Court Opinion

ID: 9623649
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:39:11.641304+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:33.083715
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I concur.
At the outset I observe that the locale of this lawsuit is not of transcendent importance. We are not involved with a movement from Imperial County to Del Norte County, but only to or from Sacramento and Alameda, a bus ride of a little more than an hour and thus not seriously imposing on any of the parties or witnesses.
What is significant is the chronology of pleadings in this case. The original complaint was filed on June 22, 1981. It was not served on the defendants. The amended complaint was filed on June 14, 1982. The motion to change venue was made on July 27, 1983.
While the plaintiffs’ delay of nearly a year in amending their complaint to include an FEHA cause of action is difficult to rationalize, there is no indication it was added merely to defeat a venue change. The motion to change venue was made only after the amended complaint was filed.
What concerns me, however, is the possibility that this opinion may be read to compel a venue change under somewhat different circumstances. If a plaintiff alleges a common law tort cause of action, a motion for change of venue is promptly made by the defendant, and thereafter a redundant statutory cause of action is added by the plaintiff apparently to defeat the venue change, I would permit the trial court to exercise discretion and, if otherwise justified, to nevertheless grant the motion to transfer the action.
With that caveat, I join the majority opinion.
*490KAUS, J.
I concur. Throughout the proceedings below real parties conceded that Alameda was a proper venue for petitioners’ FEHA causes of action. Not until their opposition to the petition for hearing in this court did they note, quite casually, that the relevant portion of section 12965, subdivision (b) ends as follows: “. . . but if the defendant is not found within any such county, such an action may be brought within the county of defendant’s residence or principal office.” Since the superior court’s process is statewide (Code Civ. Proc., § 71), it might be difficult to construe this somewhat quaint language literally. Certainly it would not be stretching it to interpret it to refer to an individual defendant’s residence or a corporate defendant’s place of business.
Nevertheless, whatever merit there may be to this point, it manifestly comes too late. I therefore join the court’s opinion.