In Lin v. Coronado (2014), 2014 WL 6398772, the court dismissed the plaintiff’s quiet title claim finding that a change that was made to a revised version of a deed that omitted plaintiff’s name was immaterial, and thus, no basis to void the altered deed. The plaintiff, Helen Lin, alleged that she contributed $150,000 toward a $250,000 purchase of property at a trustee sale with two other partners, River Forest and Elevation Investments; that the original version of the trustee’s deed named the transferees as “RIVER FOREST FINANCIAL LLC 75%, ELEVATION INVESTMENTS 25% HELEN LIN”; that the version of the trust deed that was subsequently recorded was altered to omit HELEN LIN from the named transferees (unbeknownst to Lin); that River Forest then quitclaimed its entire interest in the property to Elevation, which then sold the property to the defendant in this case, Mireya Coronado.
CASE UPDATE: Defrauded Home Buyer Entitled To Full Rescission Notwithstanding Complications Involved In Unwinding The Sale Several Years Later.
In Wong v. Stoler, (2015) 237 Cal.App.4th 1375, the court of appeal reversed the trial court judgment denying rescission remedies to defrauded home buyers. The buyers purchased a hillside home for $2.35 million. The sellers failed to disclose and actively concealed the facts that: the home was on a private sewer system that went down a steep ravine through public open space; that the property was subject to an informal homeowners’ association to maintain the sewer system; and that the local government agency had issued a notice of abatement to fix leaks in the sewer system. Plaintiffs’ experts testified that the sewer system was susceptible to damage, and that system failure was inevitable and would cost $500k-$600k to replace two of the lines.