Yoshioka

Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar, Maxine J. Lebowitz, Murchison & Cumming and Richard D. Newman for Real Parties in Interest.

Daniel E. Lungren, Attorney General, Linda A. Cabatic, Leslie R. Lopez, Shelleyanne W.L. Chang, Deputy Attorneys General, Horvitz & Levy, Christina J. Imre and Jon B. Eisenberg as Amici Curiae on behalf of Real Parties in Interest.

OPINION

WOODS, J.

Petitioner David Yoshioka wishes to collect noneconomic damages from real parties in interest Glenn Alan Todd and Judith Todd. He challenges Proposition 213 (passed by voters last November and which prohibits uninsured drivers from collecting such damages) as unconstitutional on due process and equal protection grounds. Amici curiae in support of petitioner further challenge under California's single-subject rule. We find that the initiative withstands constitutional muster on all three grounds and therefore must deny his petition for a writ of mandate.

On July 26, 1994, petitioner David Yoshioka and real parties in interest Glenn Alan and Judith Todd were involved in an automobile accident. Petitioner had no auto insurance at the time of the accident. Petitioner filed his complaint in the Superior Court for…

I respectfully dissent. Because I conclude Civil Code section 3333.4 cannot be applied retroactively to bar petitioner’s right *994 to nonpecuniary damages, I find it unnecessary to consider the other issues addressed in the majority opinion.

As discussed in the majority opinion, Proposition 213 contains a clause which purports to terminate ongoing claims for noneconomic damages filed before the proposition’s passage unless they actually came to trial within the two months between that date and January 1, 1997. The case before this court falls in this category. It was filed in 1995 but, as is typical in Los Angeles, trial had not yet commenced as of the first day of 1997. In my view this attempted retroactivity provision in Proposition 213 is both ambiguous and unconstitutional, whatever the constitutionality of this proposition for lawsuits filed after January 1, 1997.

I. The Proposition Is So Ambiguous as to Whether It Bars Nonpecuniary Damage Awards for Cases First Filed After Its Passage or for Those Already Filed Which Had Not Reached Trial by January 1,1997, That It Cannot Be Presumed the Voting Majority of the Electorate Chose to Make the New Law Retroactive.

In the…

*978 Opinion

Petitioner David Yoshioka wishes to collect noneconomic damages from real parties in interest Glenn Alan Todd and Judith Todd. He challenges Proposition 213 (passed by voters last November and which prohibits uninsured drivers from collecting such damages) as unconstitutional on due process and equal protection grounds. Amici curiae in support of petitioner further challenge under California’s single-subject rule. We find that the initiative withstands constitutional muster on all three grounds and therefore must deny his petition for a writ of mandate.

Factual and Procedural Synopsis

On July 26, 1994, petitioner David Yoshioka and real parties in interest Glenn Alan and Judith Todd were involved in an automobile accident. Petitioner had no auto insurance at the time of the accident. Petitioner filed his complaint in the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles on June, 14, 1995, alleging that he was rear-ended by real parties and subsequently sustained serious injuries.

On November 5, 1996, Proposition 213 was passed by 76.83 percent of the voters of the State of California, creating California Civil Code section 3333.4. This initiative prohibits uninsured…