Posts tagged Business Disputes

• Directors Not Liable for the Misrepresentations of Their Agents Absent a Showing They Had "Knowledge" of the Misrepresentations

  Geoff Trachtenberg | June 05, 2007 10:17 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Judge Kessler of Division One just handed down another one of his massive opinions (this is not a criticism, just an observation). He seems to be a prolific writer and, my guess, a prolific reader as well.The case, Dawson v. Withycombe, marks another important milestone in the development of Arizona's corporate law. It follows in the footsteps of Wells Fargo Bank v. Arizona Laborers, Teamsters...

• Court of Appeals (Incorrectly) Dismisses Wrongful Death Appeal Due to Untimely Notice of Appeal After Plaintiff Attempts to Obtain a Change to the Breadth of the Trial Court's Judgment

  Geoff Trachtenberg | June 01, 2007 3:00 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  Frank Zappa said, "We are a nation of laws; badly written and randomly enforced." That's probably the way that Joe Burkhamer feels, having lost his daughter (and son-in-law) in tragic accident in 2003, and now having had his appeal dismissed in a published opinion from Division Two, Burkhamer v. State of Arizona, because two of the three Judges on the panel decided that the appeal was filed too...

• Heirs Have the Right to Redeem Tax Liens As a Matter of Law, Setting Aside a Default Judgment and Rule 11 Sanctions Imposed on an Heir That Was Not Made a Party to a Lien Foreclosure Action

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 31, 2007 11:29 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Real estate is one of this author's favorite "hobbies" of late -- call it schadenfreude, but the real estate roller coaster is at least as good as reality television, and better than Grey's Anatomy. As a result, it is not surprising that we should see more real estate cases come out of the woodwork, especially those related to foreclosure. Today Division One published Roberts v. Robert, which...

• Message to the Trial Courts: "Show Your Work"

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 24, 2007 1:50 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  You know the old phrase from algebra, "show your work," well that is the message to the trial courts. Regretably, trial courts often rule on disputed issues with nothing more than a summary decision and without articulating their reasoning. Obviously, some of this is due the sheer volume of work that trial courts perform, but some of it is also due to habit and being lazy.The trouble with such...

• Tax Liability Arising Due to Confidentiality Clauses in Settlement Agreements

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 10, 2007 9:40 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Did you know that a confidentiality clause can have tax consequences? This was the subject of a United States Tax Court opinion in Amos v. IRS (2003), the case where Dennis Rodman kicked a courtside TV cameraman in the groin.The Court held that, if a portion of a settlement is attributable to a confidentiality agreement, that portion is taxable. It is not clear what the long-term effects are...

• Arizona Public Records Law May Require the Court to Determine the Nature of the Particular Government Document

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 05, 2007 1:41 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  These days, most people know that both state and federal "Freedom of Information Acts" require the dicslosure of public records. After all, such documents technically "belong to the people" and are created in connection with public service. Indeed, ARS 39-121 provides that "public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to inspection by any person at all times...

• Court Affirms Award of Attorneys' Fees For Dragging In Unnecessary Third-Party Defendants in a Business/Construction Dispute

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 04, 2007 9:36 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  To be filed in the "gluttons for punishment" folder, the case of Fulton Homes Corporation v. BBP Concrete that was recently published by Division One.The case affirms an award of $12,000, or $6,000 each, to two parties who Fulton dragged into a lawsuit because, well, "they could" under Rule 14.In short, Fulton pulled in two third-party defendants to a lawsuit under the premise that they were...

• What Kind of Lawyer Do You Want for Your Case?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 03, 2007 9:29 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  A New York personal injury lawyer was recently disbarred for basically "being an asshole." Although I can hardly endorse his brash style (e.g., telling the judge to "Kiss my tuchis!"), it is interesting what other New York attorneys had to say: "Personally, I find him abrasive, angry, tough, fierce, and frightening," says attorney Ron Kuby. "You know, the qualities you usually want in a...

• No Runaway Jury System In Arizona: 2006 Verdicts Are, If Anything, Low.

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 29, 2007 6:51 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Two days ago I posted the 2006 civil jury awards in Arizona. The thing that I found interesting is the Maricopa County median is a paltry $70,879. By the way, the reported figures are all artifically high because they do not include defense verdicts of zero!Among other things, this makes me recall the pending unconstitutional legislation to allow courts to raise the compulsory arbitration...

• Arizona Civil Jury Verdicts for 2006

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 27, 2007 1:56 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  The numbers are out for civil jury verdicts and they are not pretty. Indeed, they are generally very low and, since they include commercial cases in the average (which can skew the numbers quite a lot), we pay more attention to the median numbers.2006 Reported Arizona VerdictsAverages vs. Medians {mso-displayed-decimal-separator:"\\."; mso-displayed-thousand-separator:"\\,";}@page {margin:1.0in...