Court Opinion

ID: 9792259
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:25:54.405291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:41.420289
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
The majority opinion is predicated upon the theory that the recall of a remittitur by an appellate court is a mere interlocutory order and is analogous to an order of a trial court sustaining or overruling a demurrer to a complaint. In this connection it cites and relies upon Berri v. Superior Court, 43 Cal.2d 856 [279 P.2d 8], which holds that an order sustaining a demurrer without leave to amend is not a final order and may be changed by the court at any time before judgment is entered in accordance therewith. The holding of the majority in this respect is clearly unsound as it fails to give consideration to the basic problems involved in a proceeding for the recall of a remittitur. It has been repeatedly held that when a remittitur is issued and filed in the court below, the appellate court loses jurisdiction of the cause and thereafter has no power to modify or change its decision or judgment unless and until the remittitur is recalled and its jurisdiction is restored. This court has recently reannounced the rule as to when and upon what conditions a remittitur may be recalled. In Southwestern Inv. Corp. v. City of Los Angeles, 38 Cal.2d 623 [241 P.2d 985], this court stated at page 626: ‘1 That a remittitur may be recalled on the reviewing court’s own motion, on motion or petition after notice supported by affidavits, or on stipulation setting forth the facts which will justify the granting of the order is now determined by rule. (Rule 25(d), Rules on Appeal; 36 Cal.2d at p. 22.) The question as to when the facts constitute grounds for the granting of the motion is resolved by the case law. Other than for the correction of clerical errors, the recall may be ordered on the ground of fraud, mistake or inadvertence. The recall may not be granted to correct judicial error.” Recent decisions of the District Courts of Appeal are to the same effect (Davis v. Basalt Rock Co., 114 Cal.App.2d 300 [250 P.2d 254] ; Kohle v. Sinnett, 136 Cal.App.2d 34 [288 P.2d 139]). Therefore, having in mind that as a general rule an appellate court cannot exercise any jurisdiction over a cause in which the remittitur has been issued by its order and filed in the court *495below, and that the office of the remittitur is to return the proceedings which have been brought up by appeal to the court below, and when the remittitur has been duly filed, the proceedings from that time are pending in the trial court and not in the appellate court, and that as to such proceedings it is not competent for the appellate court to make any further order until the remittitur is recalled by it (Kohle v. Sinnett, supra), it should be apparent that an order granting a motion for the recall of a remittitur issued by an appellate court is something more than a mere interlocutory order such as an order sustaining or overruling a demurrer. This must be the situation because, until such an order is made, the appellate court is without jurisdiction to act in the case (Chin Ott Wong v. Title Ins. & Trust Co., 91 Cal.App.2d 1 [204 P.2d 387]). It must necessarily follow, therefore, that when an order is made by an appellate court recalling a remittitur issued by it, the effect of such order is to restore jurisdiction of the cause in that court. True, it may have erroneously granted such order, but if so, the error would be one committed within the exercise of its jurisdiction, and when such an order becomes final, it is not subject to collateral attack. In this respect, an order made by an appellate court recalling a remittitur is analogous to an order made by such a court denying a motion to dismiss an appeal (George v. Bekins Van & Storage Co., 33 Cal.2d 834 [205 P.2d 1037]). Either of them may be based on facts outside of the record. Following either the court must make its decision on the merits of the case on appeal.
