Case of the Day: Rostack Investments, Inc. v. Sabella, 2016 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 7417 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. Oct. 13, 2016)

Summary:

This convoluted case is essentially about whether the decedent, a billionaire in Hong Kong, forgave the loan that he had made to one of his daughters. The decedent had two daughters, Angela and Vivien. Angela obtained a loan from her father to buy a real estate property in Utah. After the decedent passed away, the estate administered by Vivien claimed that Angela must repay the loan from her father.

The trial court issued a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff, which is the decedent's corporation now operated by Vivien. The appellate court reversed, finding that there were triable issues of fact as to whether the decedent truly forgave the loan, and whether the decedent was acting on behalf of his corporation.

Takeaway:

This blog's pet favorite returns--international family law dispute! It is easy to think that transnational litigation is mostly about large corporations suing each other, with foreign governments getting involved for good measure, the reality is that the most common form of transnational litigation in the U.S. courts is international family law litigation.

Here is yet another example. Most of the transaction in question occurred in Hong Kong, in the Chinese language. Yet it is the California state court adjudicating this matter, and the parties do not seem to oppose the court's jurisdiction. (In fact, it was the plaintiff that chose to sue in California, not Hong Kong.) In a future post, I will share a draft scholarly paper of mine that discusses this issue.