Court Explicates Scope of Usury Exemption For Real Estate Brokers
Artistotle didn’t think much of the idea of paying interest: εὐλογώτατα μισεῖται ἡ ὀβολοστατικὴ διὰ τὸ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ νομίσματος εἶναι τὴν κτῆσιν καὶ οὐκ ἐφ᾽ ὅπερ ἐπορίσθη. μεταβολῆς γὰρ ἐγένετο χάριν, ὁ δὲ τόκος αὐτὸ ποιεῖ πλέον （ὅθεν καὶ τοὔνομα τοῦτ᾽ εἴληφεν: ὅμοια γὰρ τὰ τικτόμενα τοῖς γεννῶσιν αὐτά ἐστιν, ὁ δὲ τόκος γίνεται νόμισμα ἐκ νομίσματος: ὥστε καὶ μάλιστα παρὰ Read more...
The Salon Sub Rosa And Nevada Corporate Law
Rachel Anderson is a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law. She has a website, Salon Sub Rosa, which carries the subtitle of “Musings in the Harlem Renaissance”. Her site provides a wealth of information on Business Law & Policy, Education Law & Policy, and Nevada Law & Policy. Recently, she was kind enough to include this Read more...
Would You Be Annoyed If Your Neighbor Installs A Wind Turbine?
In 2009, the Nevada legislature enacted a statute intended to remove private barriers to landowners’ harnessing of wind energy: Any covenant, restriction or condition contained in a deed, contract or other legal instrument which affects the transfer or sale of, or any other interest in, real property and which prohibits or unreasonably restricts the owner of the property from using Read more...
DOC Warns Financial Services Licensees And Can A Theory Be A Tautology?
Last April, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued this Bulletin cautioning supervised banks and certain non-depository financial services companies that they must have “an effective process for managing the risks of service provider relationships”. Like many regulatory requirements, the Bulletin has given birth to both a new industry and unintended consequences. The new industry is third-party risk management. This is a screening service provided to financial service Read more...
Court Of Appeal Upholds Unsigned Stock Option Agreement
In an opinion handed down yesterday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld an “oral” stock option agreement. Maughan v. Correia, Cal. Ct. of Appeal Case No. D058957 (Oct. 24, 2012). The case arose from a fight between a brother and sister over ownership in a family run corporation. The sister had sued her brother to enforce a stock option agreement. Curiously, Read more...
Maybe These Scientists Should Have Included A Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure . . .
I was very surprised to read this morning that an Italian court had convicted seven scientists of failing to provide a warning of an earthquake that tragically killed more than 300 people. See “Italy Orders Jail Terms for 7 Who Didn’t Warn of Deadly Earthquake” New York Times (Oct. 23, 2012). I think that the story illustrates some important, but often overlooked, Read more...
Classifying A Coterie Of Covenants
Yesterday, I wrote about Judge Lucy Koh’s decision in SriCom, Inc. v. eBisLogic, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131082 (N.D. Cal., Sept. 13, 2012) concerning the enforceability of a no-hire agreement. Judge Koh mentions an earlier ruling by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel that describes five categories of covenants not to compete, Thomas Weisel Ptnrs. LLC v. BNP Paribas, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS Read more...
How To Argue A Contracts Case Like Aristotle
As I continue to explore the classical world, I’m frequently reminded of how little the basics of life have changed. In part, this is due to the huge debt that we owe to the Greeks and Romans in the fields of philosophy, government, law and rhetoric. One example, of the continuing freshness of many classical works can be found in Read more...
Hedge Fund Advertising – What’s The Wall Street Journal Talking About?
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article stating: “The JOBS Act, signed by President Obama on April 5, lifted a decades-old restriction on how hedge funds can go after new investors, clearing the way for managers to speak more publicly about their strategies and performance and even to advertise.” Later, a WSJ blog asserted: “But legal experts expect that Read more...
The SEC’s Form 10-K: “In Endless Error Hurled”
In February, I wrote that I had noticed several errors in the PDF version of the Form 10-K posted on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website. Here’s what I found: In General Instruction G(4), there is a reference to Rule 12b-23(e). There is no paragraph (e) to Rule 12b-23. The same instruction refers to “17 CFR 240.12b(e)” even though no such Read more...