The majority erroneously assumes that the issues which may be involved on a motion for the recall of a remittitur are usually so closely related to the issues on the merits of the appeal that the court can determine them only by a review of its decision on the merits. There is no basis in either law or fact for this assumption. On the other hand, let us assume that in support of a motion to recall a remittitur issued by a District Court of Appeal the moving party made out a clear case of extrinsic fraud by a showing that he was falsely induced by the adverse party to absent himself from the hearing before the District Court of Appeal and that the adverse party falsely represented to the District Court of Appeal that the moving party waived any right to a decision in his favor by the appellate court and the appellate court acted upon such misrepresentation to the detriment of the moving party who did not learn of the *496deception and fraud until after the issuance of the remittitur. Assume that upon such showing the District Court of Appeal recalled and set aside its remittitur and this court thereafter denied a petition for hearing of the cause and the order granting the motion to recall and set aside the remittitur became final. Would this court hold in such a ease that on petition for hearing after the District Court of Appeal had rendered its decision on the merits that its prior decision recalling and setting aside the remittitur could then be reviewed by this court? I have grave doubt that it would so hold, but under the holding in the majority opinion in this case, the order of an appellate court recalling a remittitur, even in the circumstances above recited, could be set aside by this court at any time regardless of the period of time which had elapsed since the remittiUir was recalled.
The majority cites and relies upon Southwestern Inv. Corp. v. City of Los Angeles, 38 Cal.2d 623 [241 P.2d 985]; Isenberg v. Sherman, 214 Cal. 722 [7 P.2d 1006]; Davis v. Basalt Rock Co., 114 Cal.App.2d 300 [250 P.2d 254]; Kohle v. Sinnett, 136 Cal.App.2d 34 [288 P.2d 139], But in none of these cases had the order recalling the remittitur become final as it had in the ease at bar; that is, in every one of the last cited cases this court granted a hearing and transferred the cause from the District Court of Appeal to this court before the order made by the District Court of Appeal recalling the remittitur had become final, and this court, therefore, had before it the cause in which the order was made granting the recall. Such being the case, there was no collateral attack upon the order recalling the remittitur as this court had the same power to review the order recalling the remittitur as the District Court of Appeal had when it heard the motion and made the order in the first instance. Such is not the situation here as the record discloses that on July 11, 1956, the District Court of Appeal rendered a decision in which it ordered that the remittitur be recalled. That decision is as follows: “It appearing from the record that the opinion of this court, filed March 29, 1955, affirming a conviction of ‘life imprisonment without possibility of parole’ for the crime of kidnapping ‘with intent and for the purpose of committing robbery,’ under section 209 of the Penal Code, was erroneously predicated upon said statute as it existed prior to 1951, prior to defendant’s alleged criminal acts, in which year it was amended, whereas said statute, as amended in 1951, does not make it an offense separate from *497robbery, to hold or detain a person for the purpose of committing robbery, good cause appearing, it is ordered that appellant’s motion to recall the remittitur as to Count II is granted and it is ordered that the judgment heretofore entered (on March 29, 1955) as to said Count II is vacated and set aside and the remittitur issued thereon (April 29, 1955) is recalled.
“The appeal as to said Count II is ordered on calendar August 28, 1956, at 10 a. m., for consideration of an amended petition for rehearing as to the affirmance of the judgment rendered on said Count II.” (143 Cal.App.2d 59 at page 60 [299 P.2d 307].)
It will be recalled that this court denied the petition of the attorney general to grant a hearing and review said decision on August 8, 1956. Such denial had the effect of rendering the order recalling the remittitur a final judgment of the District Court of Appeal which should now be binding upon this court.
In this respect the majority opinion states: “We believe, however, that an order of an appellate court recalling a remittitur and setting the appeal for further hearing is an interlocutory order that does not establish the law of the case for further proceedings therein.” No authority is cited in support of this statement, and the only decided case on this subject is to the contrary. (See Municipal Bond Co. v. City of Riverside, 4 Cal.App.2d 442 [41 P.2d 215].) The majority opinion purports to disapprove the holding in this case.
