Dismissal of Fictitiously Named Defendants
February 01, 2006
We recently had a judge insist upon dismissing all fictitious ("Doe") defendants at the trial setting conference. It is a case with potential "dual employer" relationship between a managing subsidiary and an asset-holding parent corporation. Because of this, we insisted that the court leave the unnamed defendants in the case. The judge didn't want to hear it until we quoted Government Code § 68616(h):
“Unnamed (DOE) defendants shall not be dismissed prior to the conclusion of the introduction of evidence at trial, except upon stipulation or motion of the parties.”
All of our defendants, named and unnamed, are still in the case.
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