Winston v. Superior Court

Opinion

CHANNELL, J.

In this proceeding for a writ of mandate, petitioner challenges the denial of his motion for relief from his waiver of a jury trial.

On June 13, 1986, petitioner filed a contest to the probate of the will of Guillermo Sarabia, petitioner’s brother. Petitioner demanded a jury and trial was set for October 19, 1987. On October 1, petitioner’s attorney called the jury department of the superior court to ascertain the amount of fees to be paid. He was told that the time to tender fees had expired six days before. Petitioner’s counsel then called opposing counsel who stated that…