Today's Court of Appeal opinion doesn't involve anything that's earth-shattering or critically important to society as a whole, and instead involves whether an appeal bond in a case involving alleged Labor Code violations can be satisfied by a different type of preexisting bond that's required of all car wash operators. Thus, unless you own a car wash (and allegedly stiff your employees out of overtime), the opinion isn't one that's likely to be of central importance to your being.
Perhaps for that reason, Justice Baker's concurrence was perhaps especially interesting. The concurrence says, in its entirety:
"Although I do not subscribe to all the particulars of the majority’s published opinion—which in several respects goes beyond what was presented to us in the briefs filed by the parties, I agree the result reached by the trial court should be affirmed."
I thought that was interesting because I suspect that a lot of justices on the Court of Appeal often share the exact same sentiment about some -- perhaps many -- of their colleague's opinions, yet join them in full. So I found it unusual that Justice Baker wanted to express the point in, of all opinions, this one.
Usually the informal give-and-take amongst justices on a panel obviates at least the perceived necessity for a concurrence like this one, at least in your run-of-the-mill type of dispute.
Not so here.
