Court Opinion

ID: 9849835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:47:19.625177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:26.743449
License: Public Domain

BAXTER, J.
I concur fully in the majority’s conclusion that there is no tort cause of action for intentional “third party” spoliation of evidence, and I *479have signed the majority opinion. I withheld my signature and approval from the majority’s related opinion in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center v. Superior Court (1998) 18 Cal.4th 1 [74 Cal.Rptr.2d 248, 954 P.2d 511] (Cedars-Sinai), even though I was similarly sympathetic to the substantive views expressed there.
As my concurring opinion in Cedars-Sinai made clear, my refusal to sign the majority opinion in that case was based on procedural considerations. Similar procedural concerns are present here. I therefore write separately to explain why I have taken a different action here than there.
In an opinion signed by six members of the court, Cedars-Sinai declined to recognize a tort cause of action for intentional “first party” spoliation of evidence. The majority reached the foregoing issue even though it was raised for the first time in the petition for review, and even though the only question litigated and decided in the lower courts was whether a punitive damages claim could be stated under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.13, subdivision (a) (section 425.13(a)).1
Writing separately in Cedars-Sinai, I indicated that I did not necessarily disagree with the majority insofar as it declined to recognize the proposed tort on the ground its disadvantages far outweighed any benefits. However, I concluded that I could not vote on the substantive question addressed by my colleagues in that case because it was not “properly before the court.” (18 Cal.4th 1, 18 (cone. opn. of Baxter, J.).) I was concerned, among other things, that by exercising its discretion to decide an issue not previously raised in the case, this court might mistakenly be seen as excusing litigants in future cases “from compliance with applicable procedural rules” dictating a contrary result. {Id. at p. 21 (cone. opn. of Baxter, J.).) Such threshold objections were considered—and rejected—in Cedars-Sinai for reasons set forth in the majority opinion. (Id. at pp. 5-7.)
Here, the question whether to recognize intentional third party spoliation is presented under procedural circumstances similar to those at issue in Cedars-Sinai, supra, 18 Cal.4th 1. Specifically, lower court proceedings *480focused on whether the requirements for pleading a punitive damages claim against defendant, a health care provider, had been met under section 425.13(a). Although the viability of a spoliation tort was not seriously litigated by the parties until they filed briefs in this court, the majority chooses to address the question for reasons similar to those used to overcome my procedural objections in Cedars-Sinai, supra, 18 Cal.4th 1, 5-7. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 469, fn. 2.)2
On the one hand, nothing in the present case leads me to reconsider or disavow the views expressed in my concurring opinion in Cedars-Sinai. I continue to believe that this court should generally avoid “reaching out” to decide questions not raised or resolved in the lower courts. (18 Cal.4th 1, 20 (cone. opn. of Baxter, J.).)
On the other hand, I recognize that this argument was rejected by a majority of the court in Cedars-Sinai for reasons which, if persuasive there, apply with equal force here. To withhold my vote on the merits in the present case would thus serve little purpose. Indeed, to formally adhere to the procedural stance I took in Cedars-Sinai would prevent me, once again, from participating in a significant legal question which all of my colleagues are determined to decide, and which the majority resolves in a particularly compelling fashion.
For the foregoing reasons, I have signed the attached majority opinion.

Code of Civil Procedure section 425.13(a) states in pertinent part, “In any action for damages arising out of the professional negligence of a health care provider, no claim for punitive damages shall be included in a complaint or other pleading unless the court enters an order allowing an amended pleading that includes a claim for punitive damages to be filed. The court may allow the filing of an amended pleading claiming punitive damages on a motion by the party seeking the amended pleading and on the basis of the supporting and opposing affidavits presented that the plaintiff has established that there is a substantial probability that the plaintiff will prevail on the claim pursuant to Section 3294 of the Civil Code.” All further unlabeled statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure.

I note that defendant suggested in the Court of Appeal that if section 425.13(a) did not apply to the punitive damages claim appended to plaintiff’s cause of action for intentional spoliation, then “it is time to reexamine the ‘tort’ of spoliation.” This passing reference appeared in the reply brief filed in support of defendant’s petition for a writ of mandate, and was not addressed by the Court of Appeal in the opinion currently under review.