Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinion in Meza v. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, a case on reference from the Ninth Circuit. (Briefs here; oral argument video here.)
The Friday filing is very unusual. Normally, the court files its opinions only on Mondays and Thursdays. As far as we can tell, it’s been seven years since an opinion filed on other than a regular filing day. That was when the court issued its decision in Vandermost v. Bowen (2012) 53 Cal.4th 421 on Friday, January 27, 2012. But there were exigent circumstances in that redistricting case. Meza, however, seems like a routine case (or as routine as a Supreme Court case can be) that was argued on the January calendar, leaving many regular filing days within the 90-day period.
One out-of-the-ordinary fact about Meza is the identity of the pro tem justice on the case — First District, Division Three, Court of Appeal Justice Martin Jenkins. (Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar is recused, apparently because his wife — Judge Lucy Koh — is the federal district court judge in the underlying litigation.) Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom named Jenkins as his judicial appointments secretary. The court might be hurrying the Meza opinion — this will be the first decision in a January calendar case — to allow Jenkins to end his judicial career and take up his new position in the executive branch without delay. (The next regular filing day is a week away since Monday is a holiday.) That would make the Meza special filing more like the Tuesday filings in February 2011 that were apparently motivated by Justice Carlos Moreno’s then-imminent retirement from the Supreme Court.
In Meza, at the Ninth Circuit’s request, the court will address the issue, Under section 98, subdivision (a), of the Code of Civil Procedure, must an affiant in a limited jurisdiction matter be physically located and personally available for service of process at an address provided in the affiant’s declaration that is within 150 miles of the place of trial?
The opinion can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.