Business Associations and Real Property
Business Associations
Sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, LLC, and corporation. Corporations: formation (articles of incorporation), board governance, fiduciary duties (care and loyalty), shareholder rights (inspection, derivative suits), and the business judgment rule. LLCs offer pass-through taxation with limited liability. Partnerships: default rules under the Uniform Partnership Act; fiduciary duties among partners. Agency principles underpin all of these - actual, apparent, and inherent authority.
Real Property
Estates in land (fee simple, life estate, leasehold). Concurrent ownership: joint tenancy (right of survivorship, four unities), tenancy in common, tenancy by the entirety (not in California). Landlord-tenant: implied warranty of habitability, rent control, eviction procedures. Easements, covenants, and servitudes. Recording acts: race, notice, race-notice - California is a race-notice state. Adverse possession requires actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous possession for the statutory period (5 years in California).
Traps
Confusing LLC member liability with corporate shareholder liability; forgetting that California is a community property state (affects spousal property rights); overlooking the distinction between a license and an easement; treating a covenant as an easement.
Rule of Thumb
For entity questions, trace authority (agency) and liability (limited vs. unlimited). For property questions, identify the estate, the recording act, and any servitude before analyzing the dispute.