# Merco Construction Engineers, Inc. v. Municipal Court

> California Supreme Court · July 25, 1978 · 21 Cal. 3d 724

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9853206

## Case

- **Full name:** MERCO CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERS, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. THE MUNICIPAL COURT FOR THE LONG BEACH JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Defendant and Respondent; SULLY-MILLER CONTRACTING COMPANY, Real Party in Interest and Respondent
- **Court:** California Supreme Court
- **Decided:** July 25, 1978
- **Citations:** 21 Cal. 3d 724; 147 Cal. Rptr. 631; 581 P.2d 636; 1978 Cal. LEXIS 257
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Newman
- **Judges:** Clark, Newman, Tobriner
- **Cited by:** 88 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9853206

## Opinion text

NEWMAN, J.
I dissent. It may be that section 87 of the Code of Civil Procedure is not a perfect answer to the vexing problem of participation by nonlawyers in adjudicatory proceedings. The majority of this court now intervenes, however, to restrict seriously the Legislature’s power to seek imaginative and improved answers to that vexing problem.
I am not persuaded here that the Legislature has violated the vague commands in article III, section 3 of the California Constitution. Nor am I persuaded that the word “court” (compared, say, with the phrase “administrative tribunal”) should trigger automatically the monopoly that some people think inheres in article VI, section 9 of the Constitution, regarding the State Bar. (Cf. Eagle Indem. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1933) 217 Cal. 244, 247-249 [ 18 P.2d 341 ]; and see Bennett, Non-Lawyers and the Practice of Law Before State and Federal Agencies (I960) 46 A.B.A.J. 705; State Bar Reports (Dec. 1977-Jan. 1978) p. 14 [“90,000 California lawyers in 1984”].)
Bird, C. J., concurred.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9853206. Public record. Not legal advice.