Court Opinion

ID: 9593324
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:21:38.573985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:20.388071
License: Public Domain

Opinion
BAXTER, J.
While this appeal was pending in the Court of Appeal, the parties agreed to settle their dispute and jointly requested the Court of Appeal to reverse the trial court’s judgment in plaintiff’s favor. The Court of Appeal declined to do so. The issue is whether a Court of Appeal should grant a stipulated request by all parties pending appeal to set aside a trial court judgment in order to effectuate the parties’ agreement to settle their dispute and terminate further litigation. We hold that as a general rule parties are entitled to a stipulated reversal by the Court of Appeal absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances that warrant an exception. No such circumstances are present in this case, and we therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Facts
Plaintiff George Neary, a cattle rancher, obtained a jury verdict of $7 million in a libel action against the Regents of the University of California *276and three veterinarians employed by the University of California at Davis in its School of Veterinary Medicine (hereafter the University). The action arose from the University’s publication of a report asserting that Neary had engaged in deficient ranch management practices that caused illness and death of many of Neary’s cattle. Neary contended the cattle had been poisoned by a pesticide sprayed by governmental agencies to control an infestation of scabies mites.
Defendants appealed, and Neary cross-appealed. While the appeals were pending, the parties agreed to settle. Defendants would pay Neary $3 million, and, in return, he joined with all defendants in a stipulation providing that the appeals would be dismissed with prejudice, the Court of Appeal would vacate the trial court’s judgment, and the action in the trial court would then be dismissed. Pursuant to this stipulation, the parties filed a joint application in the Court of Appeal asking it to reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand the case to the trial court for dismissal with prejudice. The Court of Appeal rejected the request.
Discussion
I. Appellate courts’ authority
The threshold issue of whether an appellate court has the authority to reverse a trial court judgment to effectuate the parties’ settlement of their dispute need not long detain us. Indeed, even though the Court of Appeal in this case declined the parties’ request, the court did not conclude that it lacked the authority to grant the request. (Of course, the parties in this case, who are seeking the stipulated reversal, also agree that the appellate courts have this authority.) Likewise, we are aware of no provision in our state’s Constitution or statutes that denies appellate courts the authority to reverse a judgment in order to effectuate a settlement and terminate further litigation.
Conversely, it is well established that California’s Constitution provides the courts, including the Courts of Appeal, with inherent powers to control judicial proceedings. (Cal. Const, art. VI, § 1; Walker v. Superior Court (1991) 53 Cal.3d 257, 266-267 [279 Cal.Rptr. 576, 807 P.2d 418]; Keeler v. Superior Court (1956) 46 Cal.2d 596, 600 [297 P.2d 967].) To the same effect, Code of Civil Procedure section 128, subdivision (a)(8) authorizes every court “[t]o amend and control its process and orders so as to make them conform to law and justice.” This provision is consistent with and codifies the courts’ traditional and inherent judicial power to do whatever is necessary and appropriate, in the absence of controlling legislation, to ensure the prompt, fair, and orderly administration of justice. The orderly termination of litigation the parties themselves no longer wish to pursue has a direct *277and substantial effect on the use and conservation of the appellate court’s resources and is therefore a matter within the courts’ inherent power to control their own processes. Moreover, when the parties themselves no longer wish to litigate, a stipulated reversal is consistent with the courts’ authority to conform their orders with justice. (Code Civ. Proc., § 128, subd. (a)(8).) We hold that California’s appellate courts have the legal authority to reverse (or otherwise vacate) a trial court’s judgment when the parties stipulate to such action as a condition of a proposed settlement pending appeal.
II. The correct presumption in favor of settlement
We further conclude that, as a general rule, the parties should be entitled to a stipulated reversal to effectuate settlement absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances that warrant an exception to this general rule. This presumption in favor of a stipulated reversal is sound and salutary for several reasons. The facts of this case in particular demonstrate why the settlement should be effectuated pursuant to the parties’ terms, including their request for a stipulated reversal.
