Real Estate Litigation & Eminent Domain

Southern California Real Estate Litigation Attorneys

Our lawyers bring a business litigation sensibility to real estate and eminent domain litigation in Southern California. This approach enables us to be very aggressive in pursing our clients' rights.

Real Estate Litigation

Our lawyers have successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of litigation involving commercial and high-end residential properties, including cases involving:

• Misrepresentation about the condition of a property
• Concealment of property defects
• Nondisclosure of defects
• Foundation issues
• Drainage and water damage issues
• Mold issues
• View obstructions
• Environmental law concerns
• Failure to perform on real estate contracts
• Lis pendens
• Specific Performance

We have been involved in numerous cases where one party wants to unwind a transaction due to some breach or fraud on the other party. We also represent parties who want to enforce specific performance of a real estate contract through mediation, arbitration, or litigation.

Eminent Domain Litigation

Condemnation involves the taking of real property by a governmental entity. We represent property owners in protecting their rights, including obtaining fair market value for their property, compensation for lost business goodwill, and relocation remuneration and assistance, as the case may be. We also handle inverse condemnation matters, where a taking has occurred without benefit of a condemnation proceeding. In either condemnation or inverse condemnation, our goal is to work with experts in real estate appraisal and business valuation to obtain the full compensation to which our clients are entitled.

Real estate litigation victories

• Our lawyers represented a buyer of an airport, in which the seller made fraudulent representations about how much income could be generated by the property. We obtained a jury verdict that relieved our client of the obligation of paying anything more for the airport, plus compensatory damages of $1.25 million dollars. The case settled before the jury began considering an award of punitive damages for our client. See Victories for more case examples.
• We also won a motion to strike a complaint and obtained the dismissal of the lawsuit under the anit-SLAPP statute (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) brought against homeowners by their homeowners' association, plus an award of $23,000 in attorneys' fees. See Victories for more case examples.

For more information, or to schedule an appointment with one of our real estate litigation attorneys, contact James McQueen or Phillip Ashman at our Irvine, California, law office.