Sanchez

Plaintiffs and appellants Frances Sanchez and Anthony Sanchez (collectively plaintiffs) appeal an order dismissing their action against defendants and respondents City of Los Angeles (City), Jose Chavez (Chavez) and Vincent Balderrama (Balderrama) (collectively defendants) for failure to bring the action to trial within the mandatory five-year period. (Code Civ. Proc., § 583.310.) - The essential issue presented is whether the death of defendant Balderrama’s attorney made it impracticable for plaintiffs to bring the action to trial within five years.

This record demonstrates that there was no causal connection between the circumstances upon which plaintiffs are relying and their failure to bring the action to trial within five years. Indeed, it is clear that the reason plaintiffs did not bring the action to trial within five years was that their counsel had mistakenly calculated the expiration of that statutory period. Further, the death of defense counsel did not result in a situation of impracticability over which plaintiffs had no control. Nothing prevented the plaintiffs from seeking the setting of a trial date within the five-year period in the event defendants…