General Law Principles

 

1000    Trusts / UTMA

1001    Property

1100    Evidence

1101    Burdens

1102    Contracts

1103    Statutory construction

1200    Validity of regulations

1201    State Hearing jurisdiction

1202    Collateral estoppel / res judicata

1203    Decision compliance / Authority

1204    Residence / Age

1205    Citizenship / Alien status

1210    Wages

 

1000-1       Generally, all trusts are revocable (Prob. C.15400)

 

1000-2       Oral trust of personal property must be established by clear and convincing evidence (Prob. C. 15207)

 

1000-3       Establishing CUTMA; irrevocability; vesting in minor (Prob. C. 3909(a)(2), 3911(b))

 

1000-3A    CUTMA custodian may give to, or pay for, the minor as much of the custodial property as he/she sees fit, even if no court order, and regardless of whether the minor or others responsible for the minor have, or do not have, assets (Prob. C. 3914(a))

 

1000-4       Resulting trusts (Witkin, Summary of California Law)

 

1000-5       Totten trusts (Prob. C. 5301(c); Estate of Wilson)

 

1000-6       Involuntary trustees (Civ. C. 2223, 2224)

 

1001-1       Earnings of spouse and minor children while living apart from spouse are separate property (Fam. C. 771)

 

1001-2       Tracing permitted when community and separate property commingled (Fam. C. 2640)

 

1001-3       Separate property acquired by gift, bequest, devise, descent (Fam. C. 770)

 

1001-4       Deeds, transfers of real property (Civ. C. 1091; Witkin, Summary of California Law)

 

1001-4A    Real property can be transferred only by operation of law, or by a writing (Civ. C. 1091, 1624(a))

 

1001-5       Transfers of property can be made orally; when effective (Civ. C.

 

1052-1055)

 

1001-7       Ownership of property under California law (Civ. C. 654, 679)

 

1001-8       Transfer of property without consideration is usually a gift; "consideration" defined (Civ. C. 1146, 1605)

 

1100-1       Correctly addressed, properly mailed letter presumed received (Evid. C. 641)

 

1100-2       Party who does not produce good evidence in his/her possession should have weaker evidence actually presented viewed with distrust (Evid. C. 412)

 

1100-3       Trier of facts may determine genuineness of handwriting (Evid. C. 1417)

 

1100-4       Definition of inference (Evid. C. 600(b); Traxler v. Thompson)

 

1100-5A    Secondary Evidence Rule, replacing Best Evidence Rule (Evid. C. 1520, 1521, 1523, 1530, 1550; Witkin, California Evidence, 4th Edition, Vol. 2)

 

1100-6       Direct evidence defined; one witness' direct evidence sufficient to prove fact (Evid. C. 410,411)

 

1100-7       Evidence Code rule as to determination of credibility (Evid. C. 780)

 

1100-8       Trier of fact may consider failure to explain or deny facts (Evid. C. 413)

 

1100-9       Hearsay evidence defined (Evid. C. 1200(a))

 

1100-10     Hearsay exception: statement made by party or party's representative (Evid. C. 1220)

 

1100-11     Hearsay exception: adoptive admission (Evid. C. 1221)

 

1100-12     Hearsay exception: declaration against interest (Evid. C. 1230)

 

1100-13     Hearsay exception: business records (Evid. C. 1271)

 

1100-14     Hearsay exception: absence of entry in business record (Evid. C. 1272)

 

1100-15     Hearsay exception: official records (Evid. C. 1280)

 

1101-1       Party asserting affirmative of issue has burden of proof (Cornell v. Reilly)

 

1101-2       Burden of producing evidence defined; initially on party with burden of proof (Evid. C. 110, 550)

 

1101-3       Burden of proof defined (Evid. C. 115)

 

1101-4       County has burden of going forward (22-073.36)

 

1102-1       Person without understanding has no power to contract (Civ. C. 38)

 

1102-2       Contract defined; determination of validity of contract (Civ. C. 1549, 1550)

 

1103-1       Every word in statute has a meaning (Woodmansee v. Lowery)

 

1103-2       In construing statutes, look to language of statute first, but if this would lead to absurd result, look to intent of the law as a whole (Larson v. California State Personnel Board)

 

1103-3       Harmonize statutory provisions; when not possible, more recently enacted, or specific rather than general, governs (Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. v. Bonjorno)

 

