Drouet v. Superior Court

It is very rare for the California Supreme Court to review a decision of the Court of Appeal. In this landmark case, the court held that the Ellis Act allows landlords to evict tenants and go out of business for any reason, and the tenant’s allegation that the eviction is retaliatory cannot be a defense to a unlawful detainer claim nor can the withdrawal be the basis of claim for money after leaving. Landlords cannot be compelled to stay in business or pay for the money after the tenants leave unless specifically allowed by the Ellis Act.

San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco

This case is a 12-year battle challenging the constitutionality of the City's efforts to force our clients to rent rooms in their small historic hotel to low-income permanent residents, rather than tourists. Ultimately, the City granted a permit allowing tourist use, but imposed a permit condition requiring the payment of $567,000.  Thomas and Robert Field, the owners of the San Remo, claim that the fee is extortion and violates the Takings clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The case was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in March and a decision is expected before June 30, 2005.

Tom v. City and County of San Francisco

In San Francisco many aspiring homeowners join together to buy buildings. They share ownership of the entire building 100% but privately agree in writing to split up the units among themselves. San Francisco tried to stop these agreements in order to discourage home ownership. The Court of Appeal agreed with us that doing so would violate the California Constitution’s right to privacy.

Frye v. Tenderloin Housing Clinic

California Supreme Court held that nonprofit law firms can practice law without registering with the State Bar like for-profit firms must, but told the Bar to conduct a study to determine whether such groups imperil clients and, if so, whether registration could solve the problem. The State Bar’s 44 page report of August 20, 2007 affirms what our firm said the Supreme Court should have said in the case and demonstrates it effectively agrees with us that nonprofits need to be regulated by the State Bar. Indeed, most tenants probably do not realize that the Tenderloin Housing Clinic – San Francisco’s premier low-income tenant law firm – is actually also a landlord and evicts more tenants in San Francisco than any other landlord, and it can engage in this conflict of interest without oversight by the Bar.

Birkner v. Lam

In a very important opinion, the Court of Appeal reversed the San Francisco Superior Court and held that: 1) serving an eviction notice (here, relative move-in) was an exercise of the 1st Amendment right to petition; and 2) a tenant’s suit arising from the service of that notice triggered the state anti-SLAPP statute, which requires plaintiffs suing over a defendant’s exercise of the right of petition or free speech on a public issue prove at the beginning of the case that they have a meritorious complaint or be dismissed. The Court of Appeal remanded to the Superior Court to determine whether plaintiffs could prevail. Now, tenants cannot easily serve meritless lawsuits hoping to force a settlement.

Daro v. Superior Court

In Daro, the Court of Appeal reversed a San Francisco Superior Court decision preventing landlords from invoking the Ellis Act based on violations of unrelated laws if the Ellis Act invocation has some general connection to the other law. The Court of Appeal said that the trial courts have no power to force landlords to stay in business and the other violations could be directly addressed instead.

Reidy v. City and County of San Francisco

The Court of Appeal ruled that owners of residential hotels who invoke the Ellis Act have a right to convert them to non-rental housing or demolish them, despite a city ordinance that requires replacement of the lost housing.

Johnson v. City and County of San Francisco

The Court of Appeal held that San Francisco could not, as a condition of invoking the Ellis Act, require landlords to state a belief as to how much relocation money tenants are entitled to based on age, disability, or other conditions. Read the Court's opinion by clicking here.

Ching v. San Francisco Board of Permit Appeals

In this case, our client convinced the City’s Board of Appeals to consider their zoning application to be deemed approved because the City Planning Commission failed to act on the application within the time frame required by state law. A group of tenants sued the Board of Appeals claiming that an individual on the Board of Appeals should not have voted because he had a conflict of interest. The trial court agreed with the tenants, but the Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the tenants suit was filed too late under the applicable statute of limitations.

Tenderloin Housing Clinic Inc. v. Astoria Hotel Inc.

DeLaura appealed from a judgment dismissing her first amended complaint for declaratory relief against her tenant, James Beckett. The Court concluded that the demurrer was properly sustained because the applicability of certain provisions of the San Francisco Rent Ordinance to Beckett’s tenancy is more appropriately resolved through an administrative hearing before the San Francisco Rent Board, even though the Rent Board did not have such a procedure and initially refused to create one following the opinion. Read the Court's opinion by clicking here.

DeLaura v. Beckett

DeLaura appealed from a judgment dismissing her first amended complaint for declaratory relief against her tenant, James Beckett. The Court concluded that the demurrer was properly sustained because the applicability of certain provisions of the San Francisco Rent Ordinance to Beckett’s tenancy is more appropriately resolved through an administrative hearing before the San Francisco Rent Board, even though the Rent Board did not have such a procedure and initially refused to create one following the opinion. Read the Court's opinion by clicking the icon below.

Zanelli v. McGrath

The Court of Appeal found that a view easement over a neighboring property had been extinguished when both properties were under common ownership.

Solis v. Vallar

The Court of Appeal refused to dismiss an appeal by a disgruntled bidder on real property during a partition sale. The Court held that the failed buyer had standing to appeal the decision to accept another bid. The appeal then went forward which we won.

Sprewell v. Golden State Warriors

We were local counsel for former Golden State Warriors guard Latrell Sprewell in his suit against the NBA. The federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of his complaint except for his state law claim for unfair business practices under Business & Professions Code § 17200 which it reinstated. The case settled thereafter and Sprewell went on to play for the Knicks and Timberwolves.

Empress LLC v. City and County of San Francisco

The federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Tenderloin Housing Clinic was immune from civil rights liability for directing San Francisco to harass our client, but the Court also held that he was not entitled to attorney’s fees.

Sites v. Superior Court

In this recent published decision of the California Court of Appeal, our client successfully resisted his former tenants' efforts to obtain extraordinary appellate review of an eviction judgment after the owner had succeeded at trial and in the appellate department of the Superior Court. This procedural victory forecloses future efforts by tenants to forestall their evictions using the delays of the appellate process.