Munoz

Filed 1/3/

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

LUIS MUNOZ et al., D078215

Plaintiffs and Appellants,

v. (Super. Ct. No. 37-2019-00017904-

CU-FR-CTL)

PL HOTEL GROUP, LLC, et al.,

Defendants and Respondents.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Timothy B. Taylor, Judge. Reversed. Spierer, Woodward, Corbalis & Goldberg and Stephen B. Goldberg for Plaintiffs and Appellants. Bradley L. Jacobs for Defendants and Respondents.

This appeal involves a form of fraud rarely seen in day to day litigation. It goes by various names—fraud in the factum, fraud in the execution, fraud in the inception—but they all describe the same genre of deceit. It occurs where, after parties have agreed upon certain contract terms, one of them surreptitiously substitutes a document for signature that looks the same as the earlier draft but contains materially different terms. Fraud in the execution is distinct from promissory fraud, which involves false representations that induce one to enter into a contract containing agreed- upon terms. This…