Documents Filed Today Indicate Failed Settlement Negoitiations in Life Paint vs. Paul Koury/Pacific Pebbles Lawsuit

Filed today at PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records was Document 70 -"Joint Stipulation To Extend Deadline to File Discovery Motions". The document reveals that the two parties engaged in settlement negotiations from on or about October 7, 2008, through mid-November (last week?) when discussions faltered and the parties were unable to resolve the matter.

In the meantime, discovery and depositions were delayed and so this Stipulation, agreed to by both parties, will extend the deadline to file discovery motions by 2 weeks, from December 1st to December 15th, 2008.

From what it sounds like in reading this document, maybe Koury engaged in settlement discussions, as it reads "as a good faith sign of encouraging settlement discussions, the parties agreed to delay Life Paint's response to this Joint Stipulation until further determination of settlement discussions between the parties." I would take that as a sign of Koury extending that agreement to delay as the ball was in Life Paint's court to file their response...

From everything I see and hear, the case is looking pretty strong for Life Paint, so they probably don't feel as much pressure to settle this case as Koury would.

Job of the Week...Pool Deck Rehab in Huntington Beach

TheDeckExpert's professional crews took on this job at an Apartment Complex run by Avalon down in Huntington Beach over the last few weeks; it's a big concrete pool deck with an old failing coating on top.

This job had Life Deck or Westcoat products specified for recoating the deck-guess what product we used?

First, we shot blasted off the old surface down to the substrate.
Because of extreme damage to the concrete from exposure to chlorine and other chemicals, the shot blasting took off the top layer of concrete with it, leaving aggregate exposed.
This was repaired with a bond coat of Life Deck AL1, followed by a smoothing coat of AL2.

Because there were so many cracks on the deck, chopped mat fiberglass was used to cover and hide them.

After treating the deck with fiberglass and a topping coat, we applied a knockdown troweled texture and then applied 2 coats of pigmented sealer to the deck.

The result is a beautiful new deck that with proper care and maintenance, will provide years of life and improve the property's appearance.

Call me, Bill Leys, for your next pool deck restoration project! 805-801-2380. Anywhere in CA, NV, AZ, anytime...

B.I.S. at Long Beach is kind of a BUST

I swung by the BIS Show at Long Beach on Friday afternoon;

After getting my free pass for exhibits only, I walked down the stairs into the exhibit Hall.

It looked like there were more sales people staffing booths than folks walking the show...

The big boys of the building world were persona non grata at this show; why would they be here, they aren't building much these days. Most of the show attendees seemed to be smaller contractors who are building custom/semi-custom homes..

One acquaintance at a Booth said with a roll of their eyes, "Slowest show I've ever seen"

Our sponsors were in attendance at Mer-Ko, we meet All Deck as well and said hello.

After finishing our walk through, I headed up the stirs for the long ride home to SLO...

maybe next year will be better...

Bay Area Law Firm Berding Weil Offers Their 18th Annual Community Association Law Seminar November 21st!

Our goal is education...HOA members and Board of Directors in the Bay Area would do well to take the time to attend...Berding & Weil's Law Seminar will help you and your Association...go, sign up now!

OUR 18^th ANNUAL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION LAW SEMINAR

The Game Has Changed . . . And So Have the Rules!

November 21, 2008 - At the San Ramon Marriott

What you need to know to successfully manage a common interest development today.

• New Legislation (If we have any!)
• New Cases (fiduciary duty, enforcement, dangerous common areas)
• New CC&Rs (working with new docs: avoiding blunders)
• Law Redux (how recent laws work "on the street")
• Repairing Bad Buildings (bank loans, claims)

Seminar Registration Fee: $30 (per person)

Certified managers will receive 1 CACM credit for attending this legal seminar.

San Ramon Marriott
2600 Bishop Drive
San Ramon, CA 94583
Directions

Registration: 8:30am

Program: 9:15am - 12:00pm

Cocktail Reception following program.

HOW TO REGISTER

Attendees may REGISTER ONLINE, by Phone, or by completing the BERDING | WEIL 2008 COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION SEMINAR REGISTRATION FORM and mailing or faxing the completed form to:

Berding & Weil LLP
3240 Stone Valley Road West
Alamo
CA 94507
Phone: (925) 838-2090
Fax: (925) 820-5592

Registrations received without full payment will not be processed. We accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

Checks should be made payable to Berding & Weil LLP.

