Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in Olympic and Georgia Partners, LLC v. County of Los Angeles and People v. Aguirre. (Briefs here; oral argument videos here and here.)
The Olympic and Georgia Partners case is expected to address these issues: (1) Is income from a hotel occupancy tax rebate an intangible asset exempt from property taxation? (2) Is a “key money” deposit that a hotel received from its management companies at the onset of their contractual relationship exempt from property taxation? (3) Were certain other hotel enterprise assets properly valued for taxation purposes? The court granted review in July 2023. More about the case here.
Aguirre is an automatic direct appeal from an August 2009 judgment of death. Counsel was appointed (on the court’s own motion, with the comment that “a criminal defendant has no right to represent himself or herself on appeal”) in November 2012. Initial briefing was completed in April 2019. Supplemental briefing was completed in September 2024.
Olympic and Georgia Partners and Aguirre were argued in June and will be the last opinions of the 2024-2025 term, which ends Sunday. However, there will still be opinions outstanding in seven other cases that were argued during the term.
Because of post-argument briefing, opinions in those seven cases will file outside the usual 90-day period: Taking Offense v. State of California, argued in early May, and Los Angeles Police Protective League v. City of Los Angeles, argued in late May, could be decided as late as November 10 (see here); the death penalty appeal opinions in People v. Bankston, argued in early May, People v. Chhuon and Pan, argued in late May, and People v. Barrera, argued in June, might not file until January 12, 2026 (see here); the People v. Cardenas death penalty appeal, argued in late May, could be decided as late as September 15; and the opinion in People v. Superior Court (Guevara), argued in June, might not file until October 9.
The Olympic and Georgia Partners and Aguirre opinions can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.
