Sanchez v. City of Los Angeles

• Decision Date: 19 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. B157711.,B157711.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Frances SANCHEZ et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al., Defendants and Respondents.

135 Cal.Rptr.2d 869

109 Cal.App.4th 1262

Frances SANCHEZ et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al., Defendants and Respondents.

No. B157711.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3.

June 19, 2003.

Rehearing Denied July 9, 2003.

Review Denied September 10, 2003.

Law Offices of Gary S. Casselman, Gary S. Casselman, Los Angeles; Esner & Chang, Stuart B. Esner, Los Angeles, and Andrew N. Chang, Oakland, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Rockard J. Delgadillo, City Attorney, Katherine J. Hamilton, Assistant City Attorney, for Defendants and Respondents City of Los Angeles and Jose Chavez.

Law Offices of Atkins & Evans, Irwin S. Evans, Los Angeles, and Jonathan R. Ivy for Defendant and Respondent Vincent Balderrama.

CROSKEY, Acting P.J.

Plaintiffs and appellants Frances Sanchez and Anthony Sanchez (collectively, plaintiffs) appeal an order dismissing their action against defendants and respondents City of Los Angeles (City), Jose Chavez (Chavez) and Vincent Balderrama (Balderrama) (collectively, defendants) for failure to bring the action to trial within the mandatory five-year period. (Code Civ. Proc., § 583.310.)¹,² The essential issue presented is whether the death of defendant Balderrama's attorney made it impracticable for plaintiffs to bring the action to trial within five years.

This record demonstrates that there was no causal connection between the circumstances upon which plaintiffs are relying and their failure to bring the action to trial within five years. Indeed, it is clear that the reason plaintiffs did not bring the action to trial within five years was that their counsel had mistakenly calculated the expiration of that statutory period. Further, the death of defense counsel did not result in a situation of impracticability over which plaintiffs had no control. Nothing prevented the plaintiffs from seeking the setting of a trial date within the five-year period in the event defendants refused to stipulate to an extension of time. Instead, plaintiffs simply acquiesced in the setting of a trial date beyond the five-year mark without securing a stipulation to extend the statutory period.

For these reasons, we perceive no abuse of discretion in the trial court's rejection of plaintiffs' claim of impracticability and affirm the order of dismissal.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. Activity During The First Four And A Half Years.

On January 10, 1997, Frances Sanchez and Anthony Sanchez, the parents of decedent Joseph Daniel Sanchez (decedent), filed a complaint for damages against the City and police officers Chavez and Balderrama, alleging causes of action for wrongful death, negligent hiring, training and supervision, and violations of civil rights. The complaint alleged that decedent had been a passenger in a car on July 21, 1996, when officers Balderrama and Chavez opened fire on the vehicle and fatally shot him.

At a status conference on May 6, 1997, a trial date of December 3, 1997 was scheduled, with a trial estimate of 10 days. On October 1, 1997, plaintiffs filed a motion for disclosure of peace officer personnel records. On October 6, 1997, trial was continued to June 3, 1998. On October 17, 1997, Gary Casselman associated in as plaintiffs' counsel. The June 3, 1998 trial date was vacated and a trial setting conference was scheduled for June 17, 1998.

On May 15, 1998, plaintiffs filed an additional motion for peace officer records. At the June 17, 1998 trial setting conference, a new trial date was scheduled for January 6, 1999, with a final status conference set for December 17, 1998. On November 3, 1998, plaintiffs filed a motion to continue the trial date, as well as another motion to compel peace officer records. Defendants opposed a continuance of the trial date. On December 15, 1998, the trial court denied plaintiffs' motion for a trial continuance and their motion to compel. Plaintiffs then filed an ex parte application to continue the trial. Thereafter, on January 6, 1999, the trial date, plaintiffs filed a motion for trial continuance on the basis of counsel's illness. The trial court placed the case on a trailing status, trailed until January 11, 1999.

On January 11, 1999, plaintiffs filed an ex parte application for production of photographs and peace officer records. On January 13, 1999, plaintiffs filed ex parte applications to continue the trial, amend their complaint, shorten time and for production of forensic materials from the shooting investigation. On plaintiffs' motion, the trial date was vacated and trailed until February 10, 1999, to hear the various motions. On February 10, 1999, the trial date was vacated. Thereafter, a trial setting conference was set for April 8, 1999, Because the plaintiffs amended their complaint, the trial setting conference was moved to May 28,1999.

