Tentative Rulings

Case Number: BC620845    Hearing Date: January 07, 2020    Dept: 78

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

Department 78

Attorney Kenneth Gross and Thomas Shambaugh of the Law Offices of Kenneth I. Gross & Associates’ Motion to Be Relieved as Counsel for Plaintiffs Christine Yu and Andrew Leung is GRANTED.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This is an action for fraud. The First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) alleges as follows. Plaintiffs Christine Yu and Andrew Leung (“Plaintiffs”) in 2003 were told by Defendant David Wan (“Wan”) that he was an investor in an LLC that owned certain commercial real property that was being developed. (FAC ¶ 11.) Wan offered to let Plaintiffs buy in to his share of the LLC. (FAC ¶ 11.) Wan did not disclose that his interest was actually the interest of a trust of which he was trustee, and that this trust did not own an interest in the real property, but rather owned an interest in another LLC, Defendant Mountainfield, LLC (“Mountainfield”), and that it was this LLC that in turn owned an interest in yet another LLC, Defendant Magnus Sunhill, LLC (“Magnus”), which actually owned the real property. (FAC ¶ 13.)

Plaintiffs paid Wan $450,000 per his offer, which they would not have done if they knew they were not investing directly in the property. (FAC ¶ 14.) In fact, they were purchasing a 36% interest in the David and Winnie Wan Family Trust, which held a 38.46% interest in Mountainfield. (FAC ¶ 20.)

Mountainfield and Magnus transferred a majority interest in Magnus to Defendant Teng Huang (“Huang”) in exchange for at least $6 million, but Plaintiffs have not received a distribution of these proceeds. (FAC ¶ 15.)

In 2015, Huang transferred Magnus’s interest in the real property, its only asset, to Defendant Yu Hua Long Investments, LLC (“YHL”), for an unknown sum, less than what it was worth. (FAC ¶ 16.)

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiffs filed the original Complaint on May 17, 2016, alleging four causes of action:

1. Fraud

2. Failure to Qualify Securities

3. Unfair Business Practices

4. Violation of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act

Plaintiffs’ counsel filed the instant Motion to be Relieved as Counsel on October 30, 2019.

No Opposition has been filed.

DISCUSSION

1. MOTION TO BE RELIEVED AS COUNSEL

   Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. section 284 states that “[t]he attorney in an action or special proceeding may be changed at any time before or after judgment or final determination” upon either consent of both client and attorney, or upon the order of the court under application of either the client of the attorney, after notice from one to the other. Cal. Rule of Court 3.1362 states the requirements for a motion to be relieved as counsel under Code Civ. Proc. section 284. No memorandum is required, but the motion must be accompanied by (1) a declaration stating why a motion has been brought instead of filing a consent (without compromising attorney-client confidentiality), (2) proof of service of the motion, and (3) all hearing dates scheduled in the action or proceeding, including the date of trial, if known. Additionally, “[t]he proposed order relieving counsel must be prepared on the Order Granting Attorney's Motion to Be Relieved as Counsel--Civil (form MC-053) and must be lodged with the court with the moving papers.”

   The present motion pertains to attorneys Kenneth Gross and Thomas Shambaugh of the Law Offices of Kenneth I. Gross & Associates, counsel for Plaintiffs Christine Yu and Andrew Leung. The motion complies with the above requirements.

   Attorney Kenneth Gross and Thomas Shambaugh of the Law Offices of Kenneth I. Gross & Associates’ Motion to Be Relieved as Counsel for Plaintiffs Christine Yu and Andrew Leung is GRANTED.

Plaintiffs to give notice.

Dated: January 7, 2020

___________________________________

Hon. Robert S. Draper

Judge of the Superior Court