At the height of my work on this blog, I used to wait with bated breath for the Supreme Court to post the results of its weekly conferences. It was so exciting every week, especially before the Court altered the format of its reports. Used to be, the conference actions were listed in order by category, with the Court's proverbial A-list, B-list and C-list cases listed in separate alphabetical groups. Or at least, that's how I interpreted the reports. It was very interesting and informative to see which cases made it into the B-list (so close!) and which were relegated to the purgatory of habeas corpus denials and attorney accusations.
A few years ago, the format of the reports was changed. Now, you can see the A-list cases in the first grouping, followed by a long alphabetical list of all the rest of the cases. The newly-formatted reports were much less interesting, and I gradually stopped reading them as regularly as I used to. (Also, the Court started posting the lists the day after the conferences, instead of the same day, which made them much less useful to your roving reporter.)
Well, this week, "sheltering in place" at home, with less to do than normal, I checked the conference reports again. Lo and behold, something miraculous had happened (on March 11, 2020). There in the A-list was a case in which the Supreme Court had granted a publication request! That almost never happens. (Usually, if the Court of Appeal denies a publication request, that's the end of it, even though technically speaking there's one last chance because all denied publication requests are forwarded to the high court for what is almost always a final no. See Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.1120(b).) What could this unicorn be?
In DHI Cherry Glen Associates, L.P. v. Gutierrez, ___ Cal.App.5th Supp. ___ (Nov. 15, 2019; pub. ord. Mar. 11, 2020), the Appellate Division of the Yolo County Superior Court reversed an unlawful detainer judgment. The Appellate Division asked the Supreme Court to publish (docket).
This may be a notable case in the landlord-tenant arena, but it wasn't really a unicorn after all. Too bad, because we could use some unicorns and some rainbows right about now. A storm is in the forecast for the weekend.
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