Prana Nine Properties, LLC v. Yue Chang Ye
Dismissal of our complaint for declaratory relief was affirmed because our client had an adequate remedy at law.
While arbitration is designed to be a faster and cheaper alternative to litigation, any lawyer can thwart that objective. Here, our client, a home buyer, wanted to arbitrate her claim that she was defrauded as to the condition of the property. The sellers sued in court to prohibit her from arbitrating other claims that she had no intention of arbitrating. The Superior Court entered an order prohibiting our client from arbitrating what she was...
Read MoreThe Court of Appeal held that to be enforceable, a settlement agreement under Code of Civil Procedure sec. 664.6 must only be signed by the party to be charged with compliance.
This appeal resulted from the first anti-SLAPP motion we filed. The Court of Appeal found that claims resulting from our client’s appearance on an anti-rent control flyer allegedly disparaging her tenants triggered the anti-SLAPP statute and since plaintiffs could not prevail on the merits, reversed the trial court’s denial of the motion. Property owners should not have to fear that speaking out on public issues will subject themselves to baseless litigation.
Landlords’ tenant sued landlords for habitability violations and, it appeared, for invoking the Ellis Act and suing for declaratory relief after tenant contended that the withdrawal had not been properly executed. We filed an anti-SLAPP motion. The motion was denied, and affirmed on denial, because the complaint was only tangentially related to the Ellis Act and declaratory relief action.
The Court of Appeal held that the statute of limitations for filing a wrongful eviction lawsuit, based on a defective termination notice, runs from receipt of the notice. The landlord served a termination notice on his tenants stating that he wished to do an owner move-in eviction (“OMI”) and offered to switch apartments. The notice was an informal letter that failed to comply with the Rent Ordinance. Approximately eight months later, the...
Read MoreThe Court of Appeal finds Tenant’s lawsuit subject to review under anti-SLAPP statute.
This case arose out of a commercial landlord-tenant dispute. The landlord took several actions aimed at evicting the tenants, including filing and then dismissing an unlawful detainer action. The tenants sued, alleging that the landlord’s conduct violated his agreement to waive rent as partial consideration for a buyout of the end portion of their lease term. The landlord filed an anti-SLAPP motion. The trial court denied the motion in its...
Read MoreCourt of Appeal tossed out tenant’s lawsuit against landlord under the anti-SLAPP statute.
Lambert v. City and County of San Francisco
This United States Supreme Court decision is an extremely rare dissent from denial of a petition for writ of certiorari. Justice Scalia, with Justices Thomas and Kennedy concurring, objected to the full Supreme Court’s refusal to review this case which was another constitutional challenge to San Francisco’s Hotel Conversion and Ordinance. Our office represented the Lamberts before the City’s administrative tribunals and in the trial court, and represented amicus curiae in the appellate courts.
