Equity: Failure To Grant A Trial Court Reporter Fee Waiver To An Eventually Losing Plaintiff Required A New Trial, With Harmless Error Analysis Having To Go With The Plaintiff Needing A Transcript To Show Error

However, Jury Trial Fee Waiver Argument Lacked Merit Given A Jury Waiver A Long Time Back.

            There are some famous quotes about justice under the American system.  Two come to mind with respect to our next post.  The first is: “It’s every man’s business to see justice done,” attributed to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The second is a partial quote from Seimon v. So. Pac. Transp. Co., 67 Cal.App.3d 600, 606 (1977): “Justice is to be accorded to rich and poor alike.”

            In Padron v. City of Parlier, Case No. F077052 (5^th Dist. June 25, 2020) (unpublished), plaintiff suffered a nonsuit at trial, after asking for a court reporter fee waiver on the first day of trial and after having been granted an initial fee waiver when the complaint was filed.  The trial proceeded without a court reporter such that plaintiff really had no way to prove error without a transcript.  Based on two recent decisions, Jameson v. Desta, 5 Cal.5^th 594, 599, 607-608 (2018) and Dogan v. Comanche Hills Apartments, Inc., 31 Cal.App.5^th 566, 568, 570 (2019), the appellate court found the failure to provide a court reporter fee waiver was not harmless error, although a “firm conclusion” was difficult to draw.  However, the absence of the actual testimony did establish prejudice so that a new trial was the result.  The Fifth District panel did indicate there were merits problems with plaintiff’s case, so some cautionary remarks were provided to plaintiff in deciding to seek a new trial on remand.  With respect to the claim of error in waiving a jury trial, the defense won this one given that jury fees were not posted at the case management conference long before—even though they were required under CCP § 631(b), (c), (f)(5), augmented by the fact that no jury waiver relief motion was brought.