In Gaines v. Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, a 5-2 Supreme Court today holds that the parties’ agreement to “stay” proceedings while they mediate the case did not toll the five-year period during which a civil case must be brought to trial.
The majority opinion written by Justice Carol Corrigan concludes that a superior court order — entered based on the parties’ agreement — that struck the trial date “did not effect a complete stay” and did not “create a circumstance of impracticability because plaintiff agreed to it, remained in control of the circumstances, and made meaningful progress towards resolving the case during the stay period.”
Justice Leondra Kruger dissents, joined by Justice Goodwin Liu. (That dissent and a concurring opinion also filed today are, we believe, the first separate opinions Justice Kruger has written.) According to Justices Kruger and Liu, the majority improperly “reward[s] plaintiff for working cooperatively with an opposing party by depriving her of her day in court.”
The court affirms the Second District, Division Eight, Court of Appeal. Like the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal issued a divided opinion. Justice Laurence Rubin’s dissent included an extended discussion of the abuse of discretion standard of review by appellate courts. (The Supreme Court majority today says that it’s not interested in revisiting that issue.) Because the Supreme Court’s grant of review automatically depublished the Court of Appeal’s opinion — under the rule as currently written — that discussion will not appear in the official reports and, for the most part, will not be citeable.