At a hearing on October 8, 2021, the Honorable Randall Sherman of the Orange County Superior Court, Complex Civil, issued a ruling sustaining, without leave to amend, the demurrers filed on behalf of our client Northwood Investors in three related cases: Carson, et al. v. Hunt, et al. (Case No. 30-2018-00982195-CU-MC-CXC), NNN Congress Center, LLC, et al. v. Locoh, et al. (Case No. 30-2018-01015717-CU-BC-CJC), and Henkin, et al. v. Mikles, et al. (Case No. 30-2021-01186203-CU-FR-CJC).
These cases, along with several others filed by the same plaintiffs firm where Northwood is not a defendant, stem from a series of commercial real estate transactions involving commercial properties held by investors as tenants-in-common (“TICs”) and a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) in liquidation. In 2012, investment funds advised by Northwood acquired a commercial office tower in Chicago from the TIC investors and the liquidating REIT and then sold the property in 2015 in what, by all accounts, were arms-length transactions. Three years later, Northwood was named in this series of litigations, which a Florida bankruptcy court has described as “vexatious.” After prior motion practice, the Orange County Superior Court dismissed a Northwood affiliate for lack of personal jurisdiction from two cases and sustained multiple demurrers with leave to amend, but now has dismissed all claims with prejudice and has denied the plaintiffs further amendment.
Our Northwood team is comprised of Partner Mike Kibler, Counsel Sheila Nagaraj, Associate Shiqi (Sara) Borjigin, and Senior Litigation Paralegal Samantha Ahlheim.
The Court’s decisions can be found here (see items 7, 8 & 9).
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