Court Opinion

ID: 9565652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:25:16.471093+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:48.796386
License: Public Domain

CLARK, J.
I dissent for the reasons so well expressed by Presiding Justice Puglia for the unanimous Court of Appeal. To his fine opinion I add one observation: The only witness who testified on 27 October 1977—the day for which the reporter’s notes are unavailable—was defendant’s father. Because of the importance of the proceedings for his son, one would reasonably expect defendant’s father to have a lively recall of his testimony. Yet there is no indication in the record that defendant’s counsel on appeal, who also represented defendant below, made any attempt to enlist the father’s assistance in formulating a settled statement. In light of this apparent dereliction I cannot conclude defense counsel made a good faith effort to prepare a settled statement. The relevant portions of Justice Puglia’s opinion are set forth below.
On appeal the minor contends that inability to secure a complete reporter’s transcript requires reversal. He relies upon two recent Court of Appeal decisions. In re David T. (1976) 55 Cal.App.3d 798 [127 Cal.Rptr. 729] is a case in which the juvenile court directed a shorthand reporter who was not an official reporter (as defined in Gov. Code, § 69942) to record the oral proceedings. The Court of Appeal held that alternate means of creating a verbatim record were not available because lack of an authorized record was due to the fault of the trial court in failing to abide by Welfare and Institutions Code section 677 which requires appointment of an official reporter.
In In re Andrew M. (1977) 74 Cal.App.3d 295 [141 Cal.Rptr. 350] the official reporter erroneously omitted to report the oral arguments of counsel in a juvenile court hearing. On the minor’s motion under Code of Civil Procedure section 914, the Court of Appeal vacated the judgment and remanded for new trial, holding that the intervening death of the minor’s trial attorney so compounded the error of the court reporter that an adequate substitute record could not be prepared. The court assumed without deciding that a fair substitute record might otherwise be appropriate in juvenile court proceedings.
Both David T. and Andrew M. are distinguishable from the case at bar. In neither case did there exist shorthand notes of an official reporter that *11could have been transcribed. In David T. the trial court was at fault; in Andrew M. the court reporter was at fault and his omission was compounded by the death of the minor’s trial counsel. In the instant case, the loss of the reporter’s notes cannot be ascribed to either party; furthermore, the minor is represented on appeal by the very same attorney who represented him in the trial court.
Thus we address the question expressly left open in In re Andrew M., supra (at pp. 298, 301), viz., whether the appellate court may resort to a substitute record which fairly permits it to perform its reviewing function, where the absence of a reporter’s transcript in a juvenile court hearing is not due to the fault of either party.
In People v. Chessman (1950) 35 Cal.2d 455 [218 P.2d 769, 19 A.L.R.2d 1084], a capital case, the reporter had died before he could complete transcription of his notes. The Supreme Court stated, “ ‘we know of no rule which permits us to presume that defendant did not have a fair trial because a portion of the record upon . . . appeal has been destroyed without fault of either party.’ ” (P. 462, quoting from People v. Botkin (1908) 9 Cal.App. 244, 249 [98 P. 861].) Rule 35(b) of the California Rules of Court, then as now, required that on the filing of notice of appeal the reporter shall prepare the reporter’s transcript. The Supreme Court held that “where literal compliance with the rules has become impossible without fault of anyone, and we are confronted with a situation not expressly covered by the rules, we should inquire whether there is or can be made available a record on which this court can perform its function of reviewing the cause and determining whether there was error in the court below and, if so, whether such error requires reversal. If a record can be ‘prepared in such a manner as to enable the court to pass upon the questions sought to be raised’ [citation], then there is no rational likelihood or legally cognizable possibility of injustice to the appealing defendant even though a verbatim record certified by the official reporter cannot be supplied.” (Chessman, supra, 35 Cal.2d at p. 460.)
The Chessman rule has been applied in People v. Fuentes (1955) 132 Cal.App.2d 484 [282 P.2d 524], and People v. Scott (1972) 23 Cal.App.3d 80 [100 Cal.Rptr. 34], in each of which part of the reporter’s notes was lost and could not be transcribed; it was also applied in People v. Hulderman (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 375 [134 Cal.Rptr. 223], where the oral proceedings at the time of judgment and sentence were not reported by an official reporter (cf. People v. Serrato (1965) 238 Cal.App.2d 112 [47 Cal.Rptr. 543]).