If you have questions directly related to the seminar registration, please contact Roxanne Jolicoeur at (925) 838-2090.

SEMINAR REGISTRATION

November Marks Anniversary of My First Office in SLO Burning Down

November 11th, 2002, I'm enjoying a couple of Corona's in Mexico "Dos mas, por favor" I say to the bartender...

Meanwhile, back in San Luis Obispo, the fire department is at the office building we had our office located at.

Railroad Square, a historic building in the Railroad District, is burning down, as a result of a homeless person who found an unlocked door, got in, then light a fire to warm up.

Man oh man, I forget how many offices and companies burned up that day, but I didn't know anything until I got back home and caught my voice mail messages, with 2 messages saying Welcome back, your office burned down while you were away...thankfully, although the computer was melted and damaged, I managed to recover the hardrive and was able to get the data recovered from it...whew. Many were not so lucky...they lost a lot of data! Hint, offsite Internet data storage...

What a mess...anyway, Fire Saftey Month is every month, and this fire is another example of what sprinklers could have done if they were in...

Happy Anniversary I guess...

Downturn in Construction Hits Builders Like TOLL BROTHERS Hard

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. said Tuesday its revenue dropped 41 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter as demand and home shopper traffic in October fell to "record lows."

Chief Executive Robert Toll said the preliminary signs of stability in the market he discussed in early September were reversed by the financial crisis. Fears of job losses, a large decline in consumer spending, plummeting stock markets "all contributed to drive our cancellations up" 30 percent.

Toll said preliminary home-building revenue declined to $691 million in the three months ended Oct. 31 from $1.17 billion, while backlog dropped 54 percent to $1.33 billion from $2.85 billion.

Net signed contracts for the quarter also slid 27 percent to $266.7 million from $365.3 million.

Toll Brothers plans to release full results for the quarter on Dec. 4.

CLICK THE HEADLINE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Life Paint Files Reply to Opposition To Motion Document 63 in Federal Court Today for Hearing November 17th.

Filed in Federal Court today were further arguments by Life Paint vs. Paul Koury in opposition to the trademark dispute that is the centerpiece of the litigation between the parties.

Attorney John Horwitz makes strong arguments about the trademark and most interestingly, Paul Koury's assertions about the 3 agreements made between the parties over the course of several years.

Indeed Attorney Horwitz seems as increduluous as I am was when I was reading Koury's defense...Horwitz notes on one page "It is unclear why Koury makes suh significant efforts to make the distinction that the subject Agreements were simply "memorializations" of the agreements reached through negotiation rather than actual contracts as it would seems that a written contract, by definition, is nothing more than a memorialization of a negotiated agreement."

Some of the arguments Koury makes in his filings with the court make me feel like I'm reading a bad script of Seinfeld...guess who's Kramer in this version of the show?

Hmm, does that make Atty Horwitz the "Johhny Cochran" character? and who would be George?
Well back to the subject, the court date is still currently set for next Monday the 17th at 10 am in Santa Ana. The battle will be about the trademark issue and who should have the rights to that...I'm sure it will be very busy with spectators lining up to watch the show,I'm planning on covering this event live and blogging in between.

New Quartery issue of WATERPROOF Magazine is out!

Opened my mailbox today to find the new quarterly issue of Waterproof Magazine...Summit Publishing is doing a great job with this industry oriented magazine.

Although it sounds ultra boring, waterproofing is the first thing to be sued over, and this magazine has some good articles on current standards, new products and articles on problems encountered in the field.

This months article of interest, expansive clay soils and the problems it presnts in waterproofing block walls. The pictures are worth the subscription price alone! I've not seen clay soil blow a wall over like these pictures show...

Send 'em $20 bucks for a one year subscription or $35 for 2 years worth of magazines to Summit Publishing 884 East 700 North Mapelton Utah 84664 or you can even pay by PayPal by going to www.Paypal.com and paying subscribe@waterproofmag.com.

Tell them we sent ya!

More Documents from pacer for Your Reading Pleasure

Here's more juicy tidbits from the Life Paint vs. Paul Koury/Pacific Pebbles case...

The picture shows bogus materials bootlegged with a Life Deck logo on the left, the real deal is on the right.