Amicus Decries "Tortification" Of Contract Law

In For Executives, This May Have Been The Most Frightening Holding Of 2013, I wrote about the Court of Appeal's decision in Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp. v. Actelion Ltd., 222 Cal. App. 4th 945 (2013). Readers may recall that the case involved a lawsuit...

"Don't tell me not to worry, and please don't call me partner."

How many websites and marketing materials have you seen that identify a company's suppliers and other vendors as "partners"? Does this mean that the company actually intends to communicate that it has formed a legal partnership with the named...

Joint Venturer May Be Partner By Estoppel

Benjamin Disraeli is often credited with saying "With words we rule men". I haven't found a source for that particular quotation. Even if he never uttered or wrote those words, I like the quote and the idea that the former prime minister may have...

Should Corporations Conserve Water Because A Shareholder Believes It's The Right Thing To Do?

Last month, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) sent a letter to its California real estate and private equity managers asking that they take a number of steps to conserve water. I found CalPERS' justification provocative in...

In The Year 2525, If Man Is Still Alive, If Woman Can Survive, They May Find Limited Liability Worker Cooperatives

In 1886, then Senator Leland Stanford introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate to authorize the formation of cooperative worker associations in the District of Columbia.  In an interview with the New York Tribune shortly thereafter, he asserted "I have...

Legislator Proposes To Eliminate Flexibility In Name And Purpose

In 2011, the California legislature enacted not one, but two, laws allowing for the incorporation of for-profit businesses with broader purposes. The Corporate Flexibility Act of 2011, SB 201 (DeSaulnier), 2011 Stats. ch. 740, was the product of a...

Legislature Shuts The Barn Door After The Horse Has Bolted And Then Burns Down The Barn

Not many people use horses as a means of transportation in the U.S. anymore, but numerous horse related expressions and aphorisms persist in everyday speech, including:

How Chadbourne & Parke, LLC v. Troice Threatens The Defense Of The Guilty And The Innocent

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Chadbourne & Parke, LLC v. Troice, 571 U.S. ___ (2014) arose out of the a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Allen Stanford. The scheme involved the sale to investors of certificates of...

Oops! CalPERS Reportedly Violates Insider Trading Policy Again

Jon Ortiz, who writes The State Worker blog for The Sacramento Bee, recently reported that the California Public Employees Retirement System has again violated its insider trading policy by purchasing shares in an initial public offering that were...