know What’s Covered And Excluded From Your Insurance, Not For Sure
In the Los Angeles case of Ong v. Fire Insurance Exchange, filed on April 3, 2015, the insurance company denied a claim for fire damage, because the home had been vacant for more than 60 days. A vagrant had broken in, brought in a mattress and firewood, and...