California Judicial Council Adopts New Rules to Lower Jail Population, Suspend Evictions and Foreclosures

By Julia M. Wei, Esq.

On April 6, 2020 by teleconference, the Judicial Council issued 11 temporary rules effective immediately. The full text of the emergency rules here.

As our firm’s earlier update regarding eviction moratoriums noted, there has been movement both on the state and local government level to halt or otherwise slow the progression of evictions due to non-payment of rent for COVID-19 related reasons. The practical implications are that any unlawful detainer must be filed in the courts and now the California Rules of Court emergency rules are in effect as to ALL unlawful detainer actions (whether COVID-19 related or not). My reading of the new rules is that it applies to both commercial and residential eviction.

We are still seeing the effects of the subprime meltdown ripple through the appellate courts. In the case of Taniguchi v. Restoration Homes, what appears on first blush to be a straight forward analysis that under California law borrowers can stop a foreclosure sale by reinstating the loan had a twist.

The Taniguchis own a home in San Mateo County and in 2006, they borrowed $510k. They missed 4 loan payments in 2013, and normally to cure the default with the lender, the borrowers would simply need to reinstate the 4 missed payments and late charges under the promissory note.  Here's the twist back in 2009, the Taniguchis entered into a loan modification that adjusted the principal amount, reduced the interest rate and monthly payments, and deferred until the maturity of the approximately $116k (including accrued and unpaid interest and principal, fees, and foreclosure expenses).