A review of opinions written by Justice Patricia Guerrero while on the appeals court in San Diego gives some clues to what she may bring to the state Supreme Court
It is 600 miles from the sunbaked city of Imperial, where Justice Patricia Guerrero grew up, to McCallister Street in downtown San Francisco where the state Supreme Court building stands.
Just four years later she was named to the Fourth District Court of Appeal in downtown San Diego, and in March — after less than five years on the appellate court — Gov. Gavin Newsom named her to the Supreme Court as an associate justice, replacing Mariano-Florentino Cuellar.Five months later he tapped her to replace Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who decided not to seek retention to a second 12-year term and will retire at the end of the year.
She replaced Chief Justice Ronald George, who had been a judge for 19 years before being named an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1991 and later elevated to its leader in 1996. The case centered on a consumer who purchased a replacement laptop battery from a third-party seller on Amazon, then was burned when the battery blew up several months later. The buyer sued Amazon, which contended it could not be liable because the company did not manufacture, sell or distribute the product.
“It’s a very significant ruling,” he said. “It has been relied on now in other cases and written up in law review articles. This is very much a pro consumer decision.” He said the decision benefitted individuals, who for years often had been blocked from suing government agencies because they did not comply with every technical aspect of filing a claim. “That’s really damaging to consumers and plaintiffs who want their day in court,” he said. “Justice Guerrero is saying, to the extent we can, to the degree we can, let’s play fair.”
The ruling was “an important step forward in this area of the law,” said Christina Spaulding of the Office of the State Public Defender, which filed the case. Many small and medium counties use private labs for forensic work, so the ruling could have broader application.
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