Court Opinion

ID: 9730541
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:15:06.945483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:07.307354
License: Public Domain

WIENER, J., Dissenting.
I approach this case on the assumption that we are bound by the doctrine of stare decisis and that lacking valid reasons we must apply established precedent. (Interinsurance Exchange v. Campbell (1986) 187 Cal.App.3d 242, 243, 247 [232 Cal.Rptr. 27]; Kaus, Precedent is a Many Splendored Thing or Let Thirteen Flowers Bloom (CJER J. 1986).) On that assumption here I believe City of Rohnert Park v. Superior Court (1983) 146 Cal.App.3d 420 [193 Cal.Rptr. 33] (Rohnert Park) is dispositive and accordingly I would grant the petition.
The majority reject Rohnert Park because they read the several provisions of California Rules of Court, rule 985(i) as “authorizing] waiver of clerk’s transcript fees for appellants proceeding in forma pauperis.” (Maj. opn., *1204ante, p. 1203.) I find this interpretation surprising since it is clear to me that had the Judicial Council intended to provide for a waiver of fees for “clerk’s transcripts” it would have used that phrase as it has in so many other places in the rules. (See, e.g., Cal. Rules of Court, rules 9(a), 34(1), 35(a), 39(c)(1).) I am also satisfied that in light of the Judicial Council’s expertise and concern with the fair administration of justice that had it intended free clerk’s transcripts in civil cases for persons proceeding in forma pauperis it would have enacted a new rule eliminating the effect of Rohnert Park during the six years following that decision. The fact the Judicial Council has elected not to do so is powerful evidence to me that Rohnert Park correctly interpreted the Judicial Council’s intent of not authorizing free transcripts for forma pauperis appellants. Thus, guided by precedent and the meaningful nonaction of the Judicial Council there is no basis here to disrupt the orderly and uniform application of the rules to allow free clerk’s transcripts in civil cases for appellants wishing to proceed in forma pauperis. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from the order denying the petition.