On Appealablity

Donohue v. AMN Servs. Inc., No. D071865 (D4d1 Dec. 10, 2018)

The Court of Appeal here affirms a summary judgment for the defendant in a wage and hour case. Something about time clock rounding.

But the interesting procedural issue is the Court’s refusal to consider on appeal plaintiff’s post-judgment ex parte motion to strike the summary judgment. The court goes at this a few different ways, and some of them seem a little shaky. But maybe that’s because the law itself is kind of shaky.

Maybe Mandatory, But Definitely Not Jurisdictional.

Kabran v. Sharp Memorial Hospital, No. S227393 (Cal Jan. 19, 2017)

The issue is whether Plaintiff’s late filing of declarations in support of a motion for new trial—to which Defendant didn’t object in the trial court—is a jurisdictional defect that can be raised as a matter of right for the first time on appeal. The Supreme Court affirms the court of Appeal in 2015’s Kabran decision and says no, for largely the same reasons.

Und Hier Kommt der Twist!

Maroney v. Iacobsohn, No. B249890 (D2d3, opinion after rehearing Jun. 4, 2015)

An auto accident plaintiff won a jury verdict but received far less in damages than she thought she deserved. So she moved for a new trial on damages. In ruling on the motion, the trial court said it would have granted the motion, but for the fact that the hearing occurred too late and thus that it lacked jurisdiction. So it “conditionally granted” the motion, subject to plaintiff’s appeal on the jurisdiction issue. The court of appeal rules that the trial court was wrong on the jurisdictional issue. But that doesn’t mean plaintiff gets her new trial.