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In California real estate Partition actions, Courts are able to award reasonable attorney fees “incurred or paid by a party for the common benefit.” CCP §874.040. This applies even in contested partition suits. It is all in the court’s discretion – fees incurred by a defendant to a partition action could be for the common benefit, and therefore allocable in part to the plaintiff, despite the fact that the defendant had “resisted partition, with the claim that plaintiff had no interest in the subject property, that it belonged to defendant alone, and that plaintiff was a mere volunteer in paying the delinquent taxes. However, courts have found that fees incurred “advocat[ing] a position of limited merit” are not for the common benefit and should be borne by the party “pressing” such “spurious matters.” A court may achieve a similar result through an exercise of its equitable discretion under section 874.040 and require a party to bear its own fees. But what if there is a written agreement between the parties which contains an attorney fee provision? In a recent decision, the parties entered a settlement agreement regarding property that did not limit the right to partition. When one filed a partition action, claiming to be enforcing the settlement, the court disagreed that they could invoke the attorney fee provision.

Sacramento-partition-attorney-fee-attorneyIn Orien v. Lutz, three siblings were gifted two properties from their mother; they each obtained one-third undivided interest. Once mom died they fought over her probate estate, resulting in s a settlement agreement which included the 2 properties. The exact language is set out at the end of this post below; in summary, the Settlement said that if the parties agreed, they could sell the properties, but this did not prevent them from filing a partition action. Another provision provided for attorney fees to anyone who brought an action to enforce the agreement or prevent its breach.

Eventually the plaintiff filed this action seeking a partition. Partition was granted. The trial court awarded attorney fees to plaintiff pursuant to paragraph 21.1 of the settlement agreement and Civil Code section 1717, which governs awards of attorney fees for actions on contract. The trial court agreed that the action “concerned enforcement of one of the provisions of the settlement agreement—paragraph 11.1—that allowed for partition by sale of the properties at issue” and therefore fell within the attorney fees provision.

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Notes and Deeds of Trust are often assigned to different parties. The question posed is what happens if the Deed of Trust alone is assigned? A typical assignment of the Deed of Trust alone will purport to assign “all beneficial interest under that certain Deed of Trust dated xyz..” But the long-established law in California is clear: the beneficial interest under a Deed of Trust is held by the party who holds the Note (or is entitled to enforce it), without regard to the assignment of the Deed of Trust.

Sacramento-Deed-of-Trust-LawyerWe start with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carpenter v. Longan (83 US 271.) In that great 1872 style of legal writing, it states:

“The note and mortgage are inseparable; the former as essential, the latter as an incident. An assignment of the note carries the mortgage with it, while an assignment of the latter alone is a nullity. That the debt is the principal thing and the mortgage an accessory. Equity puts the principal and accessory upon a footing of equality, and gives to the assignee of the evidence of the debt the same rights in regard to both.”

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A corporate merger is when two corporations combine to become a single firm. There are several types of mergers, including those where both corporations still exist after the merger. One type is a Triangular Merger. In this, the acquired corporation continues in existence as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the acquirer without transferring any assets. In a triangular merger there usually are two agreements which typically might be called “Agreement of Merger” and “Agreement of Reorganization”, respectively. The Agreement of Merger is the statutory agreement drafted, executed and filed with the Secretary of State pursuant to California Corporations Code.

A corporation is considered a separate legal entity apart from its owners. The transfer of corporate stock is not deemed a transfer of the real property of a legal entity because the separate legal entity still owns the property. However, a traditional merger—one in which two or more corporations merge, one survives and the others disappear—results in the transfer of the assets of each disappearing corporation to the surviving corporation. In a recent decision, parties did not want a transfer of real estate because of contractual relations that made a transfer of the property costly

(and it would trigger a property tax reassessment). They used a reverse merger so that there was no transfer of real estate. The court said that was ok… it was not intended to cheat shareholders or creditors, so the court would respect the transaction.

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A license in real estate is permission to use real estate based on express or implied permission of the real property owner. It may be written or oral, or implied. Generally, it can be revoked at any time and does not give the licensee an interest in the property. It is personal to the one given the right, and cannot be transferred or inherited. However, such a license may become irrevocable – and equivalent to an easement – in a few circumstances. One is when the parties’ agreement appears to be irrevocable for the term of the agreement. Another is when the grantor is stopped from denying it (“estoppel”) because the grantee has so changed his position that to revoke it would be unjust. In a recent decision from Southern California, the plaintiff, holder of a written agreement authorizing parking, who changed his position in reliance, was disappointed because the subsequent owner of the property did not have notice of the parking license. Without notice, the new owner was not bound.

