Ferrer

On the date scheduled for the hearing on a defense motion to suppress evidence under Penal Code section 1538.5, the trial court denied a prosecution motion to continue the hearing under section 1050 because proper notice of the motion had not been provided and no good cause existed for the failure to provide notice or for the continuance itself. Because the prosecution was unable to proceed, the court ordered the evidence suppressed. Lacking the suppressed evidence, the prosecution announced it could no longer successfully prosecute the case, and the trial court dismissed the action.

The trial court erred in refusing to continue the hearing. Sections 1050 and 1050.5 prohibit the dismissal of an action due to the absence of good cause for a continuance or for the prosecutor’s failure to provide proper notice of a request for a continuance. Although the trial court did not dismiss the action as an express sanction for the failure to show good cause, dismissal was the reasonably foreseeable result of denial of the motion to continue. Cases involving requests for continuances in the preliminary hearing and trial contexts support a conclusion that the Legislature did not…