San Bernardino City Unified School District v. Superior Court
Opinion
Opinion
Hews, J.
By this proceeding, petitioners seek a writ of mandate directing respondent court to vacate its order denying their motion to set a cross-complaint for trial before the expiration of the three-year period allowed for that purpose by Code of Civil Procedure section 583.320, subdivision (a)(3).
We issued an alternative writ of mandate and stayed the trial until compliance with the alternative writ or until further order of this court. We now examine the totality of the relevant circumstances to determine if respondent’s denial of the motion was an abuse of discretion. We conclude that it was not.
Facts
The facts leading to the motion are not in dispute and may be briefly summarized as follows. The action commenced on the filing of a complaint for personal injuries by plaintiff John Turner against the San Bernardino Unified School District (District). Turner was injured in an accident while building bleachers at a school site. He was employed by the contractor Russell & Williams. Early in the proceedings, his claim was settled for $387,940 by the District and United Pacific, its liability insurance carrier, the petitioners herein.