Sacramento-irrevocable-license-real-estate-attorneyIn Gamerberg v. 3000 E. 11th Street LLC, in 1950 an owner agreed to provide eight parking spaces to a neighbor who needed them to build a warehouse (here’s the location, not much parking available!). The notarized “parking affidavit” was filed with the LA Dept of Building, which then issued a building permit for the warehouse. There was no evidence that the spaces were identified on the ground nor used by the warehouse owner. A subsequent owner of the property gave the parking spaces to his tenants. The warehouse owner complained, and the lawsuit ensued.

The court first reviewed the law of licenses. It noted that when a landowner allows someone else to use her land, the owner is granting a license. A license may be created by express permission or by acquiescence (that is, by ‘tacitly permit[ing] another to repeatedly do acts upon the land’ ‘with full knowledge of the facts’ and without objecting). A license is a personal right and confers no interest in land: “[I]t merely makes lawful an act that otherwise would constitute a trespass. The grantor generally can revoke a license at any time without excuse or without consideration to the licensee. “[a]n otherwise revocable license becomes irrevocable when the licensee, acting in reasonable reliance either on the licensor’s representations or on the terms of the license, makes substantial expenditures of money or labor in the execution of the license, and the license will continue ‘for so long a time as the nature of it calls for.” The license, similar in its essentials of an easement, is declared to be irrevocable to prevent the licensor from perpetrating a fraud upon the licensee.

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Parties in real estate lawsuits in California can enter formal settlement agreements, which become enforceable by the court under Code of Civ. Proc. Section 664.6. A judgment may be entered, but the court retains jurisdiction to enforce the agreement without the necessity of filing a new lawsuit. The trial court is under a duty to render a judgment that is in exact conformity with an agreement or stipulation of the parties. If interpretation of a stipulation is in order the rules applied are those applied to the interpretation of contracts; but nothing in section 664.6 authorizes a judge to create the material terms of a settlement, as opposed to deciding what terms the parties themselves have previously agreed upon. In a recent decision from San Diego the parties, adjoining property owners, entered a settlement agreement but continued fighting afterwards. The Court, on entering the judgment, tried to adjust to what had happened in the interim, varying the judgment from the terms of the agreement. The court of appeal said no dice and reversed the judgment.

Sacramento-real-estate-settlement-attorneyMachado v. Myers was a dispute between neighbors whose homes sit on adjacent lots that were once part of a single parcel which, when subdivided, did not account for a five-foot setback for a part of one home now owned by Appellants. The parties entered a Settlement Agreement at the settlement conference on the eve of trial – terms of the agreement set out below. They did not initially have a judgment entered.

The initial problem in the case was with the first requirement of the settlement agreement: 1(a): [Appellants] will move the [air conditioning] unit from its current location to a location that is not on the east side of their property, north of the current back door, or the north side of their property. Machado claimed they did not move it.

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An easement in California is a right to use someone’s property which right is something less than a full right of ownership. The right of use of an easement is restricted to that in the original grant of easement, and a common problem occurs when the easement user changes, which usually means expands, their use of the easement. The parties have to rely on the description in the grant of easement. But what if there is not much of a description? The courts recognize the “floating easement,” in which the grant does not describe the specific location. In a recent decision out of Ventura County the court described the floating easement and the rules for locating it on the ground.

Sacramento-floating-easement-attorneyIn Southern California Edison Company v. Severns, The plaintiff “SCE” had written grants of easement over some property. It was undisputed SCE may use the specified strips for utility purposes, but the parties disagreed as to whether SCE has the right to access that area by traversing other portions of the property. There were three grants:

The Three Easements:

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Parties often hold title to California real estate as joint tenants. On the death of one, the other succeeds to 100% of the title to the property. Thus joint tenancy is often used as a will substitute. When married couples holding property as joint tenants split up, they usually seek to sever the joint tenancy, so that if a party dies ex-spouse does not get their interest. In a recent Partition action the court addressed a conflict in the statutes: the Civil Code requires that a document severing a joint tenancy be recorded before the death of the severing tenant; while the Family Code requires, on dissolution, notice of the severance must be filed and served on the other owner before it is effective. The Partition court concluded that a party in dissolution must obey each statute, but they may be satisfied in any order, and the severance occurs when the last step is taken.

Partition-attorney-SacramentoIn Raney v Cerkueira, a married couple held the title as joint tenants. They split up, and the wife filed for dissolution. The summons in the action had the standard language prohibiting parties from transferring property provided by the Family Code. She then executed a transfer Deed severing the joint tenancy, transferring her interest to her trust with her son as trustee. Her son then, as trustee, filed a Partition action. The trial court found that the wife violated the Family Code provision in transferring 50% of the property to her trust. This appeal followed.

