California Supreme Court Says Plaintiffs Can’t Move to Disqualify Judges

A plaintiff seeking to disqualify a judge for perceived bias should act quickly and not wait months or even years until an advantageous time during the trial, the California Supreme Court said Monday.

42 pages unanimous idea Delving into the legal language formation, the high court rejected plaintiff North American Title Co.’s argument that it had the right to seek disqualification against a judge, citing comments he made two years ago.

“If a party’s right to allege bias, prejudice, or prior involvement in a case need not be asserted at the ‘first practicable opportunity’… and instead can never be forfeited,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said, parties should “strategically pursue bias claims until the most appropriate time.” “an incentive to hide,” he wrote.

The decision overturns 2023 idea The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a plaintiff’s request to remove a judge for bias or prejudice is not subject to California. law’timely application requirement. The Fifth District stated that parties cannot waive their right to appeal to the judge for those reasons, no matter how much time has passed since they learned of a potential reason.

But the high court noted that the appeals court’s stated waiver applies only in cases where the justices decide they have a reason to withdraw from the case, not in cases where the plaintiffs decide to challenge them.

“We disagree with the appellate court’s interpretation of the law,” Guerrero wrote. “It combines the concepts of waiver and forfeiture and extends the statute’s prohibition on waiver to scenarios in which forfeiture based on failure to comply with the timeliness requirement may appropriately be found.”

It was stated that the decision could have broad effects on both civil cases and criminal matters. Fresno attorney Lawrence Artenian filed a lawsuit with the California Supreme Court against nearly 400 California-based North American Title Co. He petitioned to hear the case on behalf of his employee.

“I think the Supreme Court clearly does not want to allow this (Fifth District) opinion on the books,” said Artenian, a partner at employment law firm Wagner, Jones, Kopfman & Artenian.

“You can’t pursue cases with allegedly biased judges and keep them that way for an indefinite period of time,” he added, before a plaintiff moves to challenge them.

North American Title workers launched a class-action lawsuit in 2007, claiming their employers failed to pay hundreds of thousands of hours of overtime. In 2016, Fresno County Superior Court judge Jeffrey Hamilton Jr. found the company liable for wage and hour violations.

In 2020, North American Title underwent a corporate reorganization and name changes, leading plaintiffs to complain to Hamilton that the company was trying to shield its assets from any awards. At a hearing in June 2020, Hamilton said, “It definitely feels like we’re all at a carnival and playing a conch game with a bunch of bullets and just a nut. … It doesn’t even seem like that (Petitioner) is trying to hide it so hard, you know , they are knowingly playing the money game and they have a huge potential liability and they want to avoid it.”

On August 18, 2022, North American Title attempted to oust Hamilton, citing his 2020 comments and similar comments he made in 2021 as evidence of his bias against the company. Hamilton rejected the move as untimely. Hamilton in September 2022 signed a $43.5 million judgment against the title company.

Artenian said the total reward is now almost $50 million, probably with interest. The nearly two-decade-long case was marked by more than a dozen petitions to the appeals court, including a timely request for disqualification, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.

“I think the Supreme Court realized the whole thing was a litigation tactic,” he said.

The North American Title was represented as: Morgan, Lewis and Bockius. Partner Barbara Miller, who argued the case before the state Supreme Court, did not immediately respond to a message Monday.

The Supreme Court made its decision North American Title Co. / Fresno County Superior CourtNo. S280752.