Real Estate & Property Law

Thrift store donation of 3 human skulls puts spotlight on state law concerning skeletons in closets

An unusual donation at a Seattle-area thrift-store bin earlier this month shocked some but has created positive publicity about the need to comply with a state law, officials say. Three human skulls, two from clinical specimens for education use and the third a Native American child, apparently from long ago,…

Jul 21, 2014 3:40 PM CDT

State AG sues 2 foreclosure law firms; one agrees to pay $10M and sell or close down

The Colorado attorney general filed suit Tuesday against the state’s biggest foreclosure law firms and two related companies. He alleges they racked up millions of dollars in profits by charging excessive fees to all parties involved in the cases, in violation of antitrust, consumer protection and debt-collection statutes. One of…

Jul 16, 2014 8:06 PM CDT

Architect’s home sits empty after unhappy neighbor wins reversal of building approval

Corrected and updated: Architect Louis Cherry’s home in a historic neighborhood is about 85 percent finished, but he can’t complete the job until the courts decide whether his “certificate of appropriateness” should be revoked. Cherry’s home in Raleigh, North Carolina, is unoccupied because of “a series of protracted appeals” by…

Jul 16, 2014 11:14 AM CDT

Ex-bank exec is latest to face criminal case linked to ex-lawyer’s $1.2B scheme; victims to get $50M

A former South Florida bank president convicted of bank fraud and sentenced to probation decades ago is the latest individual charged—and expected to take a plea—in a federal criminal case linked to a swindle of at least $1.2 billion by now-imprisoned former attorney Scott Rothstein. Frank Prevé Jr., 70, was…

Jul 15, 2014 6:15 PM CDT

Citi to pay $7B in latest settlement of US claims that sub-par mortgages caused financial crisis

A $7 billion pact with Citigroup is the latest announced settlement of claims by the U.S. that sub-par mortgages knowingly sold by banks to unwitting investors in the form of derivative products, including Citi’s securitized loans caused the financial crisis that began in 2008, The bank will pay $4 billion…

Jul 14, 2014 4:55 PM CDT

Real estate attorney’s handwritten will gives $800K to humane society for cat care

A California real estate lawyer who called himself “Cat Daddy” has left this world a far better place as far as local felines are concerned. Officials at the Marin Humane Society were overjoyed to learn that Brian Russell Kirchoff had given the group’s cat-care fund nearly $800,000 in a handwritten…

Jul 14, 2014 3:15 PM CDT

Exec cites free speech in spat over parking-spot-sale app, but seems to comply with takedown demand

One day before a Friday deadline set by the San Francisco city attorney, it appears that the operator of what he says is an illegal iPhone app concerning public parking has taken it down. MonkeyParking, which makes it easy for individuals to sell a vacated public parking spot to another…

Jul 11, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

Boy’s ‘little free library’ gets temporary exemption from town’s ban on detached structures

A boy who loves to read has fought city hall and won, at least until Oct. 20. As a result of action on Monday by the Leawood, Kansas, City Council, 9-year-old Spencer Collins will be able to put his “little free library” back into his front yard, report the Kansas…

Jul 9, 2014 2:33 PM CDT

Well-known law firm sues prominent clients over alleged unpaid bill of nearly $6.4M

A well-known Chicago-based law firm filed suit last week against members of a prominent family and their corporate entities, contending that they racked up an unpaid legal bill of nearly $6.4 million in a real estate matter. Ungaretti & Harris says former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ronald Gidwitz and other members…

Jul 7, 2014 8:55 PM CDT

Contractor faces unusual manslaughter case concerning carbon monoxide deaths

A California contractor is facing an unusual manslaughter prosecution over work performed on a heating system. Authorities in Nevada County say two men died of carbon monoxide poisoning because contractor Kurt Schoemig didn’t pull a permit and his employees never completed their work after cutting heating system pipes at a…

Jul 7, 2014 3:55 PM CDT

Former top attorney says city demoted and fired her for probing $10M sewer scheme

A former top attorney with the city of San Francisco has filed a wrongful termination claim over her demotion and firing. Joanne Hoeper says she first lost her position as chief trial deputy and then her job because she investigated a sewer scheme that cost the city some $10 million…

Jul 3, 2014 3:10 PM CDT

Judge sanctions lawyer who claimed ‘rogue attorney’ appeared on his behalf

A New York lawyer who claimed a “rogue attorney” appeared on his behalf and settled a case has been sanctioned for his explanation. Judge James d’Auguste of Manhattan fined lawyer Richard Savitt $10,000, to be paid to the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, and ordered him to pay $7,400 in…

Jul 3, 2014 1:44 PM CDT

Towns and cities can ban fracking in their borders, New York high court rules

New York’s highest court has upheld the “home rule” powers of even the smallest localities to ban fracking in order to preserve their rural and small-town character, Bloomberg News reports. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the practice by which oil and gas are extracted from rock by injecting high-pressure mixtures…

Jul 1, 2014 5:20 PM CDT

How countries are successfully using the law to get looted cultural treasures back

For two decades, a pair of monumental statues guarded the entrance to the Southeast Asian galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. These days, all that remains of them are two faint patches on the floor where they stood until a year ago. On May 20,…

Jul 1, 2014 10:40 AM CDT

Town shuts down boy’s ‘little free library’ for alleged detached structure violation

A 9-year-old Kansas boy and his family have moved their “little free library” after their town said it violated city code banning detached structures in the front yards of single-family homes. Spencer Collins and his parents moved the library to the garage after the town of Leawood warned in a…

Jun 20, 2014 1:44 PM CDT