July 23, 2025
Appellate Victory for Vanessa Widener and Ali Vaqar
An important published Opinion issued by the Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Div. Two, affecting civil litigators balancing congested court calendars with the statutory deadline for filing a motion for summary judgment.
In CPF BDA LLC v. Bedford, et al., the motion for summary judgment was timely filed in compliance with the statutory deadline but not within 10 days of reserving the hearing date as required by the local rules. Thus, the hearing date was canceled by the court, and the filing rejected. In granting the petition for writ of mandate filed by Vanessa Widener and Ali Vaqar at Anderson, McPharlin & Conners LLP, the Court of Appeal ordered the trial court to set a hearing on the motion for summary judgment which was timely filed in compliance with the statutory deadline. While sympathetic to the difficulty trial courts face when managing a calendar, the Court of Appeal held that the local rules cannot be applied in such a way that prevents a timely filed motion for summary judgment from being heard and that case law requires that the trial court make accommodations so the matter may be considered on the merits. (Appellate Case No. E085583; Supreme Court publication order 7/10/25).