General Motors Corp. v. Superior Court

*90MOSK, J.

Petitioner (hereinafter defendant) seeks a writ of prohibition to restrain the superior court from proceeding to try a personal injury action. The issue before us is whether Code of Civil Procedure section 583, which prescribes the time within which the trial of an action must be commenced, effectively precluded the real parties in interest (hereinafter plaintiffs) from consolidating for trial a personal injury action and a wrongful death action arising out of the same accident and involving substantially the same facts. We conclude that defendant’s motion to dismiss the personal…