Hwang

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

Defendant Sylvan Investments, Inc. (Sylvan) buys, renovates, and resells residential properties. The company is owned and managed by defendant Basil Yaqub.1 In 2018, Sylvan purchased two adjoining properties in Hayward, and Yaqub had a fence installed down the middle of a driveway

1 Plaintiffs allege that defendant Chris Hotaki, who has no ownership

interest in Sylvan, “was Mr. Yaqub’s business partner in the transaction at issue.”

1 that was between the two properties. Yaqub attested that the fence was installed because it “optimized the privacy of the [p]roperties and also allowed both [p]roperties to use the driveway in an equal fashion.” He further attested that he did not know the location of the property line or if the fence’s “position was commensurate with the true boundary line between the [p]roperties.” No evidence was presented that Yaqub knew or might have known the location of the property line. Hwang and Su later purchased one of the two properties from Sylvan. Yaqub, who is also a real estate agent, was the agent for Sylvan, and Hwang and Su were represented by their own agent. The written information Hwang and Su received…