In February I published a blog about a California court that would not take judicial notice of a document on a Federal Agency website. It dealt with the FDIC sale of Washington Mutual mortgage loan accounts to JP Morgan Chase. JPMorgan was conveyed all the assets, but none of the…
Generally, in California to prove a claim for fraud and deceit based on concealment, the plaintiff must prove five elements: (1) the defendant must have concealed or suppressed a material fact, (2) the defendant must have been under a duty to disclose the fact to the plaintiff, (3) the defendant…
An acceleration clause in a loan document or promissory note is a provision that requires the entire amount of the unpaid principal and interest to become due when the specified event occurs. There are two kinds. First, in a typical Promissory Note, the entire amount may become due in the…
I had written last week about the right of first refusal common in partnership agreements, and how it may affect the sale of a majority interest in the Sacramento Kings to a Seattle Group. If you are involved in a partnership agreement contemplating a sale of an interest, you should…
A popular topic in Sacramento now is this possibility that the Kings may be bought by a Seattle ownership group, and moved to Seattle. The method this would be accomplished is by the Maloof family selling their majority interest in the Kings partnership to the new group- the minority partners…
In California contracts sometimes a party is obligated to use “best efforts” to accomplish a goal of the contract. For example, a contract to buy real estate may be subject to a condition to obtain financing. In such a case, the implied covenant of good faith requires the buyer to…
“Unclean hands” is a defense used in courts, in which a party claims the other side in not able to obtain relief because he comes to court with unclean hands- he has acted in bad faith or unethically. [Technorati J64A92HRG74M] The rule is sometimes stated “those seeking equity must do…
California construction and contractor law is pretty clear – you have to have a contractor’s license to get paid. If you don’t have a license and the owner does not pay, the courts will not help. The intent of the Contractor’s State License Law is to prohibit unlicensed contractors from…
Inevitably, a property or business owner has a problem when someone injures themself at their premises. The ordinary slip and fall involves a dangerous condition which causes someone to fall and hurt themselves. Usually, the property owner must have actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition before they can…
California law provides that a contractor or supplier of materials who furnishes labor or materials for construction on real property may record a notice of lien (known as a mechanic’s lien) against the property. (Civil Code 3115) If the contractor is not paid, they then have 90 days from recording…