Case Summaries
Commercial Law
ERISA
Probate Trusts
Commercial Law
[09/05]
Sindecuse v. Katsaros
In a case alleging common law fraud surrounding a stock purchase, grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant is affirmed where the allegedly fraudulent statements could not support claims of fraud because they were: 1) predictions of the future; and 2) a promise of future action not accompanied by a present intent not to perform.
[09/04]
Am. Bankers Ass'n v. Lockyer
After remand, in a case interpreting California's Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA) in light of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a ruling that the FRCA entirely preempted FIPA section 4053(b)(1), which restricts the sharing of nonpublic consumer personal information between financial institutions and their affiliates, is reversed and remanded where the preempted portions of FIPA are severable, narrowing FIPA section 4053(b)(1) to exclude consumer report information as defined by the FCRA.
[08/29]
Forest Oil Corp. v. McAllen
In a suit over a commercial contract, denial of a motion to compel arbitration is reversed and remanded where: 1) courts must examine the contract itself and the totality of the surrounding circumstances when determining if a waiver-of-reliance provision is binding; and 2) an unambiguous waiver-of-reliance provision precludes a fraudulent-inducement claim as a matter of law.
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ERISA
[09/02]
McCarter v. Ret. Plan for the Dist. Managers of the Am. Family Ins. Group
In a suit alleging that plaintiffs-employees were harmed when defendant-employer forced them, upon termination, to choose within 90 days whether to elect a lump-sum cash distribution equivalent to the value of their pensions, dismissal for lack of standing is affirmed as a dismissal on the merits, and appeal is dismissed as to award of attorneys' fees, where: 1) plaintiffs asserted an injury and therefore had standing to bring their claim; but 2) defendant did not impose a significant detriment on plaintiffs for choosing a cash distribution; and 3) the award of attorneys' fees was not final, and thus not appealable, prior to the determination of an amount.
[08/29]
In Re: APA Transp. Corp. Consol. Litig.
In a suit alleging violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and ERISA by a trucking company that shut down, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) plaintiffs-benefit plans were not "persons" with standing to sue under the WARN Act; 2) defendants did not constitute a "single employer" for WARN Act purposes; and 3) defendant did not produce evidence to demonstrate that it qualified for the "faltering company" exception to the WARN Act notice requirement.
[08/28]
In Re: Lucent Death Benefits ERISA Litig.
In a putative class-action suit relating to the termination of a pensioner death benefit, dismissal for failure to state a claim is affirmed where the death benefit was an unvested welfare benefit that the employer could terminate without violating ERISA or unilateral contract principles.
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Probate Trusts
[09/04]
Masry v. Masry
In a probate matter, judgment finding that husband's revocation from joint trust was valid is affirmed where: 1) the revocation provision in the trust was not explicitly exclusive; and 2) husband's method of revocation complied with Probate Code section 15401, subdivision (a)(2).
[08/27]
Estate of Clementi
Denial of petition to revoke probate is affirmed where: 1) the deceased manifested a sufficient intent to create a charitable trust through his will, although his will does not identify a specific charity; and 2) the deceased's stated intent to "give the balance of my assets to a charitable foundation or trust" is sufficient to create the trust.
[08/27]
Estate of Heath
Probate court order appointing niece of the deceased as administrator is reversed where the appointed administrator did not "succeed" to a portion of the decedent's estate, as required by Probate Code section 8462(a), by virtue of her mother's assignment of a portion of her interest in the estate to niece. Succession occurs only by operation of law.
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