Ventura Unified School District v. Superior Court

*813 Opinion

Petitioner Ventura Unified School District (District) filed this petition requesting issuance of a writ of mandate directing the respondent court to vacate its order denying a motion for change of venue and to enter in its place an order transferring the case to Ventura County for trial. (Code Civ. Proc., § 394.) 1 Following our review of the petition and the relevant law, we reached the tentative conclusion that section 394 requires an action against a public entity to be tried in the county where the accident occurred and where the public entity is located. On July 6, 2001, we notified the parties (see Palma v. U.S. Industrial Fasteners, Inc. (1984) 36 Cal.3d 171 [ 203 Cal.Rptr. 626 , 681 P.2d 893 ]; Lewis v. Superior Court (1999) 19 Cal.4th 1232 [ 82 Cal.Rptr.2d 85 , 970 P.2d 872 ]) of our preliminary conclusion that the respondent court erred in denying the motion to transfer the action to Ventura County.

After full review of the record and the responsive briefs filed by the parties, we conclude the respondent court erred in denying the motion for change of venue. The petition for writ of mandate is granted. The respondent court is directed to transfer this case…