A. The efficiency of postjudgment settlements
This court recognized a century ago that settlement agreements “ ‘are highly favored as productive of peace and good will in the community,’ ” as well as “ ‘reducing the expense and persistency of litigation.’ ” (McClure v. McClure (1893) 100 Cal. 339, 343 [34 P. 822].) The need for settlements is greater than ever before. “Without them our system of civil adjudication would quickly break down.” (Lynch, California Negotiation and Settlement Handbook (1991), p. vii [foreword by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas].) Settlement is perhaps most efficient the earlier the settlement comes in the litigation continuum. The benefits of settlement, however, do not evaporate when judgment is entered.
A pretrial settlement does, of course, avoid the costs of trial. That much is a truism. It is also an incomplete assessment because it views the litigation process only with hindsight. The matter must also be viewed prospectively. Although a postjudgment settlement is perhaps less efficient than a pretrial one, equally true is that a postjudgment settlement is nonetheless efficient in its own right because it will preclude the need for future expenditures of time and money by the parties and the judiciary. Requiring parties to continue to litigate a matter over which there is no longer a real dispute “is wasteful of the resources of the judiciary.” (Federal Data Corp. v. SMS Data Products Group (Fed. Cir. 1987) 819 F.2d 277, 280 [directing administrative agency to vacate decision after parties settled].) Our appellate courts’ own policies *278demonstrate this point. In 1985, one-half of the Courts of Appeal had no settlement program, either formal or informal. (Cal. Civil Appellate Practice (2d ed., Cont.Ed.Bar 1985) § 11.1, p. 329.) Four years later, settlement conference procedures were in place in every Court of Appeal with two exceptions. (Eisenberg, Cal. Practice Guide: Civil Appeals & Writs (The Rutter Group) 1[ 6:2, p. 6-1.) At present, every Court of Appeal provides for settlement conferences, reflecting the now uniform recognition that the policy favoring settlement continues after judgment. Even more telling is the fact that Courts of Appeal throughout the state, including the Court of Appeal in this case, have routinely granted the parties’ requests for stipulated reversals and similar procedures to effectuate settlement agreements. The principle that even a belated settlement saves resources is also well recognized in the federal courts. (Federal Data Corp. v. SMS Data Products Group, supra, 819 F.2d 277, 280; Nestle Co., Inc. v. Chester’s Market, Inc. (2d Cir. 1985) 756 F.2d 280, 282-283.) Indeed, “the Supreme Court has summarily vacated judgments in cases settled while pending on appeal after a court of appeals has refused to do so.” (Nestle Co. Inc. v. Chester’s Market Inc., supra, 756 F.2d at p. 282, citing New Left Ed. Proj. v. Board of Reg. of the U. of Tex. Sys. (5th Cir. 1973) 472 F.2d 218, vacated 414 U.S. 807 [38 L.Ed.2d 43, 94 S.Ct. 118].)
The policy in favor of settlement, even when it requires a stipulated reversal, is rooted in practicality. If settlement on appeal is prohibited, the appeal must be heard and decided. If the judgment is reversed and retrial is allowed (not an unusual result), considerable future expense and trial court resources will be consumed. The present case is an excellent example of the merit of postjudgment settlements. The Court of Appeal’s refusal to implement the parties’ agreement would have the following consequences:
(1) The Court of Appeal would expend substantial resources in deciding the merits of the underlying appeal. The trial lasted four months. The record consists of 63 volumes of reporter’s transcript containing nearly 13,000 pages and a 19-volume clerk’s transcript of 5,366 pages. The action has been the subject of a prior appeal. (Neary v. Regents of the University of California (1986) 185 Cal.App.3d 1136 [230 Cal.Rptr. 281].) When settlement was reached during the present appeal, the Court of Appeal had already granted three defendants’ requests to file a brief twice as long as the normal maximum. The appellate courts have enough to do without deciding cases the. parties no longer wish to litigate.
