Real Estate & Property Law

Sued after posting video of brawl with neighbor, law partner loses bid for SLAPP protection

The chief of Sedgwick’s cybersecurity practice has lost a round in personal litigation over a brawl with a neighbor. In an opinion last week that contained a “Reader Discretion Advised” disclaimer because of “an abundance of obscene language,” the California Court of Appeal, Second District, said partner John Stephens can’t…

May 3, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Predatory land contracts take advantage of low-income homebuyers, NY Times says

Following the mortgage meltdown that began nearly a decade ago, it became harder for many buyers to get a loan to purchase a home. That has provided an opportunity for a number of private investors, however, who purchase needs-work homes for cash and then resell them to individuals outside the…

May 2, 2016 11:00 AM CDT

Disbarred Illinois lawyer gets 57 months in mortgage-rescue fraud case

A disbarred Illinois lawyer was sentenced Wednesday to 57 months in federal prison for her role in a Chicago-area mortgage-rescue fraud and ordered to pay $239,550.48 in restitution. Avalon Betts-Gaston, now 47, was convicted by a jury last year of two counts of wire fraud. Betts-Gaston had formed a suburban…

Apr 29, 2016 11:00 AM CDT

Suit claims ‘Love It or List It’ overcharged homeowners and did shoddy rehab work

A North Carolina couple who appeared on HGTV’s Love It Or List It has filed a suit alleging they overpaid for a home makeover that left their property “irreparably damaged.” Homeowners Deena Murphy and Timothy Sullivan, referred to as “Deena and Sully” in the April 2015 program, say they paid…

Apr 21, 2016 8:05 AM CDT

Lawyer accused of surreptitiously buying client’s property is hired as city attorney

A Montana lawyer has been hired as city attorney despite a pending ethics complaint involving his efforts to collect an attorney fee from a divorce client. The city of Libby, Montana, hired Kalispell lawyer David G. Tennant on Monday, the Associated Press reports. In an ethics complaint filed last Friday,…

Apr 21, 2016 7:35 AM CDT

Sumner Redstone competency petition puts mogul’s law-grad granddaughter at odds with his daughter

A granddaughter of media mogul Sumner Redstone has sided with his former girlfriend, rather than her aunt, in a competency petition where millions are at stake. The Los Angeles County Superior Court filing was brought by Manuela Herzer, who the New York Times describes as Redstone’s former companion and romantic…

Apr 20, 2016 3:32 PM CDT

Should you be itemizing your taxes? Tax law experts weigh in

As this year’s April 18 federal tax filing deadline looms, an expert has good news and bad news for homeowners who haven’t yet completed their returns. The bad news: Thanks to historically low interest rates, as well as reduced housing prices due to the Great Recession, the home-mortgage-interest tax deduction…

Apr 14, 2016 2:00 PM CDT

City official shoots down marketing plan of San Francisco man who lives in plywood box

Peter Berkowitz is comfortable living in a plywood box he constructed in a friend’s living room. And he especially likes the low rent—the $400 he pays is far less than the nearly $3,600 average monthly rent for a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco. Last month, after his usual housing…

Apr 13, 2016 11:25 AM CDT

Lawyer sued for defamation over praise of rival real-estate broker wins at trial

A Florida lawyer has won a lawsuit claiming he defamed his first real-estate broker in a testimonial on behalf of a second broker that managed to sell his Boca Raton home. Jurors returned a defense verdict on behalf of lawyer Rick Felberbaum last week, the Daily Business Review (sub. req.)…

Apr 12, 2016 2:00 PM CDT

Couple must sue to evict stranger who moved into their vacant home

Brian and Renae Prindle never agreed to rent their Canyon County, Idaho, home to Debbra Smith. Instead, they had moved out at the end of 2015 to expedite its renovation and sale. But Smith is now living there, as the couple discovered last month. And, because she claims to have…

Apr 12, 2016 11:50 AM CDT

Is more cemetery regulation needed? Lawsuit plaintiffs say answer is yes

Galilee Memorial Gardens was closed two years ago, and the owner of the Memphis, Tennessee-area cemetery got probation in a plea deal. But relatives and friends of hundreds of people allegedly buried there in unknown graves, according to an ongoing Tennessee lawsuit, are still seeking answers about the locations of…

Apr 11, 2016 5:00 PM CDT

Writ asks Florida’s top court to block assignment of senior judges ‘for unlimited periods of time’

A petition filed with Florida’s top court this week seeks a major shake-up in the way judges are assigned to hear cases in at least two counties and perhaps throughout the state. Although retired “senior” judges helped reduce a significant backlog of foreclosure litigation caused by the mortgage meltdown of…

Apr 8, 2016 11:40 AM CDT

Top Texas court says city’s possession of stray dog didn’t end owner rights

Ruling in a case near and dear to the hearts of animal lovers, the Texas Supreme Court has strengthened the ability of owners to reclaim a stray pet. Siblings Alfonso and Lydia Lira did not lose their property rights in Monte, a German shepherd, simply because the dog had, for…

Apr 6, 2016 1:05 PM CDT

Punitive verdict for carbon monoxide poisoning was ‘excessive and arbitrary,’ 10th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has embraced a 1-to-1 ratio of compensatory-to-punitive damages in a Wyoming renter’s lawsuit over a brain injury due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The April 1 decision by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cuts the punitive verdict for Amber Lompe from $25.5 million against…

Apr 5, 2016 1:50 PM CDT

Former Dewey & LeBoeuf partners not liable for unpaid rent, judge rules

In a ruling that took hundreds of former partners of Dewey & LeBoeuf and predecessor firms off the hook, a New York judge on Monday held that an office lease did not impose personal liability on them for rent that wasn’t paid after Dewey filed for bankruptcy. The original 1989…

Apr 5, 2016 12:00 PM CDT