Real Property eNews

The Real Property Law Section of the California Lawyers Association has organized Practice Area Committees (PACs) to focus on specific areas of real property law. Each month, E-News will highlight a different PAC. Read more

Engineers and fact finders are investigating the specific causes of the failure(s) and responsible parties for the sudden and unexpected collapse of the 40 year-old Champlain Tower condominium structure. Concurrently therewith, “interested parties” (whether for altruistic or business development purposes) are meeting and developing language for their legislator of choice to propose this January. As an industry and as humans we are quick to blame certain individuals. Instead, I invite you (and our legislature) to focus on mitigating some obvious systemic problems within community associations which cause predictable failures. Read more

The current chairs of the CLA RPLS “Brokers & Licensees” and “Real Estate Financing” practice area groups have announced their intention to step down, and the executive committee has started its search for new leadership candidates. Read more

Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power v. County of Inyo (2021) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2021 WL 3629227: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's order granting a peremptory writ of mandate in an action alleging violations by respondent of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Public Resources Code, section 21000 et seq.) arising from use of condemnation proceedings to acquire fee simple title to three sites that respondent leased and used for landfills and respondent's continued operation of the landfills. Read more

The Real Property Law Section of the California Lawyers Association has organized Practice Area Committees (PACs) to focus on specific areas of real property law. Each month, E-News will highlight a different PAC. Read more

It is with great sadness that the CLA-RPLS announces that its member and regular contributor Joshua (Josh) Genser, passed away on August 23, 2021 from a sudden heart attack. As is reflected in his article submitted for this issue of the e-news, Josh was a curious mind, a smart problem solver, and a tenacious advocate. Read more

California has a “Summary Proceeding” for dealing with Stop Notice Claims on public works, that is supposed to be a faster, more efficient means of determining the merits of a Stop Notice Claim than would be litigating the claimant’s lawsuit to enforce the Stop Notice. Although the procedure has been a feature of California law for several years, it has been, in my experience and in that of several experienced construction law attorneys to whom I have spoken, rarely, if ever used. So, I decided to try it. Read more

Fires have played a major role in the history of California. Not only have these disasters repeatedly left a trail of devastation through the State’s forests and other natural areas, but recent fires have been noteworthy in their damage to developed areas such as Paradise and South Lake Tahoe. The impacts will be felt for years, as families struggle to rebuild their homes and charred trees litter freeways and hiking trails. These effects are a good reminder to make disaster plans, including identifying key heirlooms and records and reviewing insurance policies for adequacy and comprehensiveness. Read more

Bailey v. Citibank, N.A. (2021) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2021 WL 2801633: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's judgment quieting title in favor of plaintiff, and its later order granting defendant's motion for relief from default and default judgment. The Court of Appeal concluded the trial court erred in setting aside the default and judgment under the mandatory relief provision of Code of Civil Procedure section 473. Because defendant's default was entered on November 14, 2018, but defendant's attorney, Jeremy Katz, was not referred or assigned to act as attorney on this case until January 10, 2019, attorney error could not possibly have caused the default in this case and mandatory relief was unavailable under the reasoning of Cisneros v. Vueve (1995) 37 Cal.App.4th 906, 908, 910–912 (Cisneros) as a matter of law. Read more

Since the start of the COVID-19 health crisis, we have been approached by both landlord and tenant clients asking how COVID affects their leasehold obligations. While we have generally encouraged our clients to approach these matters in an honest and amicable manner with a focus on resolution, disputes have arisen between owners and occupiers. Legal resolution does not come quickly, as the legal process tends to delay final adjudication for several years. Some decisions have been rendered in interim proceedings (such as bankruptcies), but on the whole, there simply has not been enough time for COVID-related disputes to proceed through both the trial and appellate levels and provide guidance on how these lawsuits will be resolved. Read more