Judge, Court of Appeals of Washington
State v. Truong
Court of Appeals of Washington · 2012-05-29 · cited 36×
In State v. Truong, Sindy Truong was charged as a juvenile with two counts of first degree robbery after she and several companions boarded a Seattle bus, grabbed a Zune MP3 player and headphones from one passenger, then searched another passenger's pockets and took his cigarettes while repeatedly punching both victims to overcome resistance. Following a bench trial, the juvenile court convicted her of first degree robbery of the Zune and headphones and the lesser offense of second degree robbery of the cigarettes. The Court of Appeals affirmed both convictions, holding that unchallenged findings of fact established Truong's participation in the takings and use of force, and that under Washington's transactional analysis for robbery, force used after the initial taking to retain the property satisfies the statutory force element.
criminal law
MHM & F, LLC v. Pryor
Court of Appeals of Washington · 2012-05-21 · cited 18×
This case involved a dispute over possession of a mobile home space in Thunderbird Mobile Home Park, where MHM & F, LLC sought to evict Edward Pryor Jr. under Washington's Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act after Pryor allegedly defaulted on stock purchase payments tied to his space, leading to foreclosure of his shares and unpaid maintenance charges. The trial court granted the LLC a writ of restitution and judgment for unlawful detainer. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the superior court properly exercised subject matter jurisdiction over the unlawful detainer action. It further concluded that substantial evidence supported the trial court's findings of fact regarding Pryor's defaults and that those findings supported the legal conclusions authorizing eviction and restitution of the premises, along with an award of attorney fees to the LLC.
propertyprocedure
In Re Haghighi
Court of Appeals of Washington · 2012-04-16 · cited 2×
In Re Haghighi involves a personal restraint petition filed by Baron Haghighi challenging his convictions for unlawful issuance of checks or drafts and first degree theft. The convictions stemmed from evidence consisting of bank records that the trial court admitted under the inevitable discovery rule after finding a search warrant unenforceable; the Court of Appeals had affirmed on direct appeal. Haghighi argued that the Washington Supreme Court's later decision in State v. Winterstein, which rejected the inevitable discovery rule under the state constitution, should apply retroactively to his already-final case and that his appellate counsel was ineffective. The court dismissed the petition, holding that Winterstein does not apply retroactively on collateral review to convictions final before it was decided because it neither decriminalized the conduct nor constituted a watershed procedural rule, and that the ineffective assistance claim was time-barred under RCW 10.73.090.
criminal lawprocedure
Pacific Continental Bank v. Soundview 90, LLC
Court of Appeals of Washington · 2012-03-26 · cited 5×
In this case, Pacific Continental Bank provided up to $10.3 million in construction financing to Soundview 90 LLC, secured by a deed of trust, while Village Framers Corp. (VFC) performed framing work and later recorded a $385,465.48 mechanics’ lien. After VFC served the Bank with a stop notice under RCW 60.04.221, the Bank set aside $386,000 in a reserve but continued disbursing other loan funds to Soundview; when Soundview defaulted, the receiver sought to give the Bank priority over the lien for escrowed sale proceeds. The trial court granted summary judgment to the receiver, finding the Bank’s security interest had priority. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the Bank’s entire deed of trust is subordinated to VFC’s lien under RCW 60.04.221(7) because the statute expressly requires withholding the claimed amount from the next and subsequent draws rather than merely creating a reserve while advancing other proceeds. The court reasoned that the Bank’s method of compliance violated the stop-notice provision’s plain terms, triggering the statutory penalty of subordination.
business & regulatoryproperty
State v. Breaux
Court of Appeals of Washington · 2012-03-12 · cited 14×
In State v. Breaux, the Washington Court of Appeals addressed sentencing under RCW 9.94A.589(1)(b) for a defendant who pleaded guilty to two serious violent offenses—attempted first degree rape and first degree rape—plus one violent offense of second degree rape arising from separate conduct. The statute mandates consecutive sentences for multiple serious violent offenses and requires calculating the standard range for the offense with the highest seriousness level using the defendant's prior convictions and other non-serious violent current offenses, while setting an offender score of zero for the remaining serious violent offenses. Because the two serious violent offenses carried the same seriousness level, creating ambiguity about which would receive the zero score, the court applied the rule of lenity to resolve the question in the defendant's favor. It held that the zero-score rule applies to the first degree rape conviction (producing the shorter total sentence), while the attempted first degree rape conviction uses the higher offender score that includes priors and the second degree rape. The court remanded for resentencing under this calculation.
criminal law
Department of Revenue v. Nord Northwest Corp.
Court of Appeals of Washington · 2011-10-17 · cited 7×
This case involved a tax dispute over whether Nord Northwest Corporation owed retailing business and occupation tax and retail sales tax on payments received for building two condominiums. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the superior court's reversal of the Board of Tax Appeals, holding that Nord did not qualify as a "speculative builder" under WAC 458-20-170 and thus owed the taxes. The court reasoned that the two LLCs—not Nord—held legal title to the properties, obtained the construction loans, entered into the contracts with Nord for its services, and sold the completed units to buyers, even though Nord held a partial ownership interest in the LLCs and contributed services in exchange for profit shares. The court rejected Nord's arguments that its LLC membership or other arrangements effectively established ownership of the real property.
business & regulatorypropertytaxes