*12There is a distinction between juvenile court cases and criminal prosecutions in relation to the question under consideration here. In the former case, an official reporter is required by statute to report all hearings conducted by the juvenile court (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 677); in the latter case the rules of court assume that felony criminal trials will be reported (see, e.g., Cal. Rules of Court, rules 33(a)(2), 33(b)(2), 35(b); Pen. Code, § 1246), but nowhere does it appear that the trial court is required to order the proceedings recorded (People v. Hulderman, supra, 64 Cal.App.3d at p. 381, fn. 2) and the rules do provide acceptable alternatives to a reporter’s transcript in certain circumstances (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 36(a), agreed statement; rule 36(b), settled statement).
We do not believe, however, that Welfare and Institutions Code section 677 was intended to preclude a reviewing court from utilizing on appeal a fair substitute for a reporter’s transcript where the necessity therefor arises without fault of either party and it can be done consistent with the proper discharge of that court’s function and without jeopardy to the appellant’s right to meaningful appellate review. There is no more reason to assume error from lack of a proper record in a juvenile hearing than in a felony prosecution. Moreover, felony prosecutions no less than juvenile court hearings may result in deprivation of liberty. In the case of the former, the deprivation is likely to be for a more protracted period and, unlike a juvenile hearing, a felony prosecution may even result in deprivation of life itself (see People v. Chessman, supra, 35 Cal.2d 455). Furthermore, Code of Civil Procedure section 914, the remedial provision upon which the minor relies, does not in terms mandate the grant of a new trial in every case where a reporter’s notes have been lost; rather it invests the trial and reviewing courts with that power, to be exercised, however, in their discretion as justice requires.
The minor contends that resort to a substitute record is precluded by rule 39(c), California Rules of Court, which provides that the record in a juvenile appeal “shall include .... 66
“(2) A reporter’s transcript of the oral proceedings taken at the jurisdiction and disposition hearing,. . .”
Rule 39, however, mandates no more in juvenile appeals than is required in the way of a reporter’s transcript in criminal appeals by rule 33(a)(2), and the latter rule is no impediment to reliance on a substitute record in criminal appeals where circumstances so require.
*13We therefore hold that an appeal in a juvenile court proceeding may be determined on a substitute record where, through the fault of neither party, the required record cannot be perfected, but a record nonetheless can be “ ‘prepared in such a manner as to enable the court to pass upon the questions sought to be raised’ ” (People v. Chessman, supra, 35 Cal.2d at p. 460). We further hold that a settled statement (rule 36(b), Cal. Rules of Court) may in appropriate cases provide such a record. (Cf. In re Andrew M., supra, 74 Cal.App.3d 295.)
As we have indicated, we remanded this matter to the trial court for preparation of a settled statement. No such statement has been prepared and we are not advised what, if anything, was done in furtherance of our order. Rather, the parties proceeded to brief the appeal on the record before us, the minor asserting the lack of a complete record as ground for reversal. In conjunction with that contention, counsel in his opening brief states merely that he “is unable to recall what motion to strike was granted on October 27, 1977.”
Where, without fault of either party, a verbatim transcript cannot be prepared, “It is not sufficient ... to state in a general way” that a transcript is essential to meaningful review. Counsel “must show in a reasonably particularized presentation the reasons why [he] cannot inform the reviewing court by a settled statement of the claimed inadequacies and errors.” (Magezis v. Municipal Court (1970) 3 Cal.3d 54, 58 [88 Cal.Rptr. 713, 473 P.2d 353].) Here, as in Grimes v. Municipal Court (1971) 5 Cal.3d 643 [97 Cal.Rptr. 9, 488 P.2d 169], counsel has not shown that a settled statement would be inadequate; he has not advised us whether he has contacted the trial judge and the district attorney to attempt to settle the record, and if he did not do so, he has not explained why. It is the burden of the appealing party, here the minor, to take the initiative to attempt together with the other trial participants in good faith to prepare a settled statement which will permit the court to pass upon the contentions raised, and if such is not reasonably possible, to demonstrate to this court with particularity why not. (Grimes v. Municipal Court, supra, at pp. 646-647.)
Richardson, J., concurred.