Client Inches Nearer to Victory as Newsom Signs New Law

A family represented by Munger, Tolles & Olson Partner George C. Fatheree III got closer on Thursday to recovering the property in Manhattan Beach it lost nearly 100 years ago.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 796 into law, paving the way for Los Angeles County to return the property to the Bruce family on September 30. The same day, Munger Tolles’ client Anthony Bruce, described the racially motivated harassment his great-great-grandparents faced and how their property, Bruce’s Beach was taken through eminent domain in 1924, in an opinion piece published September 30 in the Los Angeles Times.

The Bruces’ losses are irreversible but returning the property is important, Fatheree said. “Returning the property strengthens the legitimacy of our democratic institutions,” he said. “When our elected officials use their political power to redress a wrong, we collectively make a deposit in the bank of moral authority, reinforcing and fortifying the legitimacy of our governmental institutions.”

Munger Tolles Partners David Goldman and Mike Soloff are also representing the Bruce family along with Associate Andrew Lewis and Staff Attorney Mark Griffin.