San Diego Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

San Diego, California is considered by many to be a small town in many regards even though many people live in San Diego and the surrounding count. The local paper is the San Diego Union Tribune and this has many articles of a small town nature as well as a large town nature. Many articles are of interesting legal significance.

Another recent case involved a claim of defamation that was brought against the writer of a letter to the editor in a small-town newspaper. A news article in the paper reported on the upcoming closing of a downtown grocery that had been in business for 50 years. Three days later, the newspaper printed a letter to the editor that blamed the closing of the grocery store on the store’s landlord. Calling him a “ruthless speculator,” among other things, the writer accused the landlord of forcing the store out of business by charging “exorbitant rent.” The letter stated that the landlord’s “self-centered greed” caused the demise of the grocery. In any legal matter, it is important to obtain competent legal advice. The law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation can help you with many matters. Please feel free to e mail us for a complimentary consultation.

The landlord responded to the letter to the editor with a defamation action against its author. The lawsuit was dismissed because the state constitution’s free expression clause shielded the letter writer from liability. To distinguish between statements of opinion, which are protected, and assertions of fact, which are not, the court looked at all the surrounding circumstances. In each instance, the offending parts of the letter were found to be opinions. The context of the letter as a whole showed it to be an exercise in venting frustrations and opinions about the loss of a valued downtown business. Finally, the fact that the letter was an expression of protected opinion was confirmed by its very location in the newspaper’s opinion pages, a traditional forum for the robust exchange of viewpoints.

San Diego, California has had some landmark cases involving churces and local land use officials. Findlaw is an on line research service for members of the public and Thompson-West is a service for legal professionals.

In disputes between churches and local land-use officials, Congress has tipped the scales in favor of the churches with recently passed legislation. Although its full impact is being sorted out by the courts, the law prohibits any land-use regulation that has the effect of imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion, unless the government proves that such a burden furthers a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive method of doing so.

The new measure already has been a potent weapon for religious groups in conflicts with localities over the location, size, and design of churches, synagogues, and mosques, as well as schools, day-care centers, homeless shelters, summer camps, and other church-run uses of property. Even prayer meetings held at homes benefit, as using any real property for a religious purpose is a protected religious exercise. This can be considered a First Amendment Right to the United States Constitution.

San Diego has had many cases in which land was taken for a public purpose. Some of the major highways in San Diego are built where houses once stood. When a landowner challenges a restriction on the use of land on the grounds that it is so burdensome as to be a “taking” of the property for which the government must pay compensation, the United States Supreme Court has said in past decisions that a court should consider, among other things, the extent to which the regulation interferes with the landowner’s “reasonable investment-backed expectations.”

If the restriction was already in place when the owner acquired the property, the question arises as to whether the owner could have reasonable expectations for any use of the property that is in conflict with the restriction. After all, the purchaser “moved to the problem” because he should have knowledge of the restriction that is already in place. There have been many cases regarding these issues in the San Diego Superior Court over the years.

Now the Supreme Court has given landowners new hope with a contrary ruling. Knowing about regulations at the time of sale will still make it harder to win because of the rule about reasonable expectations, but it will not completely preclude such a taking argument. The Court was unwilling to categorically deny relief to someone subjected to the most extreme or unreasonable land-use restriction solely because the restriction was in place when the property was acquired.

San Diego, California has seen many types of exterior coating on homes. These range from stucco to wood to stone and many other materials. Given the propensity of San Diego California homes to catch on fire given the fire damage sustained in San Diego in the past, it is important to understand the materials used on the exterior of your home. The City of San Diego Fire Department has important information on its website.

In the early 1990s, home builders began to use synthetic stucco (sometimes referred to as “Exterior Insulation and Finish (EIF) System”) as a substitute for conventional masonry such as stone, brick, and stucco. The product has the look of stucco, but underneath are layers of styrofoam, plywood, and fiberglass mesh.

For a price comparable to real stucco, the synthetic version provides better insulation, with less cracking and more flexibility. These advantages may be outweighed, however, by a drawback that has spawned many lawsuits around the country. If water gets through windows, doors, or roof lines and behind the synthetic stucco, it may have nowhere to go, causing rotting and sometimes even toxic mold. The latest EIF systems, if properly installed, allow the water to drain away, but in the meantime some court dockets are becoming crowded with litigation brought by owners of damaged homes.