1103-4       Generally no retroactive effect given to changes in law (Rosasco v. Comm. on Judicial Performance, Evangelatos v. Superior Court)

 

1103-4A    Statute not to be given retroactive effect unless the legislature so provides, particularly when the right affected is a vested right (Canfield v. Prod)

 

1103-5       Words in statute have same meaning as in everyday speech unless the word has an established legal meaning (Savnik v. Hall; Arnett v. Dal Cielo)

 

1103-6       Law related to public assistance is to be fairly and equitably construed (W&IC 11000)

 

1110-1       Regulation defined (Handbook 17-001.1; Gov. C. §11342)

 

1110-2       Handbook defined (Handbook 17-001.2)

 

1110-3       Explanation of Manual Letters (Handbook 17-001.3)

 

1110-4       Explanation of ACLs (Handbook 17-001.4)

 

1110-5       Explanation of ACINs (Handbook 17-001.5)

 

1200-1       No regulation valid which is inconsistent or in conflict with statute (Gov. Code 11342.2)

 

1200-2       Regulations valid if authorized by and consistent with controlling statutes (Morris v. Williams)

 

1200-3       Director should not enforce invalid regulations in fair hearings (Woods v. Superior Court)

 

1200-4       Administrative agency cannot declare a statute unenforceable or unconstitutional on basis of federal law (Cal. Const., Art. III, 3.5)

 

1200-5       U.S. Supreme Court analysis of abuse of discretion (Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. State Farm Mutual.)

 

1200-6       Review standards for abuse of discretion in California (Asimow, Michael, 42 UCLA L.R. 1157)

 

1201-1       Persons who have right to state hearing (W&IC 10950)

 

1201-2       LCSA has responsibility for enforcing child support obligations (Fam. C. 17400(a) and 17500(a))

 

1201-2A    LCSA has a complaint resolution process and Department of Child Support has a hearing process (Fam. C. 17800 and 17801)

 

1201-3       Referral to SIU, investigation by SIU, and SIU referral to DA, not subject to state hearing (Madrid v. McMahon)

 

1201-4       County shall determine conditions of employment of county employees, and hearings as to employment are conducted by county hearing officer of OAH (Gov. Code 25300, 27720, 27727)

 

1201-5       Administration of public social services is county function (W&IC 10800)

 

1202-1       Collateral estoppel (Teitelbaum Furs v. Dominion Insurance Company, Ltd.)

 

1202-2       Res Judicata and collateral estoppel (Frommhagen v. Board of Santa Cruz County)

 

1202-3       Finality required for collateral estoppel after administrative decision (Long Beach Unified School District v. State of California; Abelson v. Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co.)

 

1202-4       Small claims court decision, or Superior Court decision under Small Claims Act, is not entitled to collateral estoppel (Craig-Casey v. Rosse)

 

1202-5       Collateral estoppel does not preclude CDSS or counties from seeking to recover a greater AFDC overpayment than imposed by a judge as a part of the restitution in the criminal case (Shor v. DSS)

 

1202-6       No collateral estoppel in civil case after conviction following guilty plea (Pease v. Pease)

 

1202-7       When administrative hearing process is from an agency acting in a judicial capacity, it may preclude subsequent litigation on same issue (Castillo v. City of Los Angeles)

 

1203-1       No authority within state hearing process to award damages or issue injunction (Ramos v. Madera)

 

1203-2       Compliance required; aid must be issued even if rehearing granted (Taylor v. McKay; Blackburn v. Sarsfield; W&IC 10963)

 

1203-6       Unpublished opinions are generally not citable; exceptions (Cal. Rules of Court §977)

 

1204-1       Residence of minor, how determined (W&IC 17.1)

 

1204-2       Residence of minor declared free of parental custody (W&IC 17.1(e))

 

1204-3       Age of majority is 18, effective 1972 (Fam. C. 6502)

 

1205-1       Citizenship of person born abroad of alien parent and citizen parent (8 USC 1401(g))

 

1205-2       When alien parents become U.S. citizens, noncitizen child also becomes a U.S. citizen (8 USC 1432(a)(1))

 

1210-1       State minimum wage amounts (Labor C. 11040; ACIN I-114-01)

 

1210-1A    State minimum wage amounts for 2007-2008 (Labor C. 1182.12; ACIN I-99-06)

 

1210-2       General rules regarding overpayments dischargeable in bankruptcy (ACIN I-65-86)