Judge Robert B. Broadbelt, Case Number: 22STCV39547, Date: 2025-03-03 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Robert B. Broadbelt, Case: 22STCV39547, Date: 2025-03-03 Tentative Ruling

MOVING PARTIES: Defendants Dawn Kuykendall, Jerilyn Rivetti Kuykendall, Brian McWilliams, Rodney Owens, and Villa Patrician Home Owner’s Association Inc.

The court considered the moving and opposition papers filed in connection with this demurrer. No reply papers were filed.

The court grants defendants Dawn Kuykendall, Jerilyn Rivetti Kuykendall, Brian McWilliams, Rodney Owens, and Villa Patrician Home Owner’s Association Inc.’s request for judicial notice. (Evid. Code, § 452, subd. (c).)

Plaintiffs Eduardo Luna and Sinai Mariel Valverde Dominguez (“Dominguez”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed their operative First Amended Complaint in this action on July 1, 2024. The First Amended Complaint alleges six causes of action for (1) breach of fiduciary duties; (2) violation of governing documents; (3) breach of fiduciary duty – financial improprieties; (4) aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duties; (5) breach of fiduciary duty – retaliation; and (6) assault.[2]

Defendants Dawn Kuykendall, Jerilyn Rivetti Kuykendall, Brian McWilliams, Rodney Owens, and Villa Patrician Home Owner’s Association Inc. (“Defendants”) now move the court for an order sustaining their demurrer (1) to the first through fifth causes of action, as alleged against defendant Jerilyn Rivetti Kuykendall (“J. Rivetti”), and (2) to each cause of action alleged by plaintiff Dominguez.

The court overrules Defendants’ demurrer to the First Amended Complaint, as filed by plaintiff Dominguez, because Defendants have not shown that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute causes of action on the ground that Dominguez does not have standing. (Code Civ. Proc., § 430.10, subd. (e).)

Defendants have argued that plaintiff Dominguez cannot bring this action because she does not own any units within the subject homeowner’s associations. However, Defendants have based this argument on an exhibit attached to the declaration of their counsel and a declaration filed by plaintiff Luna in support of another matter—i.e., not allegations of the First Amended Complaint or matters of which the court has taken judicial notice—which is improper on demurrer. (Code Civ. Proc., § 430.30, subd. (a) [party may make objection to complaint if the ground for the objection “appears on the face thereof, or from any matter of which the court is required to or may take judicial notice”]; Demurrer, p. 8:13-20 [relying on Exhibit C to declaration of attorney Olson and Luna’s May 15, 2023 declaration]; Panterra GP, Inc. v. Superior Court of Kern County (2022) 74 Cal.App.5th 697, 710 [demurrer is not the appropriate procedure for determining the truth of disputed facts].)

The court overrules Defendants’ demurrer to the first through fifth causes of action, as alleged against defendant J. Rivetti, because Defendants have not shown that they do not state facts sufficient to constitute causes of action against J. Rivetti on the ground that she does not have an ownership, agency, or employment relationship with the subject homeowner’s association defendants as alleged (FAC ¶ 6) because (1) Defendants have relied on an exhibit attached to the declaration of counsel in support of their argument that J. Rivetti does not own a unit within the homeowner’s associations, which is improper on demurrer, (2) the “Interspousal Transfer Grant Deed” does not show that J. Rivetti does not own a unit within the homeowner’s associations because Defendants did not establish that the property subject thereto is a unit within the associations,[3] and (3) the Statements of Information, while sufficient to show that J. Rivetti was not, at the time of the filings, an officer of the homeowner defendants (i.e., both entities with the corporate name Villa Patrician Homeowner’s Association, Inc.), do not show that J. Rivetti was not on the Board of Directors and was not an agent, employee, vendor and/or contractor of the homeowner’s association defendants as alleged (FAC ¶ 6). (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 430.10, subd. (e), 430.30, subd. (a); Panterra GP, Inc., supra, 74 Cal.App.5th at p. 710.)

The court overrules defendants Dawn Kuykendall, Jerilyn Rivetti Kuykendall, Brian McWilliams, Rodney Owens, and Villa Patrician Home Owner’s Association Inc.’s demurrer to plaintiffs Eduardo Luna and Sinai Mariel Valverde Dominguez’s First Amended Complaint.

The court orders plaintiff Sinai Mariel Valverde Dominguez to give notice of this ruling.

[1] On November 22, 2024, the court continued the hearing on this demurrer from December 5, 2024 to March 3, 2025. (Nov. 22, 2024 Notice re Continuance of Hearing and Order.)

[2] Although the caption of the First Amended Complaint includes a seventh cause of action for violation of election requirements, that cause of action is not included in the body of the First Amended Complaint.

[3] Even if this grant deed did show that J. Rivetti transferred her unit within the associations to Anthony Rivetti in 2019, the court notes that (1) Plaintiffs did not allege all of the dates on which the alleged wrongful conduct occurred, such that (2) the court cannot determine that, at the time that all of the wrongful conduct occurred, J. Rivetti did not own a unit within the homeowner’s associations.

eduardo luna , et al.; Plaintiffs, vs. villa patrician home owner’s association, inc. , et al.; Defendants.	Case No.:	22STCV39547

	Hearing Date:	March 3, 2025

	Time:	10:00 a.m.

	[tentative] Order RE: defendants’ demurrer to first amended complaint