Pacific Landmark Hotel, Ltd. v. Marriott Hotels, Inc.

This is an expedited appeal from an order of the trial court filed June 4, 1993, denying a preliminary injunction, the effect of which is to prevent the owners of a twin towers hotel, known as the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina (the Hotel), managed by Marriott Hotels, Inc. (MHI), from statutorily terminating MHI’s management contracts pending resolution of the owners’ lawsuit against MHI for breach of those contracts and numerous other causes of action. Because the court’s denial was based on its interpretation and application of Civil Code section 2356, subdivision (a)(1), regarding the legal issue of whether MHI had “an agency coupled with an interest in the subject of the agency” such that the owners could not statutorily revoke or terminate MHI as their agent for purposes of managing and operating the Hotel, and such issue was agreed to be determinative of the remaining issues in the lawsuit, our review necessarily involves a narrow question of pure law which we independently consider to determine whether the trial court erred. (See Bullock v. City and County of San Francisco (1990) 221 Cal.App.3d 1072, 1094-1095 [ 271 Cal.Rptr. 44 ].) As we explain, the trial…