Depretto v. Superior Court

Opinion

SMITH, J.

Petitioner, plaintiff in a personal injury action, seeks relief by writ of mandate to compel respondent superior court to set aside its order of November 4, 1980, which transferred her action from the superior court to the municipal court. The order was made after petitioner’s action had been submitted to arbitration pursuant to the provisions of Code of Civil Procedure section 1141.11, subdivision (a),

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an award of damages in the sum of $6,000 had been made, petitioner had requested a trial de nova pursuant to the provisions of section 1141.20, and settlement negotiations had proved unsuccessful. We have concluded that petitioner is entitled to relief: the order deprives petitioner of her right to establish damages within the jurisdiction of the superior court.

(Davis

v.

Superior Court

(1972) 25 Cal.App.3d 596, 600-601 [102 Cal.Rptr. 238].)

On September 1, 1978, when petitioner filed her complaint for damages with the superior court, the monetary jurisdiction of the municipal court was $5,000 (former § 89, now § 86). By amendment (Stats. 1978, ch. 146, § 1, operative July 1, 1979), $15,000 was substituted for $5,000 wherever it appeared in the statute and subdivision (d) was added. Subdivision (d) provides that “Changes in the jurisdictional ceilings made by amendments to this section at the 1977-78 Regular Session of the Legislature shall not constitute a basis for the transfer to another court of any case pending at the time such changes become operative.”

Petitioner alleges in her petition that she filed her action in the superior court in good faith, believing that her causes of action had a

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value well in excess of $5,000, the then minimum jurisdictional limit of the superior court. Petitioner further alleges that she was compelled to arbitrate by the provisions of Code of Civil Procedure section 1141.11, subdivision (a),

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