Williams v. Los Angeles Unified School District
Opinion
lead Opinion
Woods, J.
I.
Procedural Background
This is an appeal from the judgment of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in which plaintiff’s action was dismissed on grounds that the summons and complaint were not served within two years after commencement of the action and relief from that failure was not granted under Code of Civil Procedure section 1 473.
On or about January 31, 1990, plaintiff and appellant Monica Williams (Williams) by and through her guardian ad litem, Sandra Williams, filed an unverified complaint for damages against defendant and respondent Los Angeles Unified School District (District) in the Municipal Court for the Los Angeles Judicial District. No summons was issued at the time the complaint was filed.
The complaint alleged that Williams had been injured while attending school and that she had timely filed a claim for damages which had been rejected. The complaint prayed for general damages of $24,500 and for *88 special damages according to proof, but waived all recovery in excess of the jurisdiction of the municipal court.
On August 6, 1990, the law office of Abbas Hadjian was associated as cocounsel for plaintiff.
On October 1, 1991, 20 months after the…
dissent Opinion
Johnson, J.
I respectfully dissent.
Contrary to my colleagues, I apply the Putnam standard, 1 and in doing so conclude the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing this case. In my opinion, Putnam provides long overdue guidance to trial courts in exercising their discretion to dismiss cases where service is not accomplished within two years after filing the complaint. I have considered and expressly reject the criticism of this standard found in Roach v. Lewis (1993) 14 Cal.App.4th 1179 [ 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 281 ], a recent decision of Division One of this court.
In Putnam, the Fifth District analyzed the law governing a court’s discretion to dismiss an action for delay in prosecution under Code of Civil Procedure section 583.420, subdivision (a)(1). In that case three medical malpractice cases had been dismissed for failure to serve the complaint within two years after the filing date. Plaintiffs offered three excuses for this delay: (1) the pendency of similar cases arising out of the same surgical technique out of which would come a “test case”; (2) extensive discovery and production of evidence; and (3) deliberate staggering of service of process so as to avoid creating unmanageable…
Opinion
WOODS (Fred), J.
This is an appeal from the judgment of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in which plaintiff's action was dismissed on grounds that the summons and complaint were not served within two years after commencement of the action and relief from that failure was not granted under Code of Civil Procedure section [1] 473.
On or about January 31, 1990, plaintiff and appellant Monica Williams (Williams) by and through her guardian ad litem, Sandra Williams, filed an unverified complaint for damages against defendant and respondent Los Angeles Unified School District (District) in the Municipal Court for the Los Angeles Judicial District. No summons was issued at the time the complaint was filed.
The complaint alleged that Williams had been injured while attending school and that she had timely filed a claim for damages which had been rejected. The complaint prayed for general damages of $24,500 and for special damages according to proof, but waived all recovery in excess of the jurisdiction of the municipal court.
On August 6, 1990, the law office of Abbas Hadjian was associated as cocounsel for plaintiff.