Here’s a thorny problem. The trial court found that the seller of a house lied to the buyer. The buyer sought the remedy of rescission. The trial court denied relief, in part because of events that occurred with the passage of time. The court of appeal disagreed in Wong v. Stoler (June 23, 2015) __ …
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When you read the cases, it’s hard not to reach the conclusion that the courts view a liability release agreement with distrust. A new high water mark in this analysis was reached in the recent decision in Etelvina Jimenez v. 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc. (June 9, 2015) __ Cal.App.4th ___. In Jimenez, the court …
Continue reading “A Deal is Deal, Except When You Pump Your Arms”
The law is filled with rules. Rules give guidance to judges. Sometimes the legal result does not square with the facts. In Estate of Britel (2015) 236 Cal.App.4th 127, “the court admitted into evidence a DNA test showing a 99.9996 percent probability that the decedent (Amine Britel) was A.S.’s (the child’s) father.” Yet the court …
Continue reading “Estate of Britel – When is a Child Not a Child?”
Roscoe Pound, Dean of Harvard Law from 1916 to 1936, was a prolific writer in 1920s and 1930s regarding jurisprudence. Here is Dean Pound’s description – both succinct and accurate – regarding the path of the law. “The historical school thought of each in terms of the growth of an organism, in terms of a …
Continue reading “Roscoe Pound on the Development of English Law”
The federal bankruptcy courts publish detailed statistics on bankruptcy filings. California has four federal judicial districts, with Fresno located in the Eastern District. The 2011-2014 bankruptcy filings for the Eastern District of California show a substantial decline, as shown in this table: E.D. Cal. total filings Chapter 7 cases Chapter 11 cases Chapter 12 …
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Case law reflects a tension in the interpretation of fiduciary duties. One camp favors a “I know it when I see it” approach, while the more rigorous jurists seek to discern the basis for imposition of such liability. This tension is on full display in the recent en banc decision in U.S. v. Milovanovic, ___ …
Continue reading “U.S. v. Milovanovic – Ninth Circuit Adopts a Sloppy Fiduciary Standard”
In early English society, rent was paid by way of labor or other services. Only gradually did rent became an item paid in money. Consider this analysis by Oxford Prof. A. W. B. Simpson. “At the time of the Conquest [in 1066] large parts of the country were not cultivated, and those that were, were …
Continue reading “A History Lesson on the Development of Cash Rents”
A study of the ancient English common law begins, for many points, with the law that developed after 1066. The history of inheritances of land is certainly curious, as we inevitably find it tied to the duties owed in a feudal, agricultural society. Here is an excellent analysis from Oxford Prof. A. W. B. Simpson. …
Continue reading “A. W. B. Simpson on English Wills in the 12th and 13th Centuries”
In a law review article published 50 years ago, Cambridge law professor L.S. Sealy reviewed two centuries of English case law on fiduciary relationships. He concluded, correctly, that different relationships give rise to different duties. As a starting point, “Fletcher Moulton L.J. once warned against what he called ‘the danger of trusting to verbal formulae’ …
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Prof. Larry E. Ribstein from the University of Illinois School of Law, a leading scholar on business entities, has given considerable thought to the concept of fiduciary duties. When this author thinks of fiduciary duties, he thinks of three broad obligations – care, confidentiality, and impartiality. Prof. Ribstein, in a recent article, seeks a unified …
Continue reading “Prof. Ribstein Proposes a Single, Unified Standard for Fiduciary Obligations”