Pacific Gas Radiator Co. v. Superior Court

The petitioner herein attacks by certiorari an order of the superior court of Los Angeles County, dismissing its appeal from a judgment rendered in the justice’s court of Santa Monica township. The record on appeal was filed in the superior court on May 28, 1923, and on August 30, 1923, at the instance of petitioner, the case was set to be tried July 2, 1924. On June 3, 1924, the plaintiff below moved to dismiss the appeal because it had not been brought to trial within one year from the date upon which it was filed, as required by section 981a of the Code of Civil Procedure, which became effective June 14, 1923. It appears that the superior court set the trial in its regular course for the earliest date available under the congested condition of its calendars.

Section 981a of the Code of Civil Procedure reads as follows :

Grafton v. Superior Court, 66 Cal. App. 319 [ 226 Pac. 9 ], is not determinative upon this proceeding, although it is nearer in point than any other case involving this section of the code which has been reported. However, the decision in the Grafton case merely held that the statute had no application to the facts there involved because the superior court had…