California Court of Appeal

Only the Legislature may prescribe the method for waiving a civil jury; since neither Code of Civil Procedure section 631 nor any other statute authorizes contractual predispute jury waivers, the parties' agreement is unenforceable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/06/2004
• Published 02/06/2004

Judges

• SIMONS, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, Jerome B. Falk, Jr. and Steven L. Mayer;  Bartko, Zankel, Tarrant & Miller, John J. Bartko, Christopher J. Hunt and Allan N. Littman, San Francisco, for Petitioners Grafton Partners LP, Allied Capital Partners LP, Six Sigma LLC, and its members, by Richard M. Kipperman, Trustee in Bankruptcy;  and Tom Frame, Bruce Miller and Ronald G. VandenBerghe, for themselves and as representatives of a class of investors., McGuinn, Hillsman & Palefsky and Cliff Palefsky, San Francisco, for California Employment Lawyers Association as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Petitioners., Law Offices of Public Advocates, Inc., and Richard A. Marcantonio, San Rafael, for Public Advocates, Inc., as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Petitioners., The Sturdevant Law Firm and James C. Sturdevant, San Francisco, for Consumer Attorneys of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Petitioners., Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Scott A. Fink, San Francisco, Daniel S. Floyd, Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., and Julian W. Poon, Los Angeles, for Real Party in Interest PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.