The two involved statutes (set out below in further detail) are:

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If a corporation fails to pay its franchise tax, the “powers, rights and privileges” of the California corporation may be suspended and those of a foreign corporation to do intrastate business in California may be forfeited. (Rev.C. 23301) The corporation cannot sue, defend, or appeal from an adverse decision. Every contract made in California by a corporation when its corporate powers, rights, and privileges are suspended or forfeited are voidable at the option of a party to the contract other than the taxpayer. (Rev.C. 23304.1(a).) However, on payment of the tax and penalties, the powers may be “revived” or restored, and a certificate of revivor issued. Revivor has retroactive effect, so, for example, a corporation may defend itself in a lawsuit filed before the reviver. Recently a property owner wanted to get rid of a Judgment Lien recorded by a suspended corporation. The Corporation was revived, and the owner was stuck with the lien.

Suspended-corporation-attorney-sacramentoIn Longview International, Inc. v. Kyle Stirling et al., A woman was conveyed property in Sam Mateo COunty by her husband as part of a marital settlement. The property was burdened with a judgment lien recorded two day before.

She filed a motion to expunge the lien, much as one would expunge a lis pendens. However, the court first observed that a motion to expunge the judgment lien is not authorized by any statute and may not even be the appropriate vehicle to secure the relief she sought. An abstract of judgment is recorded by the prevailing party after a court has awarded judgment and it attaches to all of the losing party’s ownership interests in real property in the county in which the abstract is recorded. (§ 697.340.) It makes the judgment creditor a secured and, by statute, can be extinguished only by the recording of an acknowledgment of satisfaction of the underlying judgment or by the judgment creditor’s release of the lien. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Charlton (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 1066, 1070

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A “holdover tenant” is a tenant who remains on the premises after the end of the term of the lease. In most commercial real estate leases there is a holdover provision, which states that the leasehold continues on a month-to-month basis. The lease usually provides that the month to month occupancy is under the same terms as specified in the lease, though there is a provision for increased monthly rent. But what exactly are the “same terms”… is everything included? In a recent decision from Southern California, the original Lease contained a right of first refusal. The holdover commercial tenant sought to exercise it, but the court said, the right of first refusal was not an essential terms of the lease, so it did not carry over into the holdover tenancy.

right-of-first-refusal-attorney-sacramentoIn Smyth v. Berman, plaintiff Smyth operated Awesome Audio, an audio recording company. Since the mid-1990s, Smyth has leased 5725 Cahuenga Boulevard in North Hollywood for the business (Google Street View). The 2011 Lease provided: “If the Tenant remains in possession after this lease ends, the continuing tenancy will be from month to month.” The lease had expired but the plaintiff continued to possess the premises and pay rent. He sought to exercise the right of first refusal, but the landlord declined, and this lawsuit was the result.

right-of-first-refusal-lawyer-sacramentoThe court first looked at the relationship of the parties. When a lease expires but the tenant remains in possession, the relationship of the landlord and tenant changes. The “lessor-lessee relationship” based on “ ‘privity of contract’ ” ends, and a new “landlord”-“tenant” relationship based on “ ‘privity of estate’ ” springs into being by the operation of law. (Civ. Code, § 1945.) This new “hold-over” tenancy is presumed to continue under the same terms contained in the now-expired lease except as those terms may have been modified by the landlord and tenant. (Civ. Code, § 1945.) Thus the issue in this case – If the expired lease contained a right of first refusal, is that right one of the terms that presumptively carries forward into the holdover tenancy?

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Generally speaking, whenever California real property is transferred, the County Assessor may reassess the property to establish base value for property tax purposes. There are limits as to how much the value may increase every year due to changes in the market. However, when the property is sold, it may be reassessed at full market value. This makes a big difference if a property had the same owner for many years, and benefits from a low base valuation. Buyers want to avoid a big increase in taxes.

There is an exception that applies to a residence owned by any person over the age of 55 years, or any severely and permanently disabled person. The base-year value of that property may be transferred to any replacement dwelling of equal or lesser value that is located within the same county and is purchased or newly constructed by that person as his or her principal residence within two years of the sale by that person of the original property, provided that the base-year value of the original property may not be transferred to the replacement dwelling until the original property is sold. (R & T section 69.5)

In a recent decision, the county rejected the taxpayer’s claim of exemption. That taxpayer was required by the lender to form an LLC to obtain the construction loan for the new residence, and the county said that the LLC is not a person, so the exception does not apply. The county was overruled.

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