State Farm v. Superior Court

Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman, J. Michael Hennigan, Mark Anchor Albert, Michael Swartz, Los Angeles; Gianelli & Morris, Timothy J. Morris, Los Angeles; Ernst and Mattison, Raymond E. Mattison; Law Offices of Robert S. Gerstein and Robert S. Gerstein for Real Parties in Interest.

In general, if a trial judge enters judgment in a civil action, and the judgment is reversed on appeal, resulting in a remand to the trial judge for a "new trial," any party can disqualify the judge by way of a peremptory challenge. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 170.6, subd. (a)(2), 2d par.)

In the present case, after the pleading stage, defendant filed a motion in the trial court to resolve a conflict of laws issue: whether California law or Illinois law applied to plaintiffs' causes of action. Defendant argued that Illinois law applied and that the case had to be dismissed. Plaintiffs argued that California law governed and that dismissal would be improper. The trial court agreed with plaintiffs.

Defendant petitioned this court for a writ of mandate. After briefing and oral argument, we granted the petition, concluding that Illinois law applied but that the trial court had correctly declined to…