Client Successes

Reversal favors City in lawsuit over public improvement work on construction site

Best Best & Krieger LLP attorneys Kira Klatchko and Irene Zurko obtained a full reversal on appeal on behalf of the City of Coachella. The City sued a subdivider and its surety, after the subdivider refused to complete public improvements that it promised to construct on a subdivision site and the surety refused to make good on the bond securing completion of the work.

Although the City granted the subdivider more time to complete the improvements, the surety asserted that, because the City did not properly extend the subdivider's deadline, the City’s action was untimely and the surety had no obligation on the bond. The trial court ruled in favor of the surety, dismissing the City’s case at the demurrer stage. The Court of Appeal reversed in full, however, concluding in an unpublished opinion that the City’s action was not on its face barred by the statute of limitations. The Court concluded that the City was not required, at the pleadings stage, to allege (or provide proof of) how the City Council granted the subdivider the extension.