Supreme Court Cases and Bananas – Both Can Come in Bunches

Sometimes an “issue du jour” generates a number of intermediate appellate opinions before guidance is provided by the California Supreme Court.  That has been the situation with issues concerning the enforceability of arbitration agreements in California, as our latest conference report summary for civil cases reflects.  After issuing its recent decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, the Supreme Court has now decided to continue holding two of those cases (Caron v. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA and Flores v. West Covina Auto Group) until the resolution of Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Co.; the Court has chosen to dismiss review altogether in one case (Reyes v. Liberman Broadcasting, a decision that favors the defense side from the Second District, Division One); and the Court has transferred the following three cases back to the Courts of Appeal for reconsideration in light of Iskanian: (1) Franco v. Arkelian Enterprises (a decision for the plaintiff from the Second District, Division One); (2) Brown v. Superior Court (another decision for the plaintiff from the Sixth District); and (3) Ybarra v. Apartment Investment & Management Co. (a decision for the defense from the Second District, Division Two).

These cases viewed together provide an interesting overview of three of the four options the Court has in dealing with grant-and-hold cases—the fourth being to take a held case up on the merits after the lead case is decided, and call for full briefing and argument.  If Sanchez does not answer the questions posed in Caron and Flores, or in one of the other cases being held pending the resolution of Sanchez, that may yet happen.

We have previously posted information about the time lag that has sometimes occurred between issuance of the lead case and either dismissing review in held cases or transferring them to the Court of Appeal, and we have also discussed the need for litigants in grant-and-hold cases to move fast to express their views on the appropriate treatment of the case after the lead case is decided.