- Environmental Law -
The completion of a project to expand a commercial storage facility rendered moot a challenge to the issuance of the building permit allowing for the construction.
Parkford Owners for a Better Community v. County of Placer - filed Aug. 26, 2020, publication ordered Sept. 16, 2020, Third District
Cite as 2020 S.O.S. 4505
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Decisions by the U.S. Department of the Navy to relocate troops from Japan to Guam and to construct training facilities on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands were not connected for the purposes of an environmental impact statement; although the two actions have overlapping goals, they have independent utility. By issuing a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for the training and ranges in the CNMI, the Navy has impliedly promised to consider the cumulative effects of the subsequent action in the future EIS.
Tinian Women Association v. U.S. Department of the Navy - filed Sept. 18, 2020
Cite as 2020 S.O.S. 18-16723
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An entity is the operator of a facility for purposes of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act if it maintained pervasive control over the location and made the environmental response decisions for the location. The U.S. is not subject to CERCLA liability as a prior operator.
U.S. v. Sterlin Centrecorp - filed Oct. 5, 2020
Cite as 2020 S.O.S. 18-15585
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- Escrow Accounts -
California’s law requiring the payment of interest on escrow accounts is preempted by the Home Owners’ Loan Act of 1933.
McShannock v. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA - filed Sept. 22, 2020
Cite as 2020 S.O.S. 19-15899
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- Foreclosures -
The method available to the holder of a senior trust deed for removal of a junior encumbrance from the property is foreclosure of the junior lienholder’s equitable right of redemption; a junior lienholder may raise the expiration of the statute of limitations as a defense to the senior lienholder’s assertion of priority; the expiration of the statute of limitations on a senior lien also bars the senior lienholder from asserting the priority of its lien in answer to the foreclosure complaint of a junior lienholder.
Robin v. Crowell - filed Oct. 8, 2020, Fifth District
Cite as 2020 S.O.S. 4751
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- Lienholder Rights -
A trial court did not abuse its discretion in subordinating a bank’s lien and confirming the sale of a property free and clear of all liens so that the receiver could remediate the nuisance conditions on the property promptly and effectively. Code of Civil Procedure §568 and Health and Safety Code §17980.7 allow for the payment of a receiver’s remediation fees and costs on a super-priority basis under appropriate circumstances, but it was an abuse of discretion for a judge to equate a county’s enforcement costs with those of the receiver without consideration of the competing claims of other lienholders.
County of Sonoma v. U.S. Bank N.A. - filed Oct. 8, 2020, First District, Div. One
Cite as 2020 S.O.S. 4728
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