In Cuccia v. Superior Court, ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (Jul. 16, 2007), the Court of Appeal had this to say:
Pursuant to Auto Equity Sales, Inc. v. Superior Court (1962) 57 Cal.2d 450, 455, the decisions of every division of the District Court of Appeal are binding on all superior courts of this state. "Courts exercising inferior jurisdiction must accept the law declared by courts of superior jurisdiction. It is not their function to attempt to overrule decisions of the higher court." (Ibid.) ....
What should a trial court do when confronted with a published Court of Appeal opinion which compels it to rule one way when it believes that the opinion is erroneous? First, it has no choice but to follow the declared law in the appellate opinion "wherever the facts of the case are not fairly distinguishable from the facts of the case in which [the appellate court has] declared the applicable principle of law." (People v. Triggs (1973) 8 Cal.3d 884, 891.) It is simply not appropriate for the trial court to state its disagreement and rule contrary to the appellate opinion. Second, the trial court should make a record articulating why it believes the binding opinion is erroneous and should be revisited by the appellate court which is free to either disagree with or overrule the opinion. (See Dabney v. Dabney (2002) 104 Cal.App.4th 379, 384-387, concurring op. by Yegan, J., citing Witkin, Manual on Appellate Court Opinions.) This is not a hollow "remedy" or waste of time and resources. A well reasoned trial court analysis may shed light on a situation which may not have been appropriately considered by the extant appellate opinion. An appellate court should not be loathe [sic] to hear respectful and constructive criticism of one of its opinions. If we have learned anything from over two hundred years of the common law in the United States, it is that the law is not static and is, in fact, ever changing. Disagreements at the Court of Appeal level are common and departures from precedent by the Supreme Court do happen. (See 9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (4th ed. 1997) Governing Rules, § 957 et seq., p. 1002 et seq.)
Slip op. at 6-7.
