On June 19, 2013, Len Siegel, Tom Ware, and David Bernardoni secured a Court of Appeal decision upholding the trial court’s sustaining of a homeowner association’s demurrer to homeowners’ complaint seeking to hold the Association liable for in excess of $200,000 in damages arising out of engineering errors in the homeowners’ architectural application. The victory […]
In the recent case of Harris v. City of Santa Monica, 56 Cal.4th 203 (2013), the California Supreme Court clarified the “mixed motive defense” that employers frequently use in litigation. The mixed motive defense generally applies where, although the plaintiff has shown an employer’s intentional discrimination, the employer has also proved it would have made […]
How the Supreme Court’s Latest Decision Affects Employers and Employees For companies that employ 15 or more employees beware: Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act gives employees the right to sue if they suffer workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or gender identity. This past week, the U.S. Supreme […]
A new opinion published on June 20, 2013, holds that a homeowners association may exclude an owner’s representative from a board meeting because the representative was not “member” as defined by the association’s governing documents. In SB Liberty, LLC v. Isle Verde Association, Inc., the homeowner formed a limited liability company (“SB Liberty”) to hold […]
“Trolls,” or intellectual property assertion entities, refer to business entities that purchase I.P. portfolios and file infringement lawsuits. Many are familiar with this concept in the patent context, but few recognize there are also assertion entities that purchase copyright assignments. In a recent Ninth Circuit case, Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, 2013 WL 1908876, the panel […]
HOA’s Maybe Liable For The Acts of an Independent Contractor Conventional wisdom has often assumed that when an HOA hires and independent contractor that the HOA will not be liable if the contractor is negligent and harms someone. After all, the contractor is “independent” and why should the HOA be liable when the contractor, over […]