People v. Superior Court (Hall)

By a petition, for writ of mandate and prohibition, the People seek to vacate an order denying their motion to disqualify a superior court judge pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6. We issued an alternative writ of mandate to resolve the issue of whether the motion was timely filed.

Section 170.6 sets forth a procedure by which a party or attorney for a party may move to disqualify a judge. The motion must be supported by an affidavit to the effect that the judge is prejudiced against the party or his attorney so that the party cannot, or believes he cannot, obtain an impartial trial. If the motion is timely and in proper form, the judge must recuse himself and the case must be reassigned to another judge. (Solberg v. Superior Court (1977) 19 Cal.3d 182 [ 137 Cal.Rptr. 460 , 561 P.2d 1148 ].) A party is limited to one such motion.

As a general rule, a motion pursuant to section 170.6 may be made at any time prior to commencement of the trial or hearing. There are two exceptions to this general rule. First, “[w]here the judge, court commissioner, or referee assigned to or who is scheduled to try the cause or hear the matter is known at least 10 days before…