Court Opinion

ID: 9573297
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:51:56.693241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:40:09.655734
License: Public Domain

McCOMB, J.
I dissent. I would grant the writ of prohibition as to the personal injury action. The circumstances in which we have recognized implied exceptions to mandatory dismissal if an action is not brought to trial within five years from the date of filing the original complaint, as required by section 583 of the Code of Civil Procedure, are not present here. We have held that a court may excuse a plaintiff’s failure to bring an action to trial within the prescribed time where for all practical purposes going to trial would be impossible, or because proceeding to trial would be both impracticable and futile.
The consolidation of the cases here did not make it impracticable and futile to proceed to trial. No more time for investigation or discovery proceedings to establish defendant’s liability was needed after the actions were consolidated than before. If, as the plaintiffs in the personal injury action would be required to prove, defendant was liable for their injuries, defendant would also be liable if Mrs. Maraska’s death resulted from her injuries. The only additional matters to be proved in the wrongful death action were that the plaintiffs were the heirs at law of Mrs. Maraska and the amount of damages to compensate them for the pecuniary loss they sustained by reason of her death.
The same attorneys represented the plaintiffs in both actions; they were familiar with all the facts of the accident alleged to have caused the injuries and death; and if they were not ready to go to trial before expiration of the five-year *100period they could have requested counsel for defendant to stipulate to an extension of time so as to bring plaintiffs within the exception provided in section 583 of the Code of Civil Procedure.1

Section 583 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides in part that an action ‘ ‘ shall be dismissed by the court . . . unless such action is brought to trial within five years after the plaintiff: has filed his action, except where the parties have filed a stipulation in writing that the time may be extended. ...”