How have the courts dealt with the issue of jurisdictional defects in an appeal?

Counsel for the respective parties, at oral argument, have noted that this accident happened in 1966 and that the appeal has been pending since February 1970. They, furthermore, explain that their respective briefs have discussed fully the merit of their respective contentions, and that they would perfer to waive any jurisdictional defects here (see Lopes v. Capital Company (1961) 192 Cal.App.2d 759, 13 Cal.Rptr. 787) and have us dispose of the appeal on the merits to avoid further delay upon the filing of our remittitur, further trial and another appeal on the same grounds as are before us now.

Upon being informed by the court that the jurisdictional defect could not be waived, counsel for the respective parties stipulated at oral argument that we 'treat the appeal, the record and the briefs as a petition for a writ.' We are mindful of our limitations insofar as advisory decisions are concerned, but we are also impressed with our duty to see that justice is administered in a practical fashion with the least possible delay. Insofar as this case is concerned, we are not able to take the same measures as in Shepardson v. McLellan (1963) 59 Cal.2d 83, 27 Cal.Rptr 884, 378 P.2d 108, and the cases therein cited (p. 89, 27 Cal.Rptr. 884, 378 P.2d 108), but we are aided by the philosophy expressed there, that is, to avoid any procedural obstacles that would have been "unnecessarily dilatory and circuitous." (Id. at p. 88, 27 Cal.Rptr. 884, 378 P.2d 108.) We are justified in disposing of the procedural problems in a businesslike fashion in the interests of justice and to prevent unnecessary delay.