(2) The parties would incur substantial costs in litigating this appeal, e.g., filing and responding to a brief twice the normal length. If the judgment were reversed and there were a retrial, the parties and the trial court would expend substantial further resources, as demonstrated by the length of the *279first trial. The parties also have made clear that, if the merits of the appeal were decided, the loser would surely seek relief in this court and perhaps the United States Supreme Court. In view of the sharpness of the dispute to date, the amount at stake, and the complex issues raised (some of them constitutional), further appeals would be a near certainty. This would burden the courts as well as the parties.
We reject the notion, advanced by some of the amici curiae in this case, that the possibility of postjudgment settlements incorporating a stipulated reversal will reduce the frequency of pretrial settlements. This view misses the mark in several respects. First, the law review article on which the amici curiae rely claims that “the availability of vacatur [i.e., reversal] makes going to trial cost-free, apart from litigation costs.” (Fisch, Rewriting History: The Propriety of Eradicating Prior Decisional Law Through Settlement and Vacatur (1991) 76 Cornell L.Rev. 589, 596, fns. omitted.) This is rather like saying that death is only temporary, apart from its permanency. Litigation costs are an enormous burden and are such an integral part of the process that they cannot be simply severed from the equation. Indeed, the article’s author acknowledges in a footnote that these costs can be considerable, but the article fails to consider their significance.
Second, trials (indeed, the entire litigation process) have significant non-monetary costs. One of the most significant is negative publicity, which can be especially harmful to an institutional defendant, e.g., a product manufacturer. In amici curiae’s view, such a defendant loses nothing if he settles after an unfavorable judgment. Not so. Negative news reports can have a lasting effect. Individuals also suffer considerable emotional distress during litigation. These costs may be unrecoverable.
Third, the argument against stipulated reversal too easily surmises that a losing defendant can simply “buy its way out” from an unfavorable judgment by paying the amount of the judgment. This is dubious because it assumes a case can be settled after trial for the same amount as it could have been settled before trial. As practitioners know, however, the parties’ respective pretrial evaluations of a case change markedly after trial. (This is true regardless of whether stipulated reversal is an issue, e.g., in the situation where a settlement comes after trial but before judgment.)
Fourth, even if the amici curiae’s view had some intuitive appeal, it would not be supported by empirical data. To the contrary, the record in this case (more specifically, the parties’ joint request for judicial notice) demonstrates that Courts of Appeal have heretofore routinely granted stipulated reversals and similar procedural methods for effecting settlements. Nothing suggests, *280however, that the availability of such a procedure has even slightly decreased the number of pretrM settlements.
In short, the use of a stipulated reversal to effectuate a postjudgment settlement is an efficient and conservative use of the resources of the courts and the litigants.
B. Fairness to the parties
Simple fairness requires that the first and most weighty consideration be given to the parties’ interests and that they be accommodated except in the extraordinary case. The parties are the persons (or entities) most affected by a judgment, which is the ultimate product of their sustained effort and expense. (Federal Data Corp. v. SMS Data Products Group, supra, 819 F.2d 277, 280 [noting need for fairness to parties].) Homilies about “judicial integrity” and “legal truth” will ring hollow in the ears of the parties. The courts exist for litigants. Litigants do not exist for courts.
In ordinary civil actions such as the one before us, the parties come to court seeking resolution of a dispute between them. The litigation process they encounter is fraught with complexities, uncertainties, delays, and risks of many kinds. Different judges and juries may respond in different ways to the. same evidence and argument. Public judicial proceedings may result in adverse publicity and unwanted disclosure of previously confidential information. Damage awards (or failure to recover) may cause financial hardship or ruin. These observations are not original. “More than a century ago, Abraham Lincoln gave the following advice: ‘Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise wherever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser—in fees, expenses, and waste of time.’ This was sage advice then and remains so now.” (Lynch, California Negotiation and Settlement Handbook, supra, p. vii (foreword by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas).) When in the course of these perilous proceedings the parties who brought the dispute to court decide to eliminate these hazards by a voluntary agreement to terminate the litigation, the courts should respect the parties’ choice and assist them in settlement.