On April 22, 1999, the plaintiffs filed a renewed motion to compel peace officer records. On May 28, 1999, a jury trial was calendared for October 27, 1999, and a final status conference was set for October 15, 1999. On October 27, 1999, after plaintiffs submitted a witness list in support of long cause designation, with a trial estimate of 25 days, the case was transferred to Central Civil West, with a status conference for December 16, 1999. Additional status conferences followed. From March through July of 2000, plaintiffs' counsel was engaged in a trial in federal court. On October 17, 2000, the Law Offices of Johnnie Cochran associated in on behalf of plaintiffs, to try the case. On October 18, 2000, due to a conflict which prevented the city attorney's office from representing Balderrama, he received independent counsel, Barry Levin (Levin). The long cause trial package was not completed until May 2001. On May 22, 2001, the case was sent to the branch court in Compton for trial. Thereafter, on July 2, 2001, a trial date was scheduled for September 18, 2001.

2. Procedural History Of The Final Six Months.

On July 7, 2001, Levin, Balderrama's attorney, committed suicide. Shortly thereafter, the Law Offices of Irwin & Evans (Evans) substituted in on Balderrama's behalf. The parties stipulated to continue trial, with a requested trial date of December 18, 2001.

On September 25, 2001, the trial court and the parties participated in a conference call. The trial court inquired how long the parties required to prepare for trial. Based on information provided by the parties, as well as to allow sufficient time to transfer Levin's files to Evans's office and to enable Evans to become familiar with them, and to meet the court's calendar concerns, the trial court set a final status conference for January 17, 2002, with trial to commence on January 29, 2002. Nobody alerted the trial court that those dates were beyond the five-year mark of January 10, 2002.

On January 16, 2002, one day before the final status conference, defense counsel for all the defendants initiated a conference call to plaintiffs' counsel, requesting a trial continuance. Defense counsel stated a continuance was necessary because Evans had not yet received all of Levin's files and was not ready to proceed to trial.

On January 17, 2002, a final status conference was held in chambers. During the conference, plaintiffs' counsel indicated he believed the five-year period would expire sometime in June or July of 2002. The trial court then checked the file, saw that the original complaint was filed January 10, 1997, and according to defense counsel, the trial court "was absolutely dumbfounded at that point."

3. Defendants' Motion For Dismissal Under The Five-Year Statute.

Defendants promptly filed a motion to dismiss the action under the five-year statute, arguing the failure to bring the action to trial within five years was due to the erroneous belief of plaintiffs' counsel that the five years would not expire until June or July of 2002. Defendants pointed out that on September 25, 2001, when the trial court set a trial date of January 29, 2002, plaintiffs failed to alert the trial court to the chronology of the case and acquiesced in a trial date beyond the five-year mark. Defendants also argued that, leaving aside the plaintiffs' silence at the September 25, 2001 trial setting conference, there was, as of that date, still ample time thereafter to advance the trial date pursuant to a motion under California Rules of Court, rule 375 (rule 375). Defendants contended that plaintiffs' inadvertence did not qualify as impracticability, impossibility or futility for purposes of tolling the five-year statute.

In opposition, plaintiffs argued the five-year statute was tolled on the grounds of impracticability, impossibility or futility because Levin's suicide on July 7, 2001, caused the September 18, 2001 trial date to be vacated, and resulted in several months of delay in selecting replacement counsel, providing new counsel with Levin's files and bringing him up to speed on the case.

4. Trial Court's Ruling.

On February 7, 2002, after hearing the matter, the trial court granted defendant's dismissal motion, stating: "I don't think that the issue in this case is whether or not it would be impracticable, impossible or futile to bring to trial within the period of time within which Mr. Levin's death occurred and new counsel was brought in and got properly prepared. I think the real issue is whether or not it's impossible, impracticable or futile to bring the case to trial within the five years, and I don't think in this case that we have that situation because as I stated yesterday when we came—I said I had reviewed the minute orders in this case, and at the telephone conference that was held on September 25th when this matter was discussed and the trial dates were selected had—Mr. Casselman, had it been brought to the court's attention or if you had in any way complied with [rule] 375 ... asking the case be advanced this case could have been brought to trial within the five-year period. The only...