Ever Wonder What Money Is? California Has Some Answers And I Have Some Questions
Yesterday’s post discussed virtual currencies (e.g., Bitcoin) and the General Corporation’s law prohibition on issuing or putting into circulation money. But what exactly is money? The General Corporation Law has no answer. I’m aware of at least three different California statutes that define “money”. Government Sanction Seems To Be The Sine Qua Non Of Money First, we have the California Uniform Commercial Code which defines “money” in Read more...
No Complaint Window At Many State Agencies
John Milton is one of my favorite writers. In his influential defense of freedom of speech, Areopagitica, he linked liberty to the right to complain about the government: [B]ut when complaints are freely heard, deeply consider’d and speedily reform’d, then is the utmost bound of civill liberty attain’d, that wise men looke for. (original spelling) Milton’s Areopagitica argued against prior restraints Read more...
Bank Group Seeks Depublication Of Bank Libel Opinion
In this post, I wrote about a recent decision by the First District Court of Appeal declaring Financial Code Section 1327 unconstitutional on its face. Summit Bank v. Rogers, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 633 (May 29, 2012). That statute generally makes it illegal to make derogatory comments about a bank. In this 2010 post, I had speculated on constitutionality of Section Read more...
June 30 Was The Filing Deadline For Statements By Foreign Lending Institutions
In this March post, I wrote about the problem of indeterminacy created by the legislature’s use of the word “includes” in defining terms in the General Corporation Law. “Includes” is usually interpreted in statutes and rules as a term of enlargement, not limitation. Hassan v. Mercy American River Hospital, 31 Cal. 4th 709, 717 (2003). Thus, one never really knows the full extent of what may be Read more...
District Court Refuses To Apply Business Judgment Rule To Claims Against Officers
Since 2008, a total of 38 banks have failed in California (See this list of failed banks). When this happens, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation acts as receiver for the bank. Since the FDIC is also an insurer of the failed bank’s deposits, it has an interest in pursuing directors, officers and professionals who were involved in the failure. As of June Read more...
Court Declares Bank Trash Talk Statute Facially Unconstitutional
In my October 2010 post “Don’t Talk Trash About A California Bank“, I discussed Financial Code Section 756 (subsequently reenacted verbatim as Section 1327). That statute generally criminalizes spreading false rumors about a bank. In my post, I speculated on whether the statute was constitutional: Moreover, it seems that prosecution would invite a claim that the statute violates the First Read more...
Little Hoover Commission Votes To Approve Governor’s Reorganization Plan
Yesterday morning, the Little Hoover Commission voted to approve the Governor’s Reorganization Plan, subject to the members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly (Mark Vargas) and the Senate Rules Committee (Jonathan Shapiro) reaching agreement on unspecified language in the Commission’s report. The Plan will take effect unless either house of the legislature adopts by a majority vote a resolution Read more...
Will Demoting the DFI, DOC and DRE Matter?
The Governor’s Reorganization Plan would demote the Department of Corporations and the Department of Financial Institutions to the status of divisions within the new Department of Business Oversight. The new DBO would report to a new Business and Consumer Services Agency. The Department of Real Estate will be downgraded to a bureau and join numerous other bureaus, boards and commissions with a Read more...
