Real Property Law
CASE SUMMARY UPDATE: April 2022 Real Property Case Summaries
California Case Summaries™ (https://cacasesummaries.com)
Monty A. McIntyre, Esq. is the publisher of California Case Summaries™ which provides short summaries, organized by legal topic, of every new published civil and family law case helping California lawyers easily master the new case law in their practice areas, get better results and referrals, and grow their law practice. Monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions are available, as well as annual Practice Area subscriptions in the areas of Employment, Family Law, Real Property and Torts. Monty hasbeen a California civil trial lawyer since 1980 and a member of ABOTA since 1995. He currently works as a full-time mediator, arbitrator and referee with ADR Services, Inc. conducing Zoom hearings throughout California (to use Monty contact his case manager Haward Cho, haward@adrservices.com, (619) 233-1323). Monty also helps lawyers improve their skills and practices with his Lawyer Master Mentoring™ services (for info visit Monty’s web at https://montymcintyre-law.com).
Free 2021 CA Supreme Court Case Summaries: Click here to get free summaries of the 22 California Supreme Court civil or family law decisions published in 2021. The Courts of Appeal published an additional 483 civil or family law decisions in 2021, for a total of 505 new published civil or family law cases.
CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT
Torts
Sheen v. Wells Fargo Bank (2022) _ Cal.5th _ , 2022 WL 664722: The California Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s order sustaining defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s cause of action alleging negligence in defendant’s responses to plaintiff’s loan modification requests. The California Supreme Court ruled that a lender does not owe the borrower a tort duty sounding in general negligence principles to process, review and respond carefully and completely to a borrower’s loan modification application, such that upon a breach of this duty the lender may be liable for the borrower’s economic losses — i.e., pecuniary losses unaccompanied by property damage or personal injury. This type of claim is barred by the economic loss doctrine, a judicially created doctrine that bars recovery in negligence for pure economic losses when such claims would disrupt the parties’ private ordering, render contracts less reliable as a means of organizing commercial relationships, and stifle the development of contract law. (March 7, 2022.)
CALIFORNIA COURTS OF APPEAL
Environment (CEQA, etc.)
Buena Vista Water Storage Dist. v. Kern Water Bank Auth. (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 842257: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting a petition for writ of mandate based upon its conclusion that the environmental impact report (EIR), approved by respondent for its Kern Water Bank Authority Conservation and Storage Project (the Project) designed to directly divert up to 500,000 acre-feet-per-year from the Kern River for recharge, storage, and later recovery within the Kern Water Bank, did not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Public Resource Code, section 21000 et seq.). The Court of Appeal disagreed, concluding the EIR was adequate. It provided an accurate, stable, and finite Project description which met the requirements of CEQA. The environmental settings analysis complied with CEQA. And the EIR adequately assessed long-term recovery operations on groundwater levels. (C.A. 2nd, filed February 23, 2022, published March 22, 2022.)
Save the Hill Group v. City of Livermore (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 946288: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order denying a writ petition seeking to overturn respondent’s approval of a residential housing development project known as the Garaventa Hills Project (the project) and its certification of a reissued final environmental impact report (RFEIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Public Resources Code, section 2100 et seq.). The Court of Appeal concluded that petitioner had raised a meritorious challenge to the adequacy of the RFEIR’s analysis of the “no project” alternative, and it directed the trial court to issue a peremptory writ of mandate directing respondent to set aside its certification of the RFEIR and its approval of the project. (C.A. 1st, March 30, 2022.)
Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters v. City of Los Angeles (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 951446: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting a writ petition challenging respondent’s approval of a mixed-use commercial and residential development in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles, to be called The Icon at Panorama. The trial court granted the writ petition, finding that respondent’s draft environmental impact report and final environmental impact report (FEIR) lacked an accurate, stable, and finite project description as required by cases interpreting the California Environmental Quality Act, and the FEIR failed to adequately address a comment on local sewer capacity. The Court of Appeal disagreed, concluding that respondent’s environmental impact reports contained a sufficiently accurate, stable and finite project description, and that respondent’s response to the comment regarding local sewer capacity was adequate given the nature of the proposed development. (C.A. 2nd, March 30, 2022.)