Considered Opinions

We know Manuel was born in 1972, most likely in Oaxaca, Mexico, but we have no evidence of him being in California until 2001, which is presumably when he began working in the tree maintenance business as Huerta’s Tree Service and Development. He might also have lived in Southern California and in the Central Valleys of California, but the record is not clear about that. We have been led to believe that he is in this country as an illegal alien, but we have no evidence that would substantiate that.

He currently owns a house in San Jose, where he lives, which has multiple Federal and State liens against it totaling ~$200k, plus almost a dozen other outstanding liens. Zillow estimates the market value to be $1.2 million, with around half a million in mortgage balance and selling costs. There is an interesting UCC filing dealing with the house involving Manuel and Felix Huerta (alias Noel Felix), suggesting other financial irregularities. There is also evidence that he lived at 1191 Fritzen St, San Jose, and 555 McLaughlin Ave, San Jose, but we have no further information about those locations.

The business seems to have flourished for 20 years before beginning a slow downward trajectory in the 2024/25 timeframe. Since that time, we continued trying to help his financial situation with repeated attempts to contract our tree service projects with Huerta, but his rates had become noncompetitive; i.e., this Text from Thursday, Mar 12 · 9:53 AM.

“Please tell Manuel that I would like to give him all of my business. I would even pay a little more, just to preserve the relationship, but I cannot justify paying 40% more.”

He began bouncing rent checks to us in November 2025, so in February 2026, we made an appointment with Manuel and Estefani (assistant) to express our concern and ask how we might be able to help with his growing financial problems. His response was that he would start applying more pressure on his “vendors” (his word for his salesmen), and that he intended to start accompanying them to be sure they were quoting the jobs correctly. Subsequently, we learned that his contractor’s license (948403 )had already been suspended at that time, due to a lapse in payment of his workers’ comp insurance, which had been canceled on multiple occasions in the past. We are led to believe that he is allegedly operating under an associate’s license (1042889), which shows Huerta is no longer associated with that business.

The record shows a pattern of sequential “shell” companies, existing only on paper, the most recent one being Calioax Tree Service, which Manuel admitted was intended to divert some financial difficulties. Most recently, he has written us two bad rent checks and been late paying on three others, including the most recent for April 2026.

See the complete background check for more details.