Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ho v. Hsieh (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 26, 2010)

It's a short little opinion from this morning. At least as Court of Appeal decisions go. Twelve double-spaced pages.

But it could have been even shorter. The actual analysis only takes up three and a half.

Plus, I can summarize it in a single sentence. Something that's not nearly possible with most cases. A sentence that's also largely self-evident. Which is this:

A court can't order stock shares transferred to a judgment creditor without any offset in the judgment.

For good reason. If the shares have absolutely no value, you can't transfer 'em to satisfy a judgment. If they have value, you've got to have an offset. It's got to be one or the other.

Call it $10,000. Call it $1. But you can't call it $0.