Oliveros v. Oliveros
Jan 24, 2006OUTCOME: Defense Judgment/Subsequently Settled
I represented the owner of a property in LA County. The property owner was sued by a relative claiming that she was not merely a tenant but, an owner of the property. The defendant had made extensive ... improvements to the property and had checks that said mortgage payment on the memo section. The trial was conducted in two stages. The first trial was an Unlawful Detainer action to evict the defendant. I successfully excluded testimony of the defendant regarding her ownership of the home. As a result, she lost the Unlawful Detainer trial. At the second stage of trial, I asserted a defense of collateral estoppel and obtained a pre-trial order that again excluded the defendant from putting on evidence that she owned the property. The case settled on the first day of the second phase of trial for far less than the cost of completing trial.
