Davidson

J.Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will. Petitioners Elbert Ernest Davidson and Edward Warkentine have had more than a taste of Murphy’s Law in this case, which sports a complex and jumbled procedural history spanning over 10 years. Briefly stated, the petitioners run a junkyard establishment on their property. The City of Mendota filed a lawsuit to make them clean it up. A purported settlement was reached which was signed by petitioners’ then attorney and the City of Mendota’s attorney, but not by the petitioners. It was presented ex parte to a judge, who signed a judgment confirming the settlement.

Later, when there were compliance problems followed by contempt allegations, petitioners claimed, among other things, that their attorney (who coincidentally by this time was now the city attorney for the City of Mendota) never had authority to bind them to the settlement agreement. They also complained their attorney had fraudulently concealed a conflict of interest which they had not waived.

*517 Matters looked like they might come to a head on April 7, 1992, which was the date set for the contempt action and a motion to rescind the judgment.…

I respectfully dissent.

As I shall explain, (1) the stipulated judgment in issue in this case is not invalid or void, and its violation may form the basis for a judgment of contempt against these petitioners, and (2) Mr. Elbert Ernest Davidson and Mr. Edward Warkentine have had ample opportunity to litigate the issue of whether they authorized Attorney Lempel to settle this case by stipulation in 1987, but for reasons best known to them have chosen not to do so.

First of all, I am in somewhat of a quandary with this case because I am fencing with shadows of things that never were regarding legal positions that cannot be. This case arises from a writ of habeas corpus taken from a *532 contempt. The contempt is the result of a judgment entered in 1987. The petitioners have argued to this court that Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6 1 applies. Utilizing that assumption regarding section 664.6, they spin their argument into a full-blown defense from which this court is importuned to take up their cause. My first response is that section 664.6 does not apply at all to this case. I contend here, as I did in 1994 in a unanimous opinion, that section 664.6 is a procedural vehicle to…

David J. Weiland, Fresno, for Real Party in Interest.

Murphy's Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will. Petitioners Elbert Davidson and Edward Warkentine have had more than a taste of Murphy's Law in this case, which sports a complex and jumbled procedural history spanning over 10 years. Briefly stated, the petitioners run a junkyard establishment on their property. The City of Mendota filed a lawsuit to make them clean it up. A purported settlement was reached which was signed by petitioners' then attorney and the City of Mendota's. attorney, but not by the petitioners. It was presented ex parte to a judge, who signed a judgment confirming the settlement.

Later, when there were compliance problems followed by contempt allegations, petitioners claimed, among other things, that their attorney (who coincidentally by this time was now the City Attorney for the City of Mendota) never had authority to bind them to the settlement agreement. They also complained their attorney had fraudulently concealed a conflict of interest which they had not waived.

Matters looked like they might come to a head on April 7, 1992, which was the date set for the contempt action…