Omni Aviation Managers, Inc. v. Municipal Court

Opinion

KAUS, P. J.

Writ proceeding. The Municipal Court for the Los Angeles Judicial District appeals from a judgment of the superior court which ordered the municipal court to hear a case within the jurisdiction of the municipal court.

[684]

Facts

The facts are undisputed. Petitioner filed an action, Omni Aviation Managers, Inc. v. Hansen, et al., in the superior court seeking damages in the amount of $5,159. The complaint was later amended to reduce the damages sought to $4,319.

1

Hansen, one of defendants in that action answered and filed a cross-complaint for legal malpractice against parties other than petitioner-plaintiff, seeking damages in excess of $25,000. Plaintiff’s motion to sever the complaint from the cross-complaint was granted in November 1973. In April 1974 the superior court ordered that the complaint be transferred to the municipal court, defendant Hansen having stipulated that the written motion for such transfer was well taken. In October 1974 the case was tried and both sides filed briefs at the court’s request. In December 1974 the municipal court ordered the case off calendar for lack of jurisdiction and ordered that it be retransferred to the superior court. Plaintiff then petitioned the superior court for a writ of mandamus, which, though contested by the municipal court, was granted.

Discussion

Code of Civil Procedure section 1048, subdivision (b), provides that the court “may order a separate trial of any cause of action, including a cause of action asserted in a cross-complaint, . . .” The municipal court does not dispute that the superior court properly severed the complaint from the cross-complaint in this action.

As a result of the severance, two actions were then pending in the superior court; the complaint with a prayer of $4,319 and the former cross-complaint against third parties. (See

National Electric Supply Co.

v.