GENERAL ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION OF CALIFORNIA (a Corporation), Appellant, v. E. C. ROBINSON, Respondent, 207 Cal. 285

Summary

After the corporation sought to recover on an alleged contract of guaranty against the guarantor, the trial court granted the guarantor's motion for change of place of trial from the County of San Francisco to the County of Alameda, despite that a clause in the contract designated the City and County of San Francisco as the place for trial if any suit was brought upon the contract or the assignment. On appeal, the court ruled that there was no statutory provision pursuant to Cal. Civ. Proc. § 395 et seq. that required the courts to uphold parties' written stipulations regarding the place of trial. The court held that the rules to determine in what courts and counties actions may be brought were fixed upon consideration of general convenience and expediency by general law and that to allow them to be changed by the agreement of the parties would disturb the symmetry of the law and interfere with such convenience. The court concluded that jurisdiction was beyond the agreement of the ...