Lopez

Defendant and respondent State of California (State) moved for discretionary dismissal of plaintiffs’ action for failure to prosecute. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss. We affirm.

Factual Background

The incident giving rise to this action occurred in August of 1989. Plaintiffs filed their complaint for damages alleging wrongful death of an inmate at the California Rehabilitation Center-Norco on July 13, 1990. The State filed its answer on September 24,1990. In January and March of 1991, plaintiffs served one set of inspection demands and one set of special interrogatories. The State responded to these discovery requests. The State propounded form interrogatories in February 1991, but there is no record that plaintiffs responded. In January 1992, plaintiffs’ original counsel made a motion to withdraw based upon plaintiffs’ failure to communicate. The court granted the motion in an order dated March 4, 1992.

There was no activity in the case from March 4, 1992, to the date of filing of the motion to dismiss in November of 1994, except a change of address notice on the part of the State and a case management conference on August 12, 1994.

The State moved to…