Legal News

Case Summaries

Probate Trusts

[01/29] Estate of Artall v. Comm'r. of Int'l. Rev.
In the taxpayer's appeal from the tax court's approval of the IRS Commissioner's disallowance of a "qualified family-owned business interest" estate tax deduction to the taxpayer estate, the tax court's order is affirmed where the "qualified family-owned business interest" deduction of 26 U.S.C. section 2057 is available for an estate's qualifying equity or ownership interests but not for debt interests such as loans receivable.

[01/22] Charles Schwab & Co. v. Debickero
In an interpleader action by a bank seeking to determine the ownership of an IRA account held by decedent, summary judgment for the named beneficiaries of the IRA is affirmed where: 1) the surviving spouse protections in ERISA did not apply to the IRA even though some of the funds originated from an ERISA-protected pension plan, and 2) the Internal Revenue Code also did not impose automatic surviving spouse rights on IRAs similar to those protections afforded under ERISA.

[01/08] Suleman v. Sup. Ct.
A petition for a writ of mandate by plaintiff, commonly referred to in the media as the "Octomom", challenging the probate court's denial of her motion to dismiss a petition by an individual, a president of a nonprofit corporation, and the court's appointment of the Orange County Social Services Agency (SSA) to conduct an investigation of the family's finances is granted where: 1) the probate court erred by denying plaintiff's motion to dismiss the petition; 2) the individual seeking guardianship has no standing under Probate Code section 1510(a) as the petition seeking appointment of a guardian of the octopulets' estates should have been dismissed because he has neither pleaded ultimate facts demonstrating the plaintiff has engaged in any financial misconduct, nor alleged any other information warranting court investigation in the plaintiff's family's finances; and 3) the probate court's order for an investigation of the family's finances is vacated.

[12/11] Balian v. Balian
Probate court's order granting a declaratory relief petition brought by a trust beneficiary to determine that a proposed petition to modify an irrevocable trust is not a contest is affirmed as the proposed modification petition explicitly states that it is being pursued under section 15409 and as such, it does not violate a no contest clause.

[12/01] In re: Hausman
In a probate proceeding, the appellate division's order voiding a deed transferring the estate's property is affirmed where decedent's children did not form a de facto limited liability company capable of receiving title to real property that was the subject of a deed executed by decedent shortly before her death, because no "colorable attempt" was made to file the articles of organization with the Department of State prior to the date of the alleged transfer.

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Insurance Law

[02/08] Hall v. Liberty Life Ins. Co. of Boston
In plaintiff's suit seeking reinstatement of her long-term disability benefits, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) district court's judgment with respect to benefit plan's termination of plaintiff's benefits and its claim for partial reimbursement is affirmed; and 2) district court's imposition of an equitable lien on plaintiff's Social Security benefits and its denial of attorney fees to the benefits plan are vacated and remanded.

[02/08] Ward v. Dixie Nat'l Life Ins. Co.
In a class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies alleging that defendants violated a contractual promise under insurance policies to pay policyholders the "actual charges" of cancer treatments, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) under the three-step retroactivity analysis, the presumption against retroactivity operates to bar the application of the South Carolina statute to the claims in this case; and 2) defendants' remaining arguments are meritless.

[01/14] Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass'n v. Dep't of Admin. Hearings
In a consolidated medical malpractice action, involving the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan established by the legislature, the decision by the Second District is quashed and remanded where, in order to satisfy the notice requirement of section 766.316, Florida Statutes, both participating physicians and hospitals with participating physicians on staff must provide obstetrical patients with notice of their participating in the plan.

[12/11] Metro Allied Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Lin
In plaintiff's action against an insurance company for negligence and a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for failure to procure a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, the judgment of the court of appeals in favor of the plaintiff is reversed and remanded is the causation standard for a claimed failure to procure insurance under a negligence theory and under the DTPA requires proof of the availability of some insurance that would have covered the plaintiff's damages.

[12/11] D.R. Horton-Texas, Ltd. v. Markel Int'l Ins. Co., Ltd.
In an action brought by a general contractor seeking a defense and coverage from the commercial general liability insurer for alleged construction defects, judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed in part and reversed in part and remanded where: 1) the duty to indemnify is not dependent on the duty to defend and an insurer may have a duty to indemnify its insured even if the duty to defend never arises; and 2) in determining coverage, a matter dependent on the facts and circumstances of the alleged injury-causing event, parties may introduce evidence during coverage litigation to establish or refute the duty to indemnify.

