In a case involving a contract to sell real property, the buyer’s breach of contract claim was tried to the jury, which answered three special verdicts in plaintiff’s favor but deadlocked on the fourth. The judge declared a mistrial. Then the plaintiff moved for the judge to decide his specific performance claim. The judge did so, ruling against the plaintiff. Held, by seeking the judge’s ruling on the specific performance claim, the plaintiff waived any error in the judge’s allegedly hasty declaration of a mistrial since a reversal would only give plaintiff a new trial before a different jury, not a retrial before the same jury, and plaintiff got the equivalent through the trial judge’s decision on the specific performance claim.
California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division 3 (Siggins, J.); May 31, 2018 (partial publication); 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 512