Court Opinion

ID: 9547450
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:47:36.532782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:46.407297
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I concur.
It is time, however, that we forthrightly overruled the decision, rendered by a divided court, in Davis v. Air Technical Industries, Inc. (1978) 22 Cal.3d 1 [148 Cal.Rptr. 419, 582 P.2d 1010], (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 818, fn. 4.) In our unanimous opinion in Gray v. Don Miller & Associates, Inc. (1984) 35 Cal.3d 498, 508 [198 Cal.Rptr. 551, 674 P.2d 253], we restricted the Davis rule so severely that it is now limited in effect to one narrow category: products liability cases. Why there should be a different rule on attorney fees in products liability cases as distinguished from all other causes has never been adequately explained.
To avoid further confounding the bench and bar, we should make it clear that Davis is no longer viable and that the rule of the present case and of Prentice v. North Amer. Title Guar. Corp. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 618, 620 [30 Cal.Rptr. 821, 381 P.2d 645], prevails in California.