Chicago Title Insurance v. Great Western Financial Corp.

Caution

69 Cal. 2d 305·444 P.2d 481

Supreme Court of CaliforniaAugust 28, 1968L. A. No. 29499California10,938 words

Opinion

lead Opinion

Sullivan, J.

In this action seeking injunctive relief and damages for unfair trade practices and combinations in restraint of trade, plaintiffs appeal from an order of dismissal entered after the court sustained without leave to amend defendants’ several demurrers to plaintiffs’ fourth amended complaint and granted defendants’ motions to dismiss as to portions of said complaint.

The fourth amended complaint contains 11 counts and 78 paragraphs. Like its predecessors it has fallen to five separate general demurrers, each filed by a group of defendants jointly. Unlike the orders sustaining the previous demurrers, the last demurrers were sustained without leave to amend, the court noting in some instances that counsel for plaintiffs had represented that they could add nothing to the fourth amended complaint. Special demurrers, filed with the general demurrers in all cases, were not ruled upon by the court. Motions to dismiss all or portions of the complaint were variously granted in whole or in part as to defendants designated individually or by groups. 1

*311 After decision by the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division One, which affirmed the order of dismissal, this court on its…

dissent Opinion

Mosk, J.

This case should not be decided on the pleadings; plaintiffs are entitled to a day in court in which to prove, if they can, the economic loss they allegedly suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the purported illegal acts of defendants. The court below, and now a majority of this court, impose upon plaintiffs a pleading strait jacket neither compelled by precedent nor consistent with the design of antitrust statutes.

After two demurrers were sustained, plaintiffs filed a third amended complaint in which they comprehensively described the conduct of the defendants asserted to be unlawful. The complaint in essence charged that all of the activities were part of a single combination designed to injure plaintiffs. The trial court again sustained a demurrer, on the special ground that several causes of action were not separately stated.

Attempting to comply with the trial court’s directions, plaintiffs divided their fourth amended complaint into 11 counts, and it is those counts which the trial court and the Court of Appeal dissected on general demurrer with the deft touch of a scalpel ordinarily reserved for a special demurrer or motion to strike. An order of dismissal was…

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Parties

CHICAGO TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY, and
Plaintiff
GREAT WESTERN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, and
Defendant

Judges

Mosk
Sullivan

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<em>28 </em>Cal. App.2d 706, 710-711