Business Law

George Floyd’s death has created ripple effects throughout the country. His death, and the nationwide protests asking for justice and for us to live up to our ideals, have started a long conversation that must be had on the serious issues of ensuring that equal protection under the law and the rule of law truly exist for all Americans. Read more

With the growth of the cannabis industry, many charities are being approached to accept cash and in-kind donations from cannabis businesses. This one-hour zoom presentation will discuss whether charities risk their tax exemption if they accept such gifts. Read more

Perez v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Services, 2020 WL 2312867 (9th Cir. May 11, 2020) follows a line of California appellate cases which hold that the owner of mortgaged property may not sue to stop a foreclosure based on a claim that the trust deed was not validly assigned to the foreclosing beneficiary. The case is another nail in the coffin of pre-foreclosure challenges based on the sometimes sloppy or unperfected transfers of mortgage documents. While that coffin may be closed, lenders still must peer into the very open casket of California’s Homeowner Bill of Rights, from whence such injunctions will rise again! Read more

Reversing the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a spouse’s earlier bankruptcy discharge did not retroactively extinguish the debtor’s joint and several liability for a fraudulent transfer judgment against the debtor and her spouse. Lariat Companies, Inc. v. Wigley (In re Wigley), 951 F.3d 967 (8th Cir. 3/9/20). Read more

In Vincent Jue v. Maggie Liu, et al. (In re Liu), 611 B.R. 864 (9th Cir. BAP 2020), the U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that: (1) an order denying a 11 U.S.C. § 109(g)(2) dismissal motion is final and immediately appealable; (2) non-statutory, equitable defenses are not available to a recipient of a preferential transfer; and (3) a California attachment lien obtained within the 90-day preference period automatically terminates upon the filing of a bankruptcy petition by operation of law. Read more

In Richards v. PAR, Inc., 2020 WL 1451906, the Seventh Circuit ruled that under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act courts must look to state law to determine whether a repossession company has a present right to possess the property at the time it was seized. Read more

The following published decisions may be of interest to attorneys practicing insurance law. Read more

In Sterling-Pacific Lending, Inc. v. Moser (In re Moser), 613 B.R. 721 (9th Cir. BAP 2020), the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit held that the bankruptcy court abused its discretion in declining to rule on a lender’s adversary proceeding seeking a declaratory judgment that the lender’s attempt to collect fees awarded to it in state court litigation did not violate the debtor’s chapter 7 discharge injunction. The BAP directed judgment in favor of the lender on remand because the debtor had repeatedly conceded that there was no discharge violation. Read more

In In re Dao, __ B.R. __, No. 20-20742, 2020 Bankr. LEXIS 1260 (Bankr. E.D. Cal., May 11, 2020), Judge Christopher Klein published a decision joining the majority view that the termination of the automatic stay under Section 362(c)(3) is only with respect to the debtor and does not terminate as to estate property. Read more

In a case of first impression, perhaps anywhere in the country, interpreting provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland ruled that the discovery rule does not apply to toll the statute of limitations to enforce a note payable on demand as set forth in UCC § 3-118(b). Read more