The present case is again a prime example of why the parties should be accommodated. As reflected by the complexity of the underlying defamation action, the parties will incur substantial costs on appeal and, if necessary, on retrial. Aside from continued legal costs, the parties will suffer continuing psychological burdens. “Litigants usually find litigation to be not merely a distracting ‘waste of time,’ ” but rather “intensely aggravating.” (James & *281Hazard, Civil Procedure (3d ed. 1985) § 6.3, p. 286.) The defendant veterinarians in this case plausibly assert a desire for nothing more than to put this case behind them. Plaintiff Neary, now in his advanced years, also makes clear that he wants his recovery. His plea is sympathetic: “Neary has spent more than twelve years in an expensive, time-consuming, emotionally wrenching, and destructively distracting struggle which has included enough twists, turns, setbacks and victories for a novel. He has finally resolved that struggle through negotiation and voluntary agreement.” Thwarting the settlement would frustrate the parties’ mutual desire for an immediate end to their now 13-year-old dispute. The parties have pummeled each other long enough and have staggered to their respective corners. We choose to give them help, not the prospect of further battering.
C. The need to avoid arbitrary distinctions
The Court of Appeal’s notion that a postjudgment settlement results in a waste of the time and expense of trial incorrectly assumes that a postjudgment settlement necessarily comes after a trial. In a civil case, judgment may be entered before trial, for example, on a defendant’s successful demurrer or motion for summary judgment. In those cases, a postjudgment settlement does not mean trial was wasted. There was no trial. The reality in those cases is that judgment is not the result of substantial court resources. The amount of court time does not even compare to that of a trial. The Court of Appeal, however, treated all postjudgment settlements as being equally wastefiil.
The Court of Appeal’s reliance on resources already consumed is flawed in another respect. Even after protracted and costly litigation, cases are commonly settled on the eve of trial or even well after trial has begun. Trial courts do not preclude such settlement on the ground that too much has already been invested in the litigation. Drawing a line at the entry of judgment is thus arbitrary. We might just as well draw the line at any point after a specified number of hours or dollars have been expended by the parties or the trial court.
D. Integrity of the judicial process
The Court of Appeal opined that stipulated reversal “would trivialize the work of the trial courts and undermine the integrity of the entire judicial process.” This conclusion is based on the Court of Appeal’s faulty premise that litigation is a search for “legal truth,” not “simply a dispositional act.” This puts the abstract cart before the practical horse.  The primary purpose of the public judiciary is “to afford a forum for the settlement of litigable matters between disputing parties.” (Vecki v. Sorensen (1959) 171 *282Cal.App.2d 390, 393 [340 P.2d 1020].) We do not resolve abstract legal issues, even when requested to do so. We resolve real disputes between real people. (Pacific Legal Foundation v. California Coastal Com. (1982) 33 Cal.3d 158, 170 [188 Cal.Rptr. 104, 655 P.2d 306].) This function does not undermine our integrity or demean our function. By providing a forum for the peaceful resolution of citizens’ disputes, we provide a cornerstone for ordered liberty in a democratic society.
The Court of Appeal’s concern for the integrity of trial court judgments is flawed in other respects. First, the notion that such a judgment is a statement of “legal truth” places too much emphasis on the result of litigation rather than its purpose. “In all civil litigation, the judicial decree is not the end but the means. At the end of the rainbow lies not a judgment, but some action (or cessation of action) by the defendant that the judgment produces—the payment of damages, or some specific performance, or the termination of some conduct. Redress is sought through the court, but from the defendant. . . . The real value of the judicial pronouncement—what makes it a proper judicial resolution of a ‘case or controversy’ rather than an advisory opinion—is in the settling of some dispute which affects the behavior of the defendant towards the plaintiff,(Hewitt v. Helms (1987) 482 U.S. 755, 761 [96. L.Ed.2d 654, 661, 107 S.Ct. 2672], original italics.)
