Oliveros

In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether the trial court erred in denying the request of defendant County of Los Angeles (County) for a trial continuance due to the engagement of its attorney in another trial. We conclude that it did, and so reverse the judgment.

FACTS

Plaintiff Veronica Oliveros suffered a brain injury following open-heart surgery at Harbor General-UCLA Medical Center. Mrs. Oliveros and her husband, Jesus Oliveros (together, plaintiffs) filed the present action for medical malpractice, products liability, loss of services, and loss of consortium against the County, as well as individually named doctors and nurses.

Plaintiffs attribute Mrs. Oliveros’s injuries to the County’s negligence in failing to promptly replace her respiratory tube after it became dislodged the morning after her surgery. According to plaintiffs, Mrs. Oliveros’s blood-oxygen level became dangerously low once the respiratory tube was removed, causing permanent brain damage. The County and its physicians contend that Mrs. Oliveros was already breathing on her own when the respiratory tube became dislodged. They attribute her brain damage to air bubbles introduced into her…

I respectfully dissent because: the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it granted a six-day continuance to allow defendant, one of the largest public entities in the nation, the opportunity to have its counsel, a large law firm which had chosen to set too many cases for trial, time to get ready to try the case (Gov. Code, § 68607; Cal. Rules of Court, rule 375 (amended Jan. 1, 2004); former Cal. Stds. Jud. Admin. § 9 (repealed Jan. 1, 2004); Estate of Meeker (1993) 13 Cal.App.4th 1099, 1105 [ 16 Cal.Rptr.2d 825 ]); defendant has failed to demonstrate a reasonable probability of a more favorable result had the case been further delayed (Cal. Const, art. VI, § 13; People v. Sewell (1978) 20 Cal.3d 639, 646 [ 143 Cal.Rptr. 879 , 574 P.2d 1231 ] [failure to show a reasonable probability of a different result when a continuance was denied in a triple murder case]); defendant’s inexcusable failure to even send a single lawyer to attend the trial forfeits all of their claims; and because defense counsel made the deliberate strategic decision not to appear at the trial, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the request for relief under any of the provisions of…

In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether the trial court erred in denying the request of defendant County of Los Angeles (County) for a trial continuance due to the engagement of its attorney in another trial. We conclude that it did, and so reverse the judgment.

Plaintiff Veronica Oliveros suffered a brain injury following open-heart surgery at Harbor General-UCLA Medical Center. Mrs. Oliveros and her husband, Jesus Oliveros (together, plaintiffs) filed the present action for medical malpractice, products liability, loss of services, and loss of consortium against the County, as well as individually named doctors and nurses.

Plaintiffs attribute Mrs. Oliveros's injuries to the County's negligence in failing to promptly replace her respiratory tube after it became dislodged the morning after her surgery. According to plaintiffs, Mrs. Oliveros's blood-oxygen level became dangerously low once the respiratory tube was removed, causing permanent brain damage. The County and its physicians contend that Mrs. Oliveros was already breathing on her own when the respiratory tube became dislodged. They attribute her brain damage to air bubbles introduced into her…