The San Diego County Superior Court has ruled that late penalties imposed by Proposition 9 are in the nature of a criminal penalty and therefore must be brought in Municipal Court. The Superior Court dismissed the Small Claims Court actions against a series of defendants (Taylor v. Denny, San Diego Sup. Ct., Civil No. 395894).

The action brought by Elmer Enstrom, Jr., on a pro bono basis, for two candidates who sought 1975 re-election to non-salaried positions on local school boards and a third person who was a candidate, but subsequently appointed to a water district governing board, fought the imposition of late filing penalties.

... In all these cases, no funds were received or expended in connection with the election.

The County argued strongly that it be able to bring suit in Small Claims, on what it claimed were civil penalties.

As a result of our collaboration, a member of this firm obtained from court records copies of the pleadings which Lawyer Kopp had presented in behalf of non-class students in opposition to mandatory busing in a San Francisco desegregation class action. He later gained intervenor status for them in Johnson v. San Francisco Unified School District (9th Cir.1974) 500 F.2nd 349, 353 over objections by the SFUSD.

Senator Kopp's work as a lawyer in this earlier case helped me shape my complaint and prepare me for opposition by both the Plaintiffs and Defendant in the Carlin case both before and after intervention, and led to his participation as a legislator in the case. The contribution by the San Francisco firm made possible invaluable assistance to my pro bono effort.
 

On October 5, 1995, with clearance from my doctors, I obtained permission from the Court to hear my Motion for Reconsideration next December 15. In the meantime I had the ability to use my computer, to prepare and have my wife mail necessary papers concerning intervening