Business Law

An individual was eligible to be a debtor in a SBRA Subchapter V chapter 11 case despite the fact that he was a wage earning employee of a company that was unrelated to the debtor's failed corporate business on the petition date. Read more

Without a lot of fanfare, the California legislature enacted legislation to exempt limited liability companies, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships from California’s annual minimum franchise tax in the entity’s first year of existence. Read more

California has joined the ranks of states who have developed a way to circumvent the $10,000 federal deduction limitation state and local taxes (known as SALT) limitation with the enactment of A.B.150 recently signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Read more

Statute criminalizing willful misgendering of transgender residents in long-term care violates First Amendment, but provision requiring gender-based room assignments in accord with resident’s gender identity does not facially violate equal protection. Read more

An increase in equity in a chapter 13 debtor's home that occurred between the petition date and the post-confirmation conversion to chapter 7 inured to the debtor's benefit. Read more

In a preference action against an insurance company financier, the financier's lien on unearned premiums was perfected under Louisiana law and was sufficient to defeat a preference if the financier was fully perfected on the date of each transfer, even if not fully secured on the petition date. Read more

Physician assistant’s unsupervised liposuctions and “Director of Surgery” title misled patients and was unauthorized practice of medicine. Read more

Court upheld several different release and exculpation clauses in confirming a chapter 11 plan over the objection of the U.S. Trustee. Read more

On July 2, 2021, a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Three, in Ramirez v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., affirmed the trial court’s denial of plaintiff’s petition for writ of mandate to compel Gilead Sciences, Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in California, to allow the plaintiff to inspect certain of its books and records under California statutory and common law. Read more

In a recent unpublished memorandum opinion, the United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit (BAP) ruled that an interest of a debtor in a limited liability company which held title to the residence in which the debtor resided (the “Residence”) was not sufficient to support a homestead exemption in the Residence despite a state court ruling that the LLC was the reverse alter ego of the debtor. Read more