Appellate
- Successfully defended plaintiff employee’s appeal of trial court’s order dismissing court action following arbitration award and affirming previous grant of motion to compel arbitration. Court of Appeal held that because the plaintiff failed to timely seek vacatur of the arbitration award, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider the motion to vacate and the order of dismissal was an unappealable order.
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of defendant accused of breaching royalty agreement in connection with licensing of computer “flow charts” underlying regulatory banking software. Decision upheld by United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
- Prevailed at trial with verdict of $84,700,000 in an eminent domain case involving the attempt by the State and City to condemn Los Angeles Union Station; our clients were awarded their fees and costs incurred after the State and City abandoned the taking due to the size of the verdict. State of California v. Union Pacific Land Resources (1985) 179 Cal.App. 3d 307.
- Successful appeals of adverse zoning and planning decisions, including both grants and denials of conditional use permits, variances, changes of zoning, and other entitlements.
- Brought an inverse condemnation action against the metropolitan transportation authority (MTA) on behalf of the owner of nationally recognized historic theater in Hollywood that had incurred significant expenses to mitigate damage to the historic theater during MTA train station construction. After an adverse ruling at the first trial, obtained full reversal from court of appeal in a published decision recognized as one of California Real Property Journal’s Top Ten Real Property Cases of 2003: Cuna Mutual Life Insurance Co.v. L.A. County MTA (2003) 108 Ca.App.4th 382. After successfully establishing liability on retrial, MTA paid $1.6 million in settlement to avoid the damages trial.