Rulings in Criminal Cases and a Breach of Contract and Foreclosure Action
The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District decided a juvenile matter and a civil action brought by a general contractor. The Sixth District decided whether a mandatory registration requirement for certain sex offenders violated the equal protection.
In In re W.B., No. E047368, the Fourth District faced a juvenile defendant's challenge to the order removing him from his mother's custody and ordering him placed in a foster home, group home, relative home, county or private facitlity.
In upholding that order, the court held that because ICWA excludes deliquencies from its notice requirements, any attempt by the state to expand the Act's application to delinquencies is unauthorized under federal preemption.
In Forsgen Assoc. Inc. v. Pac. Golf Cmty. Dev. LLC., No. E045940, the court decided whether a mechanic's lien attached to certain property in a suit by a general contractor for breach of contract and foreclosure against various defendants.
The court reversed the judgment of the trial court and held that plaintiff's mechanic's lien did not attach to the entirety of the defendants' property adjacent to the golf course because not all of the adjacent property was required for the convenient use and occupation of the golf course.
In People v. Taravella, No. H033992, the Sixth District faced a constitutional challenge to a mandatory registration requirement of a defendant convicted of oral copulation by a person over the age of 21 with a person under the age of 16.
The court vacated the mandatory requirement and held that there is an equal protection violation where defendant, who is similarly situated to the class of offenders over the age of 21 convicted of nonforcible intercourse with a person under 16, is required to register and those offenders are not.