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Health Law

[02/08] Johnson v. Weld County
In an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) action based on defendant's failure to hire plaintiff, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where plaintiff failed to rebut defendant's evidence suggesting that the male candidate it hired as Fiscal Officer had superior qualifications to plaintiff's, as well as its evidence that she was not, at the time of the hiring decision, disabled within the meaning of the ADA.

[02/08] Crandall v. Denver
In an action under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to prohibit full-plane deicing at an airport concourse and also require other precautionary steps relating to airplane deicing fluid (ADF), judgment for defendants is affirmed where plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that ADF at the airport (whether it degraded inside or outside the concourse) may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health.

[02/08] Hall v. Liberty Life Ins. Co. of Boston
In plaintiff's suit seeking reinstatement of her long-term disability benefits, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) district court's judgment with respect to benefit plan's termination of plaintiff's benefits and its claim for partial reimbursement is affirmed; and 2) district court's imposition of an equitable lien on plaintiff's Social Security benefits and its denial of attorney fees to the benefits plan are vacated and remanded.

[02/08] Ward v. Dixie Nat'l Life Ins. Co.
In a class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies alleging that defendants violated a contractual promise under insurance policies to pay policyholders the "actual charges" of cancer treatments, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) under the three-step retroactivity analysis, the presumption against retroactivity operates to bar the application of the South Carolina statute to the claims in this case; and 2) defendants' remaining arguments are meritless.

[02/08] Bolmer v. Oliveira
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action based on plaintiff's involuntary commitment, denial of summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) the medical-standards test set forth in Rodriguez v. City of New York, 72 F.3d 1051 (2d Cir. 1995), for determining whether an involuntary commitment violates substantive due process, was not inconsistent with County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833 (1998); and 2) denying defendant-county summary judgment based on sovereign immunity did not require a showing that it acted with discriminatory animus or ill will toward plaintiff.

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Elder Law

[02/05] Villano v. Waterman Convalescent Hosp., Inc.
In plaintiff's action against a convalescent hospital claiming she was admitted without her consent, judgment of the trial court is affirmed where, although a stipulated judgment is appealable, plaintiff cannot show that allegedly erroneous rulings were prejudicial.

[12/22] Massey v. Mercy Med. Center Redding
In plaintiff's negligence action against a nurse and the hospital that employed the nurse alleging that he sustained injury after falling from a walker because the nurse placed the plaintiff on the walker and left him unattended, judgment of the trial court is reversed in part where: 1) the question of nurse's alleged negligence for the fall poses a question of common knowledge, and therefore does not require expert opinion testimony; and 2) trial court's judgment that denied plaintiff's attempt to amend his complaint to add causes of action for battery, fraud and elder abuse is affirmed.

[12/21] Grace Healthcare of Benton v. US Dept. of Health & Hum. Servs.
In a petition for review of a civil monetary penalty imposed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on petitioner nursing home for an "immediate jeopardy" violation of 42 C.F.R. section 483.13(c), which required nursing homes to thoroughly investigate all allegations of resident neglect or abuse, including injuries of unknown sources, the petition is granted where the Secretary's finding of the likely harm necessary to warrant an immediate-jeopardy-level finding was based on pure speculation and not supported by substantial evidence in the administrative record as a whole.

[12/01] Yarick v. Pacificare of California
In plaintiff-estate's suit against defendant health care providers and health care benefits providers alleging that the events resulting in decedent's death happened because of the financial pressures and incentive that arose from the care providers' contracts with the defendants, trial court's order sustaining defendants' demurrer is affirmed as: 1) federal law expressly preempts applications of state laws where standards for Medicare Advantage plans are established pursuant to the Medicare law; and 2) to the extent the plaintiff seeks to allege causes of action based on state common law concepts of duty independent of the Health and Safety Code provisions cited, those common law causes of action are preempted.

[11/30] Holbert v. Fremont Inv. & Loan
In plaintiff's suit against a financial lender, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where: 1) defendant was not required to comply with the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994 (HOEPA), which applies when the finance charges imposed on a loan exceed a certain threshold; 2) two charges imposed on plaintiff, one to pay off a preexisting debt to another lender and another to satisfy a prepayment penalty on a prior home loan, were not finance charges within the meaning of HOEPA; 3) plaintiff has not established a claim against defendant for unfair business practices; and 4) while plaintiff may have a viable claim against her loan broker for financial elder abuse based on various misrepresentations made during the loan process, she failed to link that claim to defendant, who is as much a victim of the broker's misrepresentations as plaintiff.

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