Case Summaries
Family Law
[11/07]
Choose Life Illinois, Inc. v. White
In a suit by an interest group seeking on First Amendment grounds to force the state of Illinois to issue "Choose Life" specialty license plates, judgment in favor of plaintiffs is reversed where: 1) specialty license plates implicate the speech rights of private speakers, not government speech; 2) specialty plates are a nonpublic forum; and 3) the state could enforce a content-based but viewpoint-neutral ban disallowing any abortion-related message, whether pro-life or pro-choice, to be displayed on its license plates.
[11/06]
Aguilar v. Aguilar
Denial of petition to undo a wife's withdrawal of trust property brought by a remainder beneficiary of the trust is reversed and remanded where: 1) even though the property the wife sought to withdraw was her share of the community property, it was too late for her to withdraw it; 2) irrevocable trusts are binding, even on their trustors; and 3) as the life beneficiary, the wife could continue to enjoy the property as held by the trust.
[11/05]
Humphries v. County of Los Angeles
California's maintenance of the California's Child Abuse Central Index (CACI), which is a database of known or suspected child abusers, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because identified individuals are not given a fair opportunity to challenge the allegations against them.
[11/05]
In re A.E.
Order directing both parents to participate in Department of children and Family Services (DCFS)-approved "programs of parent education [and] individual counseling addressing all issues including anger management" is affirmed where the father did not object to the order directing him to participate in counseling sessions.
[10/30]
In re Charlisse C.
In a dependency action wherein a nonprofit law office that represents parties in the Los Angeles County Juvenile Dependency Court was disqualified for a conflict of interest, a court of appeals' judgment reversing the disqualification order is reversed and remanded for reconsideration where the trial court applied the wrong legal standard in ordering the office's disqualification and thus abused its discretion.
[10/29]
Woolard v. Woolard
In a suit alleging mismanagement of a trust established by plaintiff's father for which defendant was trustee, summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) defendant's disbursements of trust funds to plaintiff's father violated the express terms of the trust; 2) a statute permitting disbursements to adult relatives of beneficiaries would only apply if the trust contained no express terms forbidding such disbursements; 3) no showing of bad faith was required to overturn the disbursements, since those disbursements were not discretionary decisions but rather were expressly forbidden; 4) the monthly statements of the trust's brokerage account were not records adequate to satisfy defendant's record-keeping duty; and 5) defendant breached his fiduciary duties by failing to inquire about the use of the disbursed funds.
[10/28]
In the Matter of Jung
Petition for review of a determination of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which imposed the sanction of removal from office as a family-court judge, is denied where petitioner's policies limiting parents' rights to be heard and to counsel during custody proceedings were due-process violations, resulting in gross and repeated deprivation of litigants' rights.
[10/28]
In re A.A.
Juvenile court finding that two preschool age children were adoptable and freed for adoption is affirmed over claims of error raised by appellant mother and Indian tribe that: 1)there was insufficient evidence to support the court's adoptability and active-efforts findings; and 2) the court erred by either not applying a new statutory exception to termination for Indian children, or not ordering the children's change in placement.
[10/24]
Balam-Chuc v. Mukasey
In an immigration case, petition for relief from a removal order is denied where: 1) all aliens present in the U.S. on the date of enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) had a deadline of April 30, 2001 to apply for adjustment of status under section 245(i) of the INA, which allows procedural benefits to spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents; 2) INA section 245(i) is a statute of repose, thus not subject to equitable tolling for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel; and 3) failure by petitioner's counsel to file petitioner's application on time did not implicate the Fifth Amendment because it did not affect the fundamental fairness of any ongoing hearing.
[10/23]
Farkas v. Farkas
In an action pursuant to a divorce, reversal of judgments in favor of wife regarding a debt secured by the couple's shares in their co-op apartment, on the basis that wife's submission of a proposed judgment was untimely, is reversed where the prior proposed judgments were not subject to a 60-day time limit on submission.
[10/23]
Malik v. Mukasey
Petition for review of denial of petitioners' motion to continue their removal proceedings, so that they could apply to become lawful permanent residents based on their marriages to United States citizens, is dismissed where the court lacked jurisdiction to review the IJ's determination that the continuance would be futile.
[10/22]
In re S.J.
Juvenile court's denial of defendant-mother's Welfare and Institutions section 388 petition regarding visitation with her daughters is affirmed over claim of error that the court improperly delegated to the children's legal guardian the power to decide if defendant could visit the children.
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