Tenderloin Housing Clinic Inc. v. Astoria Hotel Inc.
The City of San Francisco sued our client, the Astoria Hotel, for allegedly violating the City Planning Code and Residential Hotel Ordinance by renting rooms to tourists. The Court of Appeal ruled in favor of our client, holding that the City Planning Department’s 1981 certification of rooms in the hotel as tourist units made continuing rental to tourists a permitted conditional use – even without proof that the rooms were actually rented to tourists at the time of certification.
DeLaura appealed from a judgment dismissing her first amended complaint for declaratory relief against her tenant, James Beckett. The Court concluded that the demurrer was properly sustained because the applicability of certain provisions of the San Francisco Rent Ordinance to Beckett’s tenancy is more appropriately resolved through an administrative hearing before the San Francisco Rent Board, even though the Rent Board did not have such a procedure and initially refused to create one following the opinion. Read the Court’s opinion by clicking the icon below.
The Court of Appeal found that a view easement over a neighboring property had been extinguished when both properties were under common ownership.
The Court of Appeal refused to dismiss an appeal by a disgruntled bidder on real property during a partition sale. The Court held that the failed buyer had standing to appeal the decision to accept another bid. We then prevailed in the appeal.
Sprewell v. Golden State Warriors
We were local counsel for former Golden State Warriors guard Latrell Sprewell in his suit against the NBA. The federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of his complaint except for his state law claim for unfair business practices under Business & Professions Code § 17200, which it reinstated. The case settled thereafter and Sprewell went on to play for the Knicks and Timberwolves.
Empress LLC v. City and County of San Francisco
The federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Tenderloin Housing Clinic was immune from civil rights liability for directing San Francisco to harass our client, but the Court also held that the Clinic was not entitled to attorney’s fees.
In this published decision of the Court of Appeal, our client successfully resisted his former tenants’ efforts to obtain extraordinary appellate review of an eviction judgment after the owner had succeeded at trial and in the appellate department of the Superior Court. This procedural victory forecloses future efforts by tenants to forestall their evictions by using the delays of the appellate process.
