Case Number: BC719547 Hearing Date: May 23, 2019 Dept: 2

Defendants’ Motion to Change Venue to Kern County is GRANTED. Defendants are ordered to pay the transfer fee within twenty (20) days.

On August 22, 2019 Plaintiff filed this action against Defendants Jose Luis Zavala Tenorio, Miguel Antonio Gutierrez, Miguel Gutierrez dba M&G Harvesting, Miguel MG Harvesting Trucking, M&G Trucking and Harvest, and Does 1 through 50 for negligence arising out of a motor vehicle accident.

“Venue, the county in which an action takes place, is statutorily governed by the type or form of the particular action. [Citation omitted.] ‘Venue is determined based on the complaint on file at the time the motion to change venue is made.’ [Citations.] (Brown v. Superior Court (1984) 37 Cal. 3d 477, 482 . . . .).” (Lebastchi v. Superior Court (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 1465, 1469.)

Cal. Code Civil Procedure § 395(a) provides, in relevant part, “[e]xcept as otherwise provided by law and subject to the power of the court to transfer actions or proceedings as provided in this title, the superior court in the county where the defendants or some of them reside at the commencement of the action is the proper court for the trial of the action. If the action is for injury to person or personal property or for death from wrongful act or negligence, the superior court in either the county where the injury occurs or the injury causing death occurs or the county where the defendants, or some of them reside at the commencement of the action, is a proper court for the trial of the action. . . .”

Cal. Code Civil Procedure § 396b(a) provides, in relevant part, “[i]f an action . . . is commenced in a court having jurisdiction of the subject matter thereof, other than the court designated as the proper court for trial thereof, . . . the action may, notwithstanding, be tried in the court where commenced, unless the defendant, at the time he or she answers, demurs, or moves to strike, or at his or her option, without answering, demurring, or moving to strike and within the time otherwise allowed to respond to the complaint, files with the clerk, a notice of motion for an order transferring the action . . . to the proper court. . . .” (See Van Gaalen v. Superior Court (1978) 80 Cal.App.3d 371, 378 [“the time limit for filing a notice of motion for change of venue prescribed by section 396b is not jurisdictional in the sense that a trial court is without power to entertain an untimely motion.”].)

Cal. Code Civil Procedure § 397 states, in relevant part, that, “[t]he court may, on motion, change the place of trial in the following cases: (a) When the court designated in the complaint is not the proper court. . . .”

Change Venue

Defendants present evidence that the accident actually occurred in Kern County, at the intersection of Wallace Road and Famosa Road, rather than in Los Angeles County. (Sanford Decl., ¶ 2.) Additionally, all or most parties reside in Kern County. (Sanford Decl., ¶¶ 3-4.) Defendants have also attached a stipulation signed by counsels for all parties to transfer the action to Kern County.

The motion is unopposed.

Based on the foregoing, the Court finds that the court designated in the Complaint is not the proper court because the injury occurred in Kern County, not Los Angeles County, and no parties reside in Los Angeles County. Therefore, Kern County is a proper venue.

The motion is GRANTED.

Moving Defendants are ordered to give notice of this ruling.