Court Opinion

ID: 9723787
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:32:07.586458+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:52.001849
License: Public Domain

BROWN (G. A.), P. J.
I concur and wish to comment further upon a few points.
The principal opinion states that we do not write upon a clean slate. This need be emphasized lest this court be accused of judicial legislation. Being faithful to precedent and to our judicial duty, the result herein is compelled. All of the judicial legislating has already been done in such opinions as Green v. Superior Court (1974) 10 Cal.3d 616 [111 Cal.Rptr. 704, 517 P.2d 1168] and Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108 [70 Cal.Rptr. 97, 443 P.2d-561, 32 A.L.R.3d 496] by which we are bound. The body of appellate court opinions following the principles enunciated in Green and Rowland and other Supreme Court precedent clearly foreshadow the result herein. The principal opinion is nothing more than a careful articulation of the principles already set forth in judicial precedent as applied to the facts alleged in the complaint, which we must, of course, upon demurrer assume to be true.
This leads to the second point. We do not pass upon any defenses to the action, such as waiver, consent, assumption of risk, estoppel, and laches, which may exist. Though at this stage we must assume all the facts alleged are true, the facts actually proven at trial will undoubtedly cast a different light upon what is alleged. For example, the plaintiff occupied the premises between October 8, 1974, and August 19, 1977, a *933period of almost three years. A number of serious and patent dilapidations are alleged. The complaint alleges that “These defective conditions were unknown to plaintiff at the time she moved in to the premises, but as she continued to live on the premises, she became increasingly aware of them.” Three years to have become aware of dilapidations! Assuming she moved in under cover of darkness, daylight and a few days should have shed more than a little light on the situation. No facts are alleged showing she was restrained from vacating the premises. Indeed, she could have legally done so at any time by giving a 30-day notice or, because of the unheeded dilapidation, she could have simply abandoned the premises without obligation to pay further rent. (See Green v. Superior Court, supra, 10 Cal.3d at pp. 630-631.) The facts proven at trial, not legal theories, are what will be decisive.