Second, the Court of Appeal decision incorrectly suggests that a trial court judgment provides guidance to other courts and litigants. Not so.  “[T]rial courts make no binding precedents.” (Fenske v. Board of Administration (1980) 103 Cal.App.3d 590, 596 [163 Cal.Rptr. 182]; 9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (3d ed. 1985) Appeal, § 763, p. 730.)
Third, a stipulated reversal does not trivialize or render meaningless a trial court’s work. As explained above, the paramount purpose of litigation is to resolve disputes. If that goal is achieved, even after judgment, the trial court’s essential function has been fulfilled.
Fourth, a trial, like a settlement conference, may educate the litigants as to the true value of the case and prompt a settlement. If so, the case has been resolved, and the trial was not wasted. Resolution—whether decreed or agreed—is the ultimate object of the litigation process.
Finally, a stipulated reversal is not an attempt to erase or rewrite the record of a trial. Everything that has happened to date in this litigation— including the jury verdict against defendants—is and will remain a matter of public record, even after a stipulated reversal. No one is proposing that the record in this case be destroyed or sealed. The record will reflect that the *283reversal was pursuant to a settlement and stipulation. There will be no inference that the jury or trial court erred. Whatever conclusions the public wishes to draw from the litigation can still be drawn after the reversal. To remove any possible doubt in a case of a stipulated reversal, the appellate court can explicitly state in its order that the reversal is pursuant to settlement and does not constitute either approval or rejection of the trial court’s judgment.
E. The public interest
The trial court judgment requires the University—a public entity—and its employees to pay $7 million to plaintiff. Under the proposed settlement, defendants would pay only $3 million—approximately one-third of the judgment amount and accrued interest. A savings of more than $4 million of real money weighs more heavily in favor of the public interest than some abstract notion that the public needs this judgment to stand as a testament to plaintiff’s victory—a victory that plaintiff himself is willing to forgo in large part. If the settlement in this case is not effectuated, both California taxpayers and public revenue recipients would ultimately lose $4 million for no apparent reason if the judgment were affirmed on appeal. This stands the public interest on its head and would surely seem unfair to those citizens denied essential services as a result. The public interest in this case weighs heavily in favor of the settlement and stipulated reversal.
Some of the amici curiae in this case contend a stipulated reversal should be denied when it would adversely affect the public interest. As an abstract matter, this conclusion cannot be rejected out of hand. There might be unusual circumstances in which the public interest would weigh dispositively against a stipulated reversal. We caution, however, that the strong presumption in favor of allowing stipulated reversals is not rebutted by some amorphous and speculative public interest. The litigants’ interests in support of a stipulated reversal are substantial and immediate—terminating a dispute, saving legal expenses and resuming more productive activity. The courts’ interest in disposing of unnecessary litigation, i.e., where the parties have settled their dispute, is also substantial. In most cases, however, the public interests asserted against a stipulated reversal will likely be indirect and perhaps even illusory, as with the contention in this case that the integrity of the trial court judgment will be impugned. Moreover, the public interest itself is served by the peaceful settlement of disputes and unclogging of court dockets. To be sufficient to overcome the strong presumption in favor of allowing stipulated reversals, an asserted public interest must be specific, demonstrable, well established, and compelling. No such public interest is present in this case.
*284F. Potential collateral estoppel
Amici curiae in this case also contend a stipulated reversal should be denied whenever a judgment might give rise to collateral estoppel in a future action. Even the Court of Appeal, although it rejected the stipulation, did not rely on this factor. The reason is apparent. The parties in this case agree that no nonparty is or will be affected by the trial court judgment, and nothing in the record suggests otherwise. Collateral estoppel is not an issue in this case. We therefore need not decide, and do not decide, whether potential collateral estoppel should be a factor in deciding whether to depart from the strong presumption in favor of allowing the parties to settle their dispute by seeking a stipulated reversal.  The well-established rule is that we should avoid advisory opinions. (Coleman v. Department of Personnel Administration (1991) 52 Cal.3d 1102, 1126 [278 Cal.Rptr. 346, 805 P.2d 300].)
