California Appeal

Feb 12, 2020 Alana H. Rotter
Prime Real Estate

Legal writing, like any other type of writing, should strive to keep the reader’s attention.  But any reader faced with a huge stack of paper (or the digital equivalent) is likely to lose focus eventually.  That makes the first pages of any brief or other

Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship v. County of Riverside (9th Cir. 2020) 948 F.3d 1172

GMSR prevails in major land use appeal

GMSR prevails in major land use appeal

In Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship v. County of Riverside, the Ninth Circuit affirmed judgment for GMSR’s client, the County of Riverside, in a suit asserting that a County zoning ordinance was facially invalid under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) as purportedly disallowing religious organizations to operate in the zone. The Ninth Circuit held that the zoning allowed construction of special occasion facilities. Nothing on the face of the statute indicates that a religious group would not be granted a permit to construct such a facility and use it for religious purposes, so there was no violation of RLUIPA. The statute merely requires public entities to treat religious uses the same as secular uses.

Endurance American Specialty Insurance Company v. Bennington Group, LLC (Jan. 31, 2020, B285909) 2020 WL 502631

Court of Appeal affirms summary judgment in favor of insurance carrier, foreclosing $11 million claim

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