Quo Jure Corporation: Lawyers' Writing and Research: Samples

Any doubts about what we can do?

These are all actual projects, of varying vintages, with the parties' names and some details changed to protect the innocent. (And the guilty, too.)

Petition for Writ of Certiorari to U.S. Supreme Court: Plaintiff's decedent drowned when his raft went over a submerged dam. Signs warning of the dam had been washed away and were not replaced until the day after the accident. At issue was whether a federal agency decision that involves even two competing interests is necessarily susceptible to policy analysis, and thus always within the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Appellant's Opening and Reply Briefs: The trial court should have applied CCP § 437c(h) in negligent repair case to permit plaintiff to obtain authentication of a crucial report, rather than granting summary judgment. Held: Reversed on appeal and remanded.
Appellant's Opening and Reply Briefs: Appeal from denial of anti-SLAPP motion in malicious prosecution case grounded on unsuccessful claim for unemployment benefits.
Arbitration brief: Builder breached the real estate purchase contract by delivering a house substantially different from the house the buyers had agreed to buy, entitling them to cancel the purchase and recover their deposits.
Demurrer: Subcontractor was not a party to the principal's contract .
Ex Parte Application for relief from subpoena: Ex parte application for discretionary relief under Code Civ. Proc. § 473(b) from order denying motion to quash subpoenas for the production of psychiatric records.
Memo on governmental immunity for mental-health hospitals: To what extent does immunity from liability for negligence and for injury (other than injury from medical malpractice) apply to an inpatient at a mental institution?
Memo re MICRA: MICRA does not shield plaintiff's lawyers who blew the statute of limitations on his claim against an ambulance company, but it does protect the ambulance company and its employees.
Memo re appeal from dismissal of petition to vacate arbitration award: Proposed appeal from an order dismissing a petition to vacate an arbitration award is highly unlikely to succeed.
Memo re damages: Plaintiffs cannot recover economic damages in tort for defective construction, only for personal injury and for damage to other property caused by the defect. Economic damages such as cost of repairing the defect are not available in tort. California follows the out-of-pocket damages rule for misrepresentation in the sale of real property, unless the parties had a fiduciary relationship. The only damage available for misrepresentation in the sale of real property is the difference between the property's actual value and the purchase price. Costs of repairing defects are not recoverable.
Memo re probate issue: Must a surviving spouse with a probate homestead pay either rent or the property's taxes and other current expenses?
Memo re support: The court probably lacks jurisdiction to stay the earnings assignment order pending reconsideration or a new trial, but it could enter a new child- and spousal-support order.
Motion for Leave to Amend Complaint: Under FRCP 20 and 21, the district court should grant leave to add a party defendant.
Motion for Summary Judgment and/or Summary Adjudication: An agreement for Reciprocal Easements created a valid and binding easement in plaintiff's favor over the real property owned by defendant Johnson.
Motion for order that bank accounts are trust assets: Decedent's statement to attorney that the trust contained the bank accounts was a sufficient declaration of the trust to create a trust over them. Even if it were not, the circumstantial evidence of an intent to create the trust is clear, hence the trust over the bank accounts is enforceable.
Motion to Vacate Judgment of Paternity—Reply: Court should order a DNA test under Family Code § 7552.
Motion to avoid lien in bankruptcy: Homestead exemption applies.
Motion to disclose confidential informant: Where an informant was the only witness who could raise even circumstantial evidence that the defendant was involved in a drug sale, disclosure of the informant's identity was essential to providing the defendant due process.
Motion to enforce settlement agreement: The court has the power to enforce settlement agreements under the summary procedure set forth in Code of Civil Procedure § 664.6.
Motion to suppress evidence: Police officers told the defendant that, if he did not open his tool box for them, they would arrest and prosecute him and take the tool box to the police station where it could be opened. Any consent he gave to opening the tool box was involuntary, and its contents must be suppressed. Because the search of the tool box was unlawful, so was defendant's resulting arrest, and any contraband found on his person in the incidental search must also be suppressed.
Opposition to Demurrer: Plaintiff stated a proper claim for willful misconduct in an elder abuse case against a nursing home.
Opposition to Demurrer: Equitable indemnity does not necessarily arise just between parties that have committed a tort. It can also arise when one of the parties is liable in contract.
Opposition to Demurrer: Opposition to demurrer in employment law case charging harassment based on medical condition.
Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment: Auto lease case under the FCRA: dismissal without prejudice does not preclude a new action based on the same violation of rights alleged in a previous lawsuit.
Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment: Whether defendant's loaders breached their voluntarily assumed duty to assist the plaintiff, and thus increased the danger to him, presented a triable issue of fact.
Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment: In a defective premises case, defendant's MSJ was supported only by inadmissible evidence, since it rested on an unsigned deposition transcript.
Opposition to Motion to Dismiss: Insurance benefits denied: FRCP Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal is proper only where plaintiff cannot possibly state a cognizable claim, and cannot cure a defect in the complaint through amendment.
Opposition to Petition for Writ of Mandate: Employment law case: binding effect of precedent regarding dismissal-at-pleasure provision.
Opposition to motion for summary judgment: Action for wrongful termination based on discrimination.
Petition for Review to California Supreme Court: Health and Safety Code § 11488.2 establishes a 15-day statute of limitations for filing a petition of civil forfeiture in drug cases, which must be strictly construed against allowing the state to pursue forfeiture and in favor of claimants.
Petition for writ of mandate: The trial court erred in awarding sanctions without first providing notice and an opportunity to be heard, as required by Family Code § 271, and abused its discretion by awarding sanctions that imposed an unreasonable financial burden. Held: Writ issued, requiring trial court to vacate sanctions order.
Post-trial brief: Defendant and cross-complainant's post-trial brief in a breach of contract case involving media advertising campaigns.
Respondent's brief: Complaint was barred under either or both aspects of res judicata (claim preclusion and issue preclusion) and on the grounds that the Family Law court has exclusive jurisdiction over the property division issues arising out of the marriage. Held: Affirmed.
Trial Brief: Defendant's designation of herself as successor beneficiary under her father's living trust was invalid.
Trial brief: Defendant, a minor, did not violate Bus. & Prof. Code § 25622 by drinking beer in the locked pool area of his apartment complex.
Trial brief in family law proceeding: Can Husband's real estate sales proceeds be considered income for child-support purposes? And can his remaining real estate holdings be attributed a hypothetical rate of return?

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