Garcia v. McCutchen
California Supreme Court
940 P.2d 906 (1997)
Danny Garcia's (plaintiff) attorney repeatedly missed local-rule deadlines for filing proof of service and an at-issue trial memorandum in Garcia's personal-injury suit against Fern and David Avila (defendants), and failed to appear at successive case-management hearings, prompting escalating monetary sanctions against the attorney; after warning that the case would be dismissed if the memorandum still wasn't filed and the attorney again failed to appear, the trial court dismissed Garcia's case without prejudice. Garcia's motion to reconsider was denied, the Court of Appeal reversed the dismissal, and the California Supreme Court granted review.
Whether a trial court may dismiss a party's lawsuit as a sanction for the party's own attorney's violations of local court rules implementing case-management and delay-reduction requirements.