In my opinion the order of the District Court of Appeal in recalling its remittitur here is res judicata and may not now be reexamined by this court. The case, however, is properly before this court on the merits as it was transferred to this court by an order granting a hearing on November 14, 1956, after the decision of the District Court of Appeal rendered on the merits on October 16, 1956, as follows: “It appearing that the opinion of this court, filed March 29, 1955, affirming a conviction of ‘life imprisonment without possibility of parole’ for the crime of kidnapping ‘with intent and for the purpose of committing robbery, ’ under section 209 of the Penal Code, was erroneusly predicated upon said statute as it existed prior to 1951, and prior to defendant’s alleged criminal acts, whereas said statute, as amended in 1951, does not make it an offense separate from robbery, to hold or detain a person for the purpose of com*498mitting robbery, and the remittitur in said case having been recalled as to Count II by order of this court filed on July 11,1956 and the judgment as to Count II having been vacated by said order, and the matter now being submitted for decision,
“It is hereby ordered, good cause appearing therefor, that the judgment appealed from, in respect to Count II, is hereby reversed.” ((Cal.App.) 302 P.2d 39.)
I agree with this decision and I find no answer to it in the majority opinion.
In conclusion I wish to point out that the provision for transfer of causes from a District Court of Appeal to this court is stated in the Constitution.* The term “cause” is broad and includes any and all orders. It is said in In re Wells, 174 Cal. 467, 471 [163 P. 657] : “The particular clause involved here is that which gives the supreme court power ‘to order any cause pending before a district court of appeal to be heard and determined by the supreme court. ’ The contention is that the matter before the district court was not a ‘cause’ within the meaning of that word as used in the above-quoted clause of the section.
“. . . This provision has always been understood to apply to all cases, matters, and proceedings of every description. It has been the unvarying custom of the court in Bank to entertain an application for rehearing of any matter decided in department, regardless of its nature or character. The rule has been applied in original proceedings of all kinds, in motions to dismiss appeals and other matters, as well as in ordinary cases on appeal. The word ‘cause,’ in the clause above quoted, was understood to be broad enough to include everything that could possibly come before the department for decision.
“. . . To describe the decisions subject to this power the *499word ‘cause’ was selected. This was the word used in the clause of section 2 giving similar power over the department decisions, which, in that clause, as we have said, has been understood to apply to every matter that could be decided by a department. The familiar rule of construction requires that it be given a similarly broad meaning in the new provision, and to include every matter decided by a district court of appeal, and operating as a final decision or disposition thereof in that court. It is clear, therefore, that the power to transfer causes from the district court of appeal, to the supreme court, either before or after judgment in the district court of appeal, was intended to have this all-embracing application.’’ (Emphasis added.)
From the foregoing discussion in the Wells case it seems clear that a motion to recall a remittitur in a District Court of Appeal is a cause within the purview of the above cited constitutional provision, and, therefore, when the District Court of Appeal rendered its decision on July 11, 1956, in which it “ordered that appellant’s motion to recall the remittitur as to Count II is granted and it is ordered that the judgment heretofore entered (on March 29, 1955) as to said Count II is vacated and set aside and the remittitur issued thereon (April 29, 1955) is recalled,” it decided a cause pending in that court. Its decision in said cause became final 30 days thereafter (under the former rule) unless an order was made by this court within that time transferring said cause to this court. Since no such order was made by this court, the decision of the District Court of Appeal in said cause became final and, like a decision of that court on a motion to dismiss an appeal, was not thereafter subject to review by this court.
For the reasons above stated I would reverse the judgment as to Count II of the information.

“The Supreme Court shall have power to order any cause pending before the Supreme Court to be heard and determined by a district court of appeal, and to order any cause pending before a district court of appeal to be heard and determined by the Supreme Court. The order last mentioned may be made before judgment has been pronounced by a district court of appeal, or within 15 days in criminal cases, or 30 days in all other cases, after such judgment shall have become final therein. The judgment of the district courts of appeal shall become final therein upon the expiration of 15 days in criminal cases, or 30 days in all other cases, after the same shall have been pronounced.
“The Supreme Court shall have power to order causes pending before a district court of appeal for one district to be transferred to the district court of appeal for another district, or from one division thereof to another, for hearing and decision.” (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 4c.)