n any given morning in San Francisco's law and motion departments, judges will hear as many as 30 cases in rapid-fire succession.
So it's not surprising that a judge sometimes fumbles to keep on top of the calendar, as Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay did one recent morning.
"Let me just find my notes on this one," Quidachay told lawyers waiting at the podium. "There are so many cases, I just want to make sure I get the facts right."
Bluffing for a minute, Quidachay said, "So, why don't you tell me why I shouldn't rule the way I did [in the tentative decision]?"
It was an awkward moment, but Quidachay recovered as soon as the lawyers started talking.
"Ah! I remember this one!" he said, launching into a discussion about the case.
The moment sums up a lot about Quidachay. Counsel who appear before him say he's not as graceful in his command of facts and issues as his colleague in the law and motion department, Judge David Garcia. But Quidachay usually regains his balance and does know his cases.
A 1983 Jerry Brown appointee to the municipal court bench, Quidachay served as the muni court law and motion judge for six years until October 1998, when the judges created a second law and motion department to serve both muni and superior court matters. Before joining the bench, he worked for the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation and served as a deputy district attorney.
The consensus among attorneys so far: Quidachay is a stickler for rules, gets the issues before him, and tends to rule predictably and correctly. But he also has a grating manner, they say.
"It seems to me that Quidachay is equally impatient with the constant snow job he gets from lawyers as Garcia, but Quidachay seems to show it more," says one attorney who has appeared before Quidachay three times. "He's got this expression like, 'I'm not as dumb as you think I am.'^"
Quidachay's stridency was in view several weeks ago, when he blasted Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher associate Steven Kimball.
Kimball was seeking a demurrer in Keystone Automotive v. PeopleSoft U.S.A. Inc., 302567. It's a contract dispute in which Keystone, which sells auto parts, says it paid a half-million dollars for bum software from PeopleSoft. Kimball was asking Quidachay to take judicial notice of the contract -- a no-no in a demurrer, Quidachay said.
"You should know better," Quidachay told Kimball.
Kimball protested that he's successfully made the motion elsewhere. "Fine, do it in other courts," Quidachay said. "But I'm pretty sure it won't happen next door."
An attorney who has had cases with Quidachay before and after the judge's superior court assignment says his elevation has changed his courtroom demeanor.
"I think he's a little more harried now because of the consolidation of the courts," says Arnold Evje II, a solo practitioner who represents landlords. "What he'll ask is, 'Is there anything besides what you've put in the papers?' That's the clue he's read your papers, the research attorney has looked at it, and 'please don't waste my time.'^"
Quidachay says the leeway he allows counsel "depends on the length of the calendar that day. On those days when the calendar is packed, I am not going to permit them to read back what's in the papers."
One plaintiffs attorney says Quidachay has more give to him than does Garcia.
"With Quidachay, if you have good facts and bad law, it's not hopeless like it is with Garcia," says this attorney. "I think he's sympathetic to the facts, and the more outrageous your facts the better your chances."
