Karubian v. Security Pacific National Bank

In 1975, Richard Karubian and other plaintiffs sued Security Pacific National Bank (defendant) in California state court, which under state law required civil cases to go to trial within five years of filing. In 1976, plaintiffs filed an at-issue memorandum placing the case on the trial calendar. Plaintiffs later switched attorneys twice. In 1979, a clerk mailed a "notice of eligibility" for trial scheduling, but it went erroneously to plaintiffs' former attorney, who never forwarded it; as a result, plaintiffs never filed the required Certificate of Readiness, and the case was dropped entirely from the trial calendar. Plaintiffs' current attorney discovered this only about 40 days before the five-year deadline expired. The court denied plaintiffs' motions to schedule trial and reconsider, then dismissed the case as untimely. Plaintiffs appealed.