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Issue: Under California law, is promissory fraud actionable if the defendant made material misrepresentations with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the statements he makes?
| Area of Law: | Litigation & Procedure, Personal Injury & Negligence |
| Keywords: | Promissory fraud; Material misrepresentations |
| Jurisdiction: | California |
| Cited Cases: | 15 Cal. 4th 951 |
| Cited Statutes: | None |
| Date: | 09/01/2000 |
Promissory fraud is actionable if the defendant made material misrepresentations with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the statements he makes. See A s "Yellow Creek Logging, 216 Cal. App. 2d at 55" c 1 l "Yellow Creek Logging, 216 Cal. App. 2d at 55"Yellow Creek Logging Corp. v. Dare (1963) 216 Cal. App. 2d at 55; A s "Engalla v. Permanente Med. Group, Inc. (1997) 15 C" c 1 l "Engalla v. Permanente Med. Group, Inc. (1997) 15 Cal. 4th 951"Engalla v. Permanente Med. Group, Inc. (1997) 15 Cal. 4th 951, 974-75. A defendant who promises something without making any effort to learn the objective facts certainly acts recklessly, even if he claims to have subjectively believed what he said at the time he said it. See A s "Engalla v. Permanente Med. Group, Inc. (1997) 15 C" c 1Engalla, 15 Cal. 4th at 975.
A defendant who makes material misstatements of fact with no reasonable basis for believing what he has said is just as guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation as the speaker who deliberately lies. See A s "Yellow Creek Logging Corp. v. Dare (1963) 216 Cal. A" c 0Yellow Creek Logging, 216 Cal. App. 2d at 55. In some ways, the reckless person is more dangerous than the calculating liar, for his or her response when called to account is to deny responsibility, claiming, "Well, I thought it was true," while the victim of the misstatement […]