Representative Cases

During her 27-year tenure presiding over Unlimited Jurisdiction civil courtrooms at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles, Judge Bruguera handled a wide range of complex real property litigation. Her docket included disputes among members of limited liability companies owning major apartment buildings in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica; claims by LLC members against managing partners for fraud and negligence; litigation involving LLCs invested in large commercial shopping centers throughout Southern California, particularly in the San Fernando Valley; and disputes concerning hospitals and professional office buildings leased to physicians, dentists, architects, and attorneys who were also equity participants.

Her experience further included cases involving parking structure investments, allegations of fraud against managing partners, interpretation and enforcement of purchase and sale agreements, commercial leasing disputes of varying scale, and litigation involving brokers and agents.

Prior to her judicial service, Judge Bruguera served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Business and Tax Section of the California Department of Justice, where she represented the California Department of Real Estate, the Franchise Tax Board, and the Board of Equalization in matters involving tax liability and regulatory enforcement against real estate investment firms. She also handled matters involving insurance recovery following catastrophic property losses, and presided over arbitrations involving allegations of fraud and nondisclosure in real estate investments. Earlier in her career, she served as general counsel to a Century 21 real estate office, where she interpreted and drafted purchase and sale agreements, structured investment allocations among limited partners, and handled escrow-related functions. She additionally prosecuted fraud cases involving real property transactions as a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County.

As a neutral with ADR Services, Inc., Judge Bruguera has been retained as an umpire in high-value insurance coverage disputes involving large residential and commercial properties, and has been appointed by the Los Angeles Superior Court as a partition referee in the sale of multiple investment properties.

In sum, Judge Bruguera brings extensive experience across trials, motions, settlement conferences, mediations, arbitrations, discovery refereeing, umpire work, and partition proceedings, along with deep knowledge of real estate investments, limited liability companies, contract interpretation, insurance coverage, and related financial disputes.

• Dispute arising from the sale and purchase of a large, single-family home. Purchasers claimed that seller fraudulently, intentionally, and negligently failed to disclose the next-door neighbors’ annoying, disturbing, and oppressive behavior, which prevented his neighbors from the quiet enjoyment of their home.

• Dispute regarding allegations by a homeowner who claimed that a neighbor gave no notice of when the neighbor’s excavation would begin, no notice of the depth of the excavation, and no notice of the manner in which the excavation would be performed. The homeowner alleged that his home and property were damaged as a result of the excavation.

• Dispute raised by easement holder alleging that the property owner committed trespass and maintained a nuisance, and asserting that the easement holder was entitled to a prescriptive easement.

• Dispute regarding calculation of the standard commercial retail lease common area maintenance (CAM) payments, and payment of additional charges. Lessor alleged that the tenant agreed to pay annual lease payment increases, property tax, insurance, operations, maintenance, and repairs. The tenant experienced difficulties with a sub-tenant, a portion of which difficulties the tenant attributed to the lessor.

• Dispute regarding abandonment of leased premises by tenant, who, during the term of the lease, turned off the utilities, vacated the premises, stopped making payments, and turned over the keys to the lessor. The tenant accused the lessor of constructive eviction and fraud.

• Dispute in which the purchaser of a residence alleged that the seller failed to disclose prior structural damage to the residence.

• Dispute regarding allegations of a homeowner that his neighbor failed to exercise reasonable care in excavating adjacent property, deprived the homeowner’s property of lateral support, and caused land subsidence, thereby damaging the property and the home thereon.

• Dispute regarding commercial lease when tenant sub-let a portion of the premises without the lessor’s written approval as required by the lease.