Polibrid Coatings, Inc. v. Superior Court

[922]

Opinion

SILLS, P. J.

I

SSC Construction contracted with a water authority to build a water reclamation plant. It subcontracted with a painter, KNK Painting, to do the paint and waterproofing work. (Wastewater is apparently highly corrosive, so the interior coating of a tank must be good.) In October 2001 SSC sued KNK Painting for defective and dilatory work on the reclamation project.

More than 14 months later, in January 2003, KNK Painting filed an amended cross-complaint naming Polibrid Coatings, a paint manufacturer, and Polibrid’s distributor Carboline, as cross-defendants for equitable indemnity. The theory was that they had supplied defective paint for the project. Polibrid was served in mid-January 2003. That meant it was brought into the case more than one year and two months after the complaint was filed.

Polibrid filed its answer in late March 2003. At that point trial was set for June 30, 2003.

In early May 2003, Polibrid filed an ex parte motion to speed up the hearing on a motion to continue the trial (and push back the discovery cut-off dates). It succeeded in having the motion to continue set for May 30, 2003. By oral argument on that date, Polibrid’s counsel had gained some information to the effect that it wasn’t Polibrid’s paint after all that had been used in the project. (As he told the court, “Our client did not manufacture the primer product that is at issue.”) Accordingly, Polibrid sought a

six-month

continuance of trial to give it adequate time to do sufficient discovery to prepare and schedule a timely summary judgment motion. (Under recent amendments to section 437c of the Code of Civil Procedure, scheduling a summary judgment motion requires considerable preplanning: Subdivision (a) of the statute requires no less than a 75-day notice of motion, and also that the motion be scheduled so that it is heard no less than 30 days prior to trial. That doesn’t count the time needed to properly prepare such a motion.)

Polibrid got a continuance of the trial, but not one long enough to bring a summary judgment motion. The trial court continued trial from June 30 to October 14, which was only four months. (Polibrid also was given its own discovery cut-off date based on the new trial date.) Despite the fact that Polibrid was served more than 14 months into the case, the trial court felt bound by the so-called Fast Track rules to put an outside limit of two years from the filing date to the trial. (Rule 208(b) of the California Rules of Court states that “The goal of the court is to manage general civil cases from filing to disposition as provided under sections 2.1 and 2.3 of the California Standards of Judicial Administration.” Section 2.1(c)(3) of the California Standards of Judicial Administration states in pertinent part: “Each superior court should process general civil cases to meet the following goals: [][]... H] (3) After January 1, 1991, all cases should be disposed within two years of filing.”)