After a six-month absence, the Supreme Court returns to Los Angeles for its December calendar.  Real property and death penalty cases are high on the agenda.

On December 1 and 2, the court will hear the following cases (with the issue presented as stated on the court’s website):

People v. Garcia:  Did defendant commit two burglaries, or only one burglary, when he entered the business with the intent to commit a robbery, then took the robbery victim to the bathroom in the back of the business with the intent to rape her?
Uncommonly, this case got only the minimum four votes for review — Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Kathryn Werdegar, Carol Corrigan, and Goodwin Liu.

People v. O’Malley:  This is an automatic appeal from a November 1991 judgment of death.  The court’s website does not list issues for such appeals.

People v. Casares:  This is an automatic appeal from a March 1992 judgment of death.  The court’s website does not list issues for such appeals.

Coker v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.:  (1) Do the anti-deficiency protections in Code of Civil Procedure section 580b apply to a borrower who engages in a “short sale” of real property when the lender approved the sale and reconveyed its deed of trust to facilitate the sale on the condition that the borrower remain liable for any outstanding balance on the loan following the sale?  (2) Does a borrower’s request that the creditor release its security interest in real property to facilitate a short sale result in a waiver of the protection of the “security first” rule set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 726?

Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage Corporation:  In an action for wrongful foreclosure on a deed of trust securing a home loan, does the borrower have standing to challenge an assignment of the note and deed of trust on the basis of defects allegedly rendering the assignment void?
Lots of amicus curiae briefs on this one.
Justice Ming Chin is recused.  Fourth District, Division One, Court of Appeal Justice Richard Huffman is sitting pro tem.

Gaines v. Fidelity National Title Insurance Company:  Was this action properly dismissed for the failure to bring it to trial within five years or should the period during which the action was stayed for purposes of mediation have been excluded under Code of Civil Procedure section 583.340, subdivision (b) or (c)?
A few months ago, the court ordered supplemental briefing on these questions:  1. Did the trial court’s April 3, 2008 order “striking the current Trial Date of September 22, 2008” (CT 279) constitute a stay of the “trial of the action” under Code of Civil Procedure, section 583.340, subdivision (b)?  2. What factors distinguish between a stay of trial and a continuance of trial for purposes Code of Civil Procedure, section 583.340, subdivision (b)?

People v. Peoples:  This is an automatic appeal from an August 2000 judgment of death.  The court’s website does not list issues for such appeals.