EASTON V. STRASSBURGER & VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA, INC.
152 Cal.App.3d 90 (1984)
NATURE OF THE CASE: This was an appeal from a judgment of negligence.
FACTS: The property subject to this dispute is a one-acre parcel of land in the City of
Diablo. The property has a 3,000 sq. ft. home, a swimming pool, and a large guest house.
Easton (P) purchased the property from Strassburger (D1) for $170,000 in May 1976 and the
escrow closed that July. Valley of California (D2) was the listing broker in the
transaction. Shortly after the purchase there was a massive earth movement on the parcel and
slides destroyed a portion of the driveway in 1977 and 1978. Expert testimony showed that
the slides occurred because a portion of the property was fill and that it had not been
properly engineered or compacted. The slides caused the foundation of the house to settle
and that caused cracks and warping doorways. A new appraisal of the property put the value
at $20,000. Costs to repair was put at $213,000. The agents of D2 conducted several
inspections prior to the sale and there were red flags which should have indicated to them
that there were soil problems. There were slides while D1 owned the home but they did not
tell D2's agents about them. The facts indicated that P purchased the property without
knowledge of the problems. P sued. The jury returned a special verdict and found all Ds
negligent. It awarded damages of $197,000. This was apportioned under comparative
negligence. D2 appealed; the trial judge committed error by giving the jury instruction
specifying a real estate broker's duty to investigate and disclose defects in property he
lists for sale.
ISSUE:
RULE OF LAW:
HOLDING AND DECISION:
LEGAL ANALYSIS:
Get
free access to the entire content for Mac, PC or Online
for 2-3 days and free samples
of all kinds of products.
for 2-3 days and free samples of all kinds of products.
https://bsmsphd.com
© 2007-2016 Abn Study Partner
No comments:
Post a Comment