California Casualty Insurance v. Appellate Department

Opinion

EPSTEIN, J.

This is a small case, as cases go, but it raises a significant principle: judges, including appellate judges, are required to follow the law. In this case, the Appellate Department of the Los Angeles Superior Court decided a case on a point not raised by the parties, and without notice to the parties that it might do so. When this oversight was pointed out by a petition for rehearing, the court denied the petition. The losing party has sought relief before this court. We are satisfied that relief must be granted.

Factual and Procedural Summary

The underlying lawsuit arose out of a three-car accident, and the basic facts were settled by stipulation:

Michael David Chelette (real party in interest here) was southbound on the San Diego Freeway near Rosecrans in the No. 1 lane. For some unknown reason his vehicle began to lose power. He therefore proceeded to get off the freeway by changing lanes. Plaintiff’s insured, Ms. Hiser, was southbound on the San Diego Freeway in the No. 2 lane. She saw Chelette signal and change lanes and slowed her vehicle so that he could do so. Chelette then continued to change to the No. 3 lane and was entering the No. 4 lane. Defendant Dennis was also southbound on the San Diego in the No. 4 lane and rear-ended Chelette. This caused Dennis to lose control of her vehicle and she veered into the No. 2 lane in front of plaintiff’s insured, causing a collision.

Two California Highway Patrol officers completed a report of the accident. In it, one of them, Officer Bryan, said that Dennis had caused the

[1148]

accident by driving at an unsafe speed, allowing her vehicle to rear-end the vehicle driven by Chelette.

Petitioner California Casualty Insurance Company insured Ms. Hiser. It apparently paid her claim and brought a proceeding in subrogation, in the Inglewood Municipal Court, against those it considered responsible for the accident: Dennis and Chelette. Dennis suffered a default, and petitioner proceeded by prove-up against her. There was a contested trial as to Chelette.

At the court trial, Chelette called Officer Bryan. He testified to his opinion that Chelette had acted reasonably, and that if he had brought his vehicle into the center divider, as petitioner apparently had argued he should have done, he would have created a more hazardous condition than those that prevailed. Most significantly for purpose of our review, Officer Bryan testified that, in his opinion, Chelette did not violate Vehicle Code section 21658, subdivision (a). That statute requires that “[a] vehicle shall be driven as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane and shall not be moved from the lane until such movement can be made with reasonable safety."