Justice Streeter begins today's opinion by relating a long-ago Court of Appeal decision to the Kennedy assassination:
"Before daily life in this country froze on November 22, 1963 at 1:38 p.m. Central Time when the tragic news from Dallas came across the airwaves—or perhaps later that day, which would confirm that our courts always remain open, even in times of crisis—a minor event of little note occurred here in California: A First District Court of Appeal, Division One panel filed its opinion in Oliver v. Swiss Club Tell (1963) 222 Cal.App.2d 528(Oliver). Nearly 60 years later, the events in Dealey Plaza on the day Oliver was filed continue to reverberate through history. This case shows that Oliver, too, is still having ripple effects, here in an obscure corner of California civil procedure."
That's a fairly random opening, to be sure. But it's also somewhat neat that Justice Streeter noticed that Oliver was decided on that particular day. Cool.
I did wonder if Justice Streeter actually remembered the Kennedy assassination. I wasn't alive back then, but Justice Streeter must have been around six years old. It was a memorable day, to be sure.
Although Justice Streeter says that Oliver was a fairly "minor" opinion involving "an obscure corner of California civil procedure," not only did the trial court here expressly rely on this opinion for its decision, but the opinion has also been cited over 330 times in other opinions, and the Court of Appeal in Florida a couple of years ago even went out of its way to opine that the opinion in Oliver seemed silly and wrong. Plus, I can personally attest to the long-lasting significance of the opinion, since the textbook for my first-year civil procedure class mentioned the Oliver opinion as recently as the 11th edition in 2013. So while it might perhaps involve a somewhat obscure principle of civil procedure, it's an important one, as well as an opinion that's received not a small amount of national note.
Anyway, a neat little opinion that brings the reader back to Dealey Plaza sixty years ago.
P.S. - Just my opinion: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
