In Weiss v. People ex rel. Department of Transportation, the Supreme Court today holds a statutory pretrial procedure in eminent domain litigation is not available in inverse condemnation cases, “which instead proceed by the rules governing ordinary civil actions.” The defendants wanted to use the eminent domain procedure to obtain a dispositive pretrial ruling on inverse condemnation liability.
The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Joshua Groban says it won’t “import” the statute from one type of case to another, even though it acknowledges that “the Legislature generally has left inverse condemnation law ‘ “for determination by judicial development.” ‘ ” The court warns that “the use of a nonstatutory motion procedure to dismiss a cause of action before trial . . . risks providing inadequate procedural protections, infringing on the jury trial right, and unnecessary reversal.”
Resolving a split of authority in the Court of Appeal, the court affirms the Fourth District, Division Three, and disapproves a 2007 Second District, Division Two opinion.
