A Fourth Appellate District ruled Dec. 2 that San Bernardino Superior Judge David Cohn improperly dismissed an action, and ordered the case reinstated.
Cohn was overseeing a March 2016 case filed by Lakshmi Reddy which alleged National University wrongfully terminated her.
The case
San Bernardino Superior Court granted National University’s motion to compel arbitration Jan. 31, 2019, according to the appellate court’s unpublished opinion. Reddy’s counsel did not pull together any arbitration demands due to a series of misfortunes including their mail being stolen, the lawyer breaking her toe, and her assistant being hit by a car, according to testimony recounted in the opinion. The opinion did not name the counsel.
Cohn dismissed the motion March 4, 2020, because the counsel failed to pursue arbitration.
Reddy’s current counsel, David Prince and Miles Prince, substituted as counsel Feb. 24, 2020, and they filed a motion to set aside the judgment of dismissal May 29, 2020, which was denied.
Reddy then appealed.
The ruling
A trial court has no jurisdiction to dismiss an action while a court-ordered contractual arbitration is pending and the action is stayed, the appellate ruling said. Since the action was on a court order for arbitration, the cases’ dismissal was improper, the ruling said.
If the court had set an arbitration completion date after a motion from National University, and Reddy had failed to complete arbitration by that date, the case could have been properly dismissed, the panel said.
Parties
David & Miles Prince of Los Angeles represented plaintiff and appellant.
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Spencer Skeen, Jack Sholkoff and Jennifer Hendricks for Defendant and Respondent.
Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two Associate Justice Richard Fields wrote the opinion, which Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez and Associate Justice Art McKinster joined.
Appellate number E075425
San Bernardino Superior case number CIVDS1603294
Read the opinion here.
