Pacific Gas Radiator Co. v. Superior Court

California Court of Appeal Dec 11, 1924 No. Docket No. 4795.Published

Before: Craig

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Holding. The court held that Section 981a of the Code of Civil Procedure, which mandates the dismissal of justice court appeals not brought to trial within one year, is constitutional and requires the dismissal of pending appeals even when court congestion makes compliance impossible.

Issues

Whether Section 981a of the Code of Civil Procedure is constitutional as applied to appeals pending at the time of its enactment.
Whether the superior court is required to dismiss an appeal under Section 981a when court calendar congestion prevents the case from being tried within the one-year statutory period.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“Since section 981a cannot be construed otherwise than as taking away the appellate jurisdiction of the superior court in this case, and as the language of the statute is clear and express in its command that the action be dismissed”

“relief from the apparent injustice resulting from the application of this statute must be provided by the legislature, but it cannot be given by the courts.”

CRAIG, J.

The petitioner herein attacks by

certiorari

an order of the superior court of Los Angeles County, dismissing its appeal from a judgment rendered in the justice’s court of Santa Monica township. The record on appeal was filed in the superior court on May 28, 1923, and on August 30, 1923, at the instance of petitioner, the case was set to be tried July 2, 1924. On June 3, 1924, the plaintiff below moved to dismiss the appeal because it had not been brought to trial within one year from the date upon which it was filed, as required by section 981a of the Code of Civil Procedure, which became effective June 14, 1923. It appears that the superior court set the trial in its regular course for the earliest date available under the congested condition of its calendars.

Section 981a of the Code of Civil Procedure reads as follows :

“An act to add a new section to the Code of Civil Procedure, to be numbered nine hundred eighty-one

relating to dismissal of appeal.

“No action heretofore or hereafter appealed from the justice court to the superior court, shall be further prosecuted, and no further proceedings shall be had therein, and all such actions heretofore, or hereafter appealed, must be

[202]

dismissed by the court to which the same shall have been appealed, on its own motion, or on the motion of any party interested therein, whether named in the complaint as a party or not, where the appealing party fails to bring such appeal to trial within one year from the date of filing such appeal in said superior court, unless such time be otherwise extended by a written stipulation by the parties to the action filed wdth the clerk of the superior court to which the appeal is taken;

provided,

however, that in any appeal pending when this section takes effect, a judgment or dismissal shall not be entered under the direction hereof sooner than January first, 1924; and

Pacific Gas Radiator Co. v. Superior Court

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CRAIG, J.

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