Bank of America v. Superior Court

Statement of the Case

Petitioners seek a writ of prohibition and/or mandamus directing the Stanislaus County Superior Court sitting as a coordination trial court to vacate its order specially setting the case for trial and to dismiss the action for failure to bring it to trial within five years as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 583.360. Real party in interest claims the statutory five-year period for bringing the action to trial was extended for two hundred twenty-five days by (1) an order staying depositions in another action filed in El Dorado County which was later coordinated with this case and (2) by an automatic stay of the proceedings under the California Rules of Court governing the coordination of civil actions filed in different courts. (Rule 1501 et seq.)

The basic issue in this case is whether the statutory five-year rule for bringing civil actions to trial applies to coordinated actions, and, if so, whether the statutory time was tolled or otherwise extended by law so that the coordination trial judge had the authority to set the case for trial beyond the five-year period.

We conclude the statutory five-year period applies to coordinated…