G. Summary as to the presumption favoring stipulated reversal
We hold that, when the parties to an action agree to settle their dispute and as part of their settlement stipulate to a reversal of the trial court judgment, the Court of Appeal should grant their request for the stipulated reversal absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances that warrant an exception to this general rule. Any determination that such circumstances exist must be made on a case-by-case basis. Because we can only speculate as to the facts of future cases, we cannot enumerate with any specificity what facts may or may not constitute an extraordinary circumstance that would warrant denying the parties’ request. We emphasize, however, that the policies favoring settlement are strong and that the extraordinary-circumstance exception is narrow.
A presumption in favor of stipulated reversal to effectuate settlement, rather than a presumption against the procedure, is also more efficient in terms of the resources required of an appellate court. Under a negative presumption, the parties would have the burden of showing that their stipulation should be granted because no countervailing factors are present, e.g., a contrary public interest. Presumably they would have to meet this burden by submitting memoranda of points and authorities and supporting declarations and documentary evidence. Trying to prove a negative, i.e, that there is no reason why the reversal should not be granted, is, of course, difficult. Moreover, the appellate court would have to fully consider these materials. This is largely unnecessary. Under a presumption in favor of granting the parties’ request for reversal, the court need not expend significant resources unless a nonparty comes forward and objects to the settlement for some reason or unless some problem is apparent in the record.
*285III. Applying the presumption favoring stipulated reversal to this case
The facts of this case point to only one reasonable result—granting the stipulated reversal. Even in the absence of the general presumption favoring this procedure, the factors we have discussed above would lead to the same conclusion: (1) a postjudgment settlement will conserve substantial resources of the parties and the courts; (2) the parties will be given the paramount consideration to which they are entitled and will be treated fairly; (3) the integrity of the judicial process will be maintained, indeed enhanced by facilitating an efficient and fair settlement; and (4) the public interest will be served by a savings of approximately $4 million. Conversely, the record reflects no extraordinary circumstances that weigh against allowing the stipulated reversal. We reject as being insubstantial the notion that the stipulated reversal must be denied on the ground that the public has an interest in having the trial court judgment, which has not been subjected to appellate review, serve as a “commentary” on the performance of public officials. It has already served that function. The stipulated reversal would merely be a reminder that the “commentary” did not face appellate review. Moreover, the interest in commentary pales in comparison to the direct interest in saving $4 million. We think it fanciful to embrace the assumption that the public is willing to pay $4 million for a “commentary.” The average taxpayer wants and deserves more for his or her money.
Moreover, thwarting the settlement would be needlessly unfair to the parties. They would be denied a settlement on the terms they desire even though no substantial competing interest is apparent. Indeed, they would be punished for not being prescient. When this case was in the pretrial stage, there was no extant decision by this court and very little Court of Appeal authority one way or the other. (The Court of Appeal in this case noted the “dearth of helpful case law.”) On the other hand, the Courts of Appeal had routinely been allowing the type of settlements fashioned by the parties, e.g., stipulated reversals and the like. Even if a rule precluding stipulated reversals had some merit for future cases (a conclusion we reject), we would be unfair at this late stage to impose a prophylactic rule retroactively. Doing so would achieve nothing but unfairness to the parties, with no countervailing benefits.
Disposition
The judgment of the Court of Appeal (i.e., the order denying the motion for stipulated reversal) is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the Court of *286Appeal with directions to issue a new order granting the parties’ request for a stipulated reversal of the trial court judgment and dismissing the appeal.
Lucas, C. J., Panelli, J., Arabian, J., and George, J., concurred.