Shernoff

Petitioners, plaintiffs in a class action for damages against numerous California title insurers on allegations of a conspiracy to fix title insurance rates, seek a writ of mandate to compel the superior court to dissolve a stay of proceedings issued in April 1973 several months after the filing of the complaint.

The superior court premised its stay on a theory of primary jurisdiction, a theory which assumed that for reasons of comity the Insurance Commissioner should, be given the first opportunity to act on the rate-fixing allegations. Simultaneously with the stay, the superior court overruled the title insurers’ general demurrer, thereby rejecting their argument that because of petitioners’ failure to exhaust administrative remedies the court lacked jurisdiction over the action. (E. B. Ackerman Importing Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 61 Cal.2d 595, 600 [ 39 Cal.Rptr. 726 , 394 P.2d 566 ].) Thereafter in August 1973, petitioners submitted a formal complaint to the Insurance Commissioner charging rate-fixing by the title insurers.

In April 1974 the superior court renewed its stay pending a further review 150 days thence if the commissioner had not acted by that time:…