Citations
- 127 Cal. App. 4th 78
Full opinion text
Opinion
STEIN, Acting P. J.
On December 13, 1997, a fire broke out at a housing development owned and operated by the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA), resulting in the deaths of one adult and four children. A jury later found SFHA liable for the deaths and awarded surviving family members $12 million. On June 22, 2001, judgment against SFHA was entered in that amount, plus costs and prejudgment interest. SFHA later brought suit against its insurance company for failing to settle plaintiffs’ case within the coverage Unfits. SFHA ultimately settled that suit for $3 million, an amount that was reduced to $2,748,861.24 when SFHA used some of the funds to reimburse the expenses, including attorney fees, it incurred in litigating that lawsuit and related matters.
SFHA did not pay plaintiffs, and plaintiffs, on August 5, 2003, filed a petition for writ of mandate in the superior court to compel SFHA to satisfy the judgment. SFHA opposed the writ, claiming, in essence, that it did not have the funds to satisfy the judgment, and had neither the legal obligation nor the power to raise fimds for that purpose. According to SFHA, the only money available to it that could be used to satisfy the judgment was the money received in its settlement with its insurer (less the reimbursed expenses). SFHA claimed, further, that there were other litigation creditors who claimed an interest in those funds, and complained that plaintiffs had demonstrated no willingness to negotiate a plan for the equitable distribution of the funds between creditors.
The superior court, rejecting SFHA’s claims, granted the petition for writ of mandate and issued an order directing SFHA to satisfy the full amount of the judgment against it no later than 60 days from the date of the order. The court later denied SFHA’s motion for reconsideration, but amended the order to require SFHA to provide an accounting of the settlement proceeds within 10 days, and to pay plaintiffs all remaining settlement proceeds within 10 days after the accounting was provided. In addition, the court ordered SFHA to satisfy the $12 million judgment in full, ordering SFHA to “pay the judgment if funds are available, and if unavailable [to take] proper steps . . . to appropriate the amount required to meet that obligation.” The court ordered the parties to meet with the court to schedule mediation for the purposes of working out a payment plan.
SFHA appeals from the orders granting the writ of mandate and denying its motion for reconsideration, claiming that it demonstrated it had no funds available to satisfy the judgment and that it would be unable to obtain funds to satisfy the judgment. In other words, according to SFHA, the writ of mandate was improperly issued as a “futile act.”
Standard of Review
The trial court’s ruling was based both on its finding and interpretation of the facts and on its interpretation of the relevant statutes, regulations and rules. We defer to its factual determinations if supported by substantial evidence, but conduct a de novo review of the meaning and application of the statutes, regulations and rules. (See Kavanaugh v. West Sonoma County Union High School Dist. (2003) 29 Cal.4th 911, 916 [129 Cal.Rptr.2d 811, 62 P.3d 54].)
Discussion
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors established SFHA in 1938. It is a local public agency, and, as it concedes, the enforcement of judgments against it therefore is governed by Government Code section 970 et seq.
Section 970.2 provides: “A local public entity shall pay any judgment in the manner provided in this article. A writ of mandate is an appropriate remedy to compel a local public entity to perform any act required by this article.” Section 970.4 provides: “Except as provided in Section 970.6, the governing body of a local public entity shall pay, to the extent funds are available in the fiscal year in which it becomes final, any judgment, with interest thereon, out of any funds to the credit of the local public entity that are: [f] (a) Unappropriated for any other purpose unless the use of such funds is restricted by law or contract to other purposes; or [