Youssefi

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Because the trial court granted the Youssefi defendants‟ motion for judgment on the pleadings on the first cause of action, we accept as true the allegations of the complaint on that claim for purposes of this appeal. (American Airlines, Inc. v. County of San Mateo (1996) 12 Cal.4th 1110, 1118.) On all other claims, the trial court granted summary adjudication. We therefore review the evidence on those claims in the light most favorable to plaintiff. (Molko v. Holy Spirit Assn. (1988) 46 Cal.3d 1092, 1107.) For some of the facts not in dispute and a portion of the procedural background of this matter, we refer to the prior decision of the California Supreme Court in this matter. On or about May 2, 2000, the Agency entered into an agreement with plaintiff (the Civic Agreement) for renovation of the Hotel Stockton (Hotel), a historic building at 133 East Weber Avenue in Stockton, California, containing five stories, an underground basement, and 178,000 square feet of space. Under the terms of the Civic Agreement, the Agency agreed to sell the Hotel to plaintiff for $1, provided plaintiff fulfilled all of its conditions and obligations under that agreement.…

After first contracting with plaintiff Civic Partners Stockton, LLC, for the renovation of a historic hotel in downtown Stockton, the redevelopment agency for the City of Stockton (the Agency) entered into a new redevelopment agreement with defendant Hotel Stockton Investors (HSI) for the same property. Plaintiff brought this action against the Agency, the City of Stockton (City), and HSI for breach of contract and related claims. Also named as defendants were Cyrus Youssefi (Youssefi) and his company, CFY Development (CFY), the general partner of HSI. (Hereafter, Youssefi, CFY and HSI shall be referred to collectively as the Youssefi defendants.)

The City and the Agency demurred, and the trial court overruled the demurrers. However, this court granted the City and the Agency’s petition for writ of mandate and directed the trial court to sustain the demurrers on the basis of plaintiff’s failure to comply with the Government Claims Act (Gov. Code, § 900 et seq.). Our decision was later affirmed by the California Supreme Court. (City of Stockton v. Superior Court (2007) 42 Cal.4th 730 [ 68 Cal.Rptr.3d 295 , 171 P.3d 20 ] (City of Stockton).)

The present matter involves…

I concur fully in the judgment and in the holding that plaintiff’s claim in its first cause of action was never intended to nor did it state a claim for copyright infringement. I write separately only to note that the interest sought to be vindicated was not the creative efforts of the architect, whose copyright would be unaffected by the litigation, but plaintiff’s ownership interest in the plans. Had the plans not been copyrighted, plaintiff could still state a claim for conversion. The fact that they are does not transform a prosaic state law conversion action into a federal case for copyright infringement. Regrettably, plaintiff’s effort to bring clarity to the issue by analogizing to copyrighted images on a coffee cup may indeed have “prove[d] too much” as suggested by the trial judge. Notwithstanding the imperfect analogy, the essence of plaintiff’s cause of action is clear and federal preemption has no application here.

A petition for a rehearing was denied September 4, 2013, and the petitions of both respondents and appellant for review by the Supreme Court were denied November 13, 2013, S213355.