Judge: Michael Small, Case: 23STCV05240, Date: 2023-05-24 Tentative Ruling

Inform the clerk if you submit on the tentative ruling. If moving and opposing parties submit, no appearance is necessary.

Case Number: 23STCV05240    Hearing Date: March 25, 2024    Dept: 57

Pending before the Court is the motion of Payam Pedram; 732 N. Vista St. LLC; and 1102 Good Karma LLC (collectively, “Pedram Defendants”) to strike certain portions of the Second Amended Complaint (“SAC) of Plaintiff Ori Blumenfeld (“Blumenfeld”).   The Court is denying the Pedram Defendants’ motion.

In the SAC, Blumenfeld seeks, inter alia, partition by sale of real property located at 732 North Vista Street, Los Angeles, California 90046 (“the Subject Property”). Blumenfeld alleges that Blumenfeld and Defendant Brooke Mason (“Mason”) were formerly engaged. Blumenfeld further alleges that he sold his condominium and turned over the net proceeds of $350,000 to Mason in exchange for a 33.33% interest in the Subject Property, which Mason owned at the time.  Blumenfeld says that he relied on Mason’s representation that, in the event of selling the Subject Property, Blumenfeld would receive 33.33% equity and funds he spent to improve and maintain it, including the $350,000.  Blumenfeld seeks to have the Subject Property sold but alleges that Mason has left the country with their daughter, concerning whom Blumenfeld has filed a paternity action in Van Nuys Superior Court (case number 22VEPT00238).  As pertinent here, Blumenfeld also alleges in the SAC that Mason fraudulently conveyed her share of the Subject Property to the Pedram Defendants. 

The Pedram Defendants seek to strike the following portions of the cause of action in the SAC for fraudulent conveyance and Mason and the Pedram Defendants on the ground that they are irrelevant and improper.

·       “Defendants jointly engaged in fraud with the actual intent of taking money which should have gone to Plaintiff, with the intent of making Defendant Mason judgment proof by using deceptive transfers. Therefore, Plaintiff should be awarded exemplary damages/ punitive damages within the jurisdictional limit of this Court against all Defendants, jointly and severally.” (SAC, ¶ 64, lines 10-15.)

·       “An award of punitive damages against all Defendants, jointly and severally” in the prayer for relief as to the Fourth Cause of Action, fraudulent transfer of real property. (Id., Prayer, ¶

The Pedram Defendants contend that Blumenfeld has not pleaded facts to support his allegation that “Defendants jointly engaged in fraud” or his prayer for punitive damages as to the cause of action for fraudulent conveyance.  The Court disagrees.   

The allegations in Paragraph 64 of the SAC that Pedram Defendants seek to strike must be read in conjunction with Paragraph 61.  Paragraph 61 alleges that “Defendant Mason made the transfer of these properties, and the other named Defendants, Defendants Pedram, Defendant 732 N. Vista St. LLC and Defendant 1102 Good Karma LLC received the transfer of these properties, with the actual intent to hinder, delay, and defraud Plaintiff, and without receiving a reasonable equivalent value in exchange for said transfers.” (Id., ¶ 61.)   In the Court’s view, Paragraphs 61 and 64 contain sufficient allegations that the Pedram Defendants took part in a fraudulent conveyance of the Subject Property.  In turn, those allegations are sufficient to support an award of punitive damages against the Pedram Defendants under Civil Code Section 3294, which authorizes an award of punitive damages against a party that engaged in malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent conduct.