Receiver Procedure Fine on Declarations

City of Crescent City v. Sarvada Nand Hanumanthu Reddy, No. A143640 (D1d4 Mar. 7, 2017)

A motel up in Del Norte County got hit with a judgment for failure to comply with building codes, but afterwards still couldn’t manage to comply. So Crescent City got the superior court to appoint a receiver to oversee compliance. Motelier appeals.

First, M says that his objections to the city’s evidence weren’t properly ruled on. But he forfeits that argument by failing to address specific objections in his brief. And in any event, it looks like most of M’s objections are not really admissibility issues at all, M simply thinks the city’s evidence was wrong.

M also argues that the trial court erred by refusing to hear live testimony. But a motion to appoint a receiver is a law and motion matter, for which evidence is generally taken by solely declaration unless good cause is shown. Cal. R. Ct. 3.1306(a). Moreover, a party who wants live testimony at a law and motion matter must request it in writing at least three days before the hearing. Cal. R. Ct. 3.1306(b). As M didn’t comply with that rule, it wasn’t an abuse of discretion for the trial court not to take live evidence.

Finally, M appeals the ruling appointing the receiver, which is mostly a substantive issue involving the Health & Safety Code. Suffice it to say, the arguments appear to be similar to M’s evidentiary objections—complaints that the City’s evidence shouldn’t have been credited over his own. But a trial court is entitled to resolve these kinds of conflicts on a motion and certainly doesn’t abuse its discretion by doing so.

Affirmed.