Ng v. Superior Court

In Ng v. Superior Court (1997) 52 Cal.App.4th 1010, the Court of Appeal issued an alternative writ, prompting the trial judge to file a return to the petition. The petitioner moved to strike the return. ( Id. at p. 1016.) In granting the motion to strike, the Ng court opined that the trial court had improperly assumed a partisan role in filing the return. "As noted in 8 Witkin, California Procedure (3d ed. 1985) Extraordinary Writs, section 148, page 789, '. . . if certiorari, prohibition or mandamus is sought against a court, the respondent judge, as in an appeal from a judgment, is a neutral party in the controversy between the plaintiff and defendant in the main action. The adverse party in that action is the real party in interest, . . .' Such neutrality is also demanded by the duty of impartiality imposed upon judges by the California Code of Judicial Ethics (see canon 3)." ( Ng v. Superior Court, supra, 52 Cal.App.4th at p. 1016.)