California Court of Appeal

Pursuant to section 1571(a) of California's Unclaimed Property Law (UPL), the trial court granted a preliminary injunction to plaintiff, the State Controller, to examine the records of defendant life insurance company. The preliminary injunction order is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings, where: 1) the trial court erred when it granted the preliminary injunction without a trial on the merits; 2) the standard of "reason to believe" in section 1571(a) means specific articulable facts that would justify a belief by a reasonable person, knowledgeable in the field of unclaimed property, that an entity was not reporting property as the UPL requires; and 3) if plaintiff proves, at a trial on the merits, the significant facts underlying its preliminary injunction request, plaintiff will have met this "reason to believe" standard with respect to examining the records of defendant's in-force policies.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/24/2015
• Published 03/24/2015

Judges

• Butz

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel