- CEQA -
A draft environmental impact report failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act’s requirement of an accurate, stable and finite project description where the draft EIR did not contain site plans, cross-sections, building elevations, or illustrative massing to show what buildings would be built, where they would be sited, what they would look like, and how many there would be; the ambiguous description prejudicially impaired the public’s ability to participate in the CEQA process.
Stopthemillenniumhollywood.com v. City of Los Angeles - filed July 31, 2019, publication ordered Aug. 22, 2019, Second District, Div. Three
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 2146
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- Clean Water Act -
The phrase discharges composed entirely of return flows from irrigated agriculture, as used in the Clean Water Act, means discharges from activities related to crop production; a district court erred by interpreting entirely to mean majority; a defendant bears the burden of proving that its discharges were composed entirely of return flows from irrigated agriculture.
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations v. Glaser - filed Sept. 6, 2019
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 17-17130
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- Easements -
A property owner granted a utility company multiple floating easements outside the area defined by the metes-and-bounds footage descriptions in the recorded conveyances where the conveyances stated that the utility would have free access for the purposes of exercising the rights it was being granted, and the owner allowed the utility to drive over the property to access its electrical facilities for years; the floating easements became fixed easements once the utility and the property owner agreed upon the access routes.
Southern California Edison Company v. Severns - filed Sept. 10, 2019, Second District, Div. Six
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 2502
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- Inverse Condemnation -
Public entities are not strictly or otherwise automatically liable for any conceivable damage bearing some kind of connection, however remote, to a public improvement. If the public entity made reasonable assumptions about the public improvement in question, a plaintiff must show that the damage to private property was substantially caused by inherent risks associated with the design, construction, or maintenance of the public improvement to prevail on a claim for inverse condemnation.
City of Oroville v. Superior Court (California Join Powers Risk Management Authority) - filed Aug. 15, 2019
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 4000
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- Landlord Tenant -
Language in a rent control ordinance prohibiting a landlord from attempting to recover possession of a rental unit unless he was acting in good faith, without ulterior reasons and with honest intent to obtain occupancy of the unit for a specified relative, was not unconstitutionally vague. Rent differential and out-of-pocket loss are both calculable forms of compensation, and the parties are free to argue that one or the other is more appropriate in a given case.
Delisi v. Lam - filed Sept. 7, 2019, First District, Div. Two
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 2472
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- Mechanic’s Liens -
A mechanic’s lien claim that is filed prematurely is void and cannot be enforced; there is no authority suggesting that a claimant’s subjective knowledge or belief as to whether it has ceased to provide work is relevant. Work ceases for purposes of Civil Code §8414(a) when it has come to an end; a work of improvement can include both construction and repairs.
Precision Framing Systems Inc. v. Luzuriaga - filed Aug. 29, 2016, Fourth District, Div. Two
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 2394
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- Trustee’s Sale -
A borrower who obtains a temporary restraining order enjoining a trustee’s sale of his home is a prevailing borrower within the meaning of Civil Code §2924.12(h) and therefore may recover attorney fees and costs.
Bustos v. Wells Fargo Bank - filed Aug. 28, 2019, Third District
Cite as 2019 S.O.S. 2341
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