Insurance Claim1

Today's news brings us the story of deceit and skulduggery. Seems Assemblyman Jim Frazier (a democrat representing the area of Oakley ) is proposing a bill ( AB 2353 ) in the California Assembly that would cut the limitation of actions for construction defect claims from 10 years to 5 years. See, there's this building called the Millennium Tower which is located in San Francisco. It is a 58-story luxury residential building (i.e. condos ) and it is sinking . Not only has it sunk 17 inches since its completion in 2008, but it's now leaning 14 inches towards a nearby skyscraper. The kicker is that the leaning and sinking weren't realized until year 7 (which, under Politician Frazier's bill, would have precluded any lawsuits against the developers). So, how might this apply to Joe Consumer (you know, people not living in the Millennium Tower)?  Say you bought a new home in California.  Let's say that 5 years and 1 day after you bought your house, you...

The duduk kasus with being an omnipotent law Librarian is that after a while of hitting on all 16 cylinders, pulling answers out of the sky like they were cotton candy, you start to feel all powerful, thinking you know everything - until you skip a beat and you can't find anything.  Then you start to question the sanity of the universe. Such was my life the other day.  Seems this Guy came into my law library.  Seems Guy had just been in family court where his ex-wife had filed a motion to legally change his son's name to her new flame's name.  Judge told Guy she'd deny the motion if he could find something to prevent the change.  Guy was under the gun and came to me - the omnipotent Librarian - to help him in his hour of need.  I looked everywhere and couldn't find anything for him.  I mean, EVERYWHERE!  Guy flips out claiming that everyone told him that I was THE go to Librarian when you can't find something and that I failed him. Hu...

Do you remember the civil war?  Sure you do.  It was a battle between the northern and southern states that ran from 1861-1865.  The primary reason the Civil War broke out was because the southern states wanted to secede from the union because, I suspect, the Federal government was trying to ram its ideologies down the southern states throats.  Abraham Lincoln thought differently and by sending troops to prevent succession, the Civil War began. Fast forward 140 years to the year 2005.  The year after George W. Bush was elected POTUS, Congress passed what is known as The Real ID Act of 2005 .  California was, initially, one of the states that refused to bow to the requirements of this Act.  Fact is, there were a number of hold-out states that refused to adopt this federal mandate. It has recently come to my attention, however, that this is no longer the case and after only two weeks since I (a California resident) got my new Driver's License...

Seems money is tight these days.  Lots of people looking for ways to make a little extra and government looking to take more than its share.  Such is the state of affairs these days and the topic for today's blog. So, this couple came into the law library the other day. Seems couple had had a nest egg of a few thousand dollars stashed in an account they had forgotten they had.  Seems they got a letter from the bank a while back saying that because the account was "inactive ; " that the monies in their account had been escheated to the state. Wait - what?!?  What in blazes does escheat mean?!?  Well, according to Black's Law Dictionary , ESCHEAT is: 1. The reversion of land ownership back to the lord when the immediate tenant dies without heirs.   2. Reversion of property to the state upon the death of an owner who has neither a will nor any legal heirs. While that doesn't make all that much sense in the modern world, let me explain to you what ...