Tatum v. Kaplan CA2/2

Filed 11/30/22 Tatum v. Kaplan CA2/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THOMAS T. TATUM et al., B311869

Plaintiffs and (Los Angeles County Respondents, Super. Ct. No. 20STCV08112)

v.

JEFFREY A. KAPLAN, individually and as trustee, etc.,

Defendant, Movant and Appellant,

DONNA L. KAPLAN,

Defendant and Respondent.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Christopher K. Lui, Judge. Affirmed. Lang, Hanigan & Carvalho and Arthur Carvalho, Jr., for Defendant, Movant, and Appellant.

Freedman + Taitelman, Bryan J. Freedman and Sean M. Hardy for Plaintiffs and Respondents. PB Law Group, Luan K. Phan and Jody M. Borrelli for Defendant and Respondent.

******

Defendant, movant and appellant Jeffrey A. Kaplan (Jeffrey),1 individually and in his capacity as the purported trustee of the interests of his former spouse, defendant and respondent Donna L. Kaplan (Donna), appeals from the trial court’s order denying his motion to intervene and substitute in Donna’s stead in this action brought by plaintiffs and respondents Thomas T. Tatum (Tatum) and Tatum Family Investments, LLC (TFI),2 against Jeffrey and Donna as individuals. We affirm the trial court’s order.

BACKGROUND The parties jointly own interests in certain business entities (the Partnership Entities) that are the subject of a

1 Because Jeffrey and Donna share the same surname, we refer to them by their first names to avoid confusion; we mean no disrespect. 2 Tatum and Claudia Tatum (Claudia), divorced in 2003. In May 2003, one-half of the interests in the Partnership Entities that are the subject of the Buy/Sell Agreement at issue was transferred to Claudia. Upon Claudia’s death, her interests in the Partnership Entities were divided equally and distributed among six subtrusts for the benefit of her three children. TFI holds the interests of those six subtrusts. Tatum and TFI are referred to collectively as plaintiffs.