Source: http://ca.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20150604_0004341.CA.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2016-10-28 03:04:41
Document Index: 619954551

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 659', '§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 659', '§ 85', '§ 660', '§660', '§ 657']

KEELY MARONEY, Plaintiff and Appellantv.ASAF IACOBSOHN et al., Defendants and Respondents.
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, No. EC052886 William D. Stewart, Judge. Page 474
Shaver, Korff & Castronovo, Tod M. Castronovo and Edie L. Brookes for Defendants and Respondents.
This appeal principally concerns the jurisdictional deadlines for noticing and ruling on a motion for new trial under Code of Civil Procedure[1] sections 659 and 660. Specifically, we must decide whether service of notice of entry of judgment by the party moving for new trial triggers the statutes’ jurisdictional deadlines. We hold that it does not.
The appeal arises from a rear end automobile accident; however, the issues presented are entirely procedural. The case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff Keely Maroney (Plaintiff), apportioning 40 percent of the fault to Plaintiff and 60 percent to defendant Asaf Iacobsohn Page 476
(Defendant).[2] Following entry of judgment, Defendant moved to recover costs based on Plaintiff’s rejection of an offer to compromise pursuant to section 998. Plaintiff responded with a motion to tax costs, which included a file-stamped copy of the judgment as an exhibit. Twenty-two days later, Plaintiff filed a notice of intention to move for new trial. The notice specified inadequate damages, insufficiency of the evidence, and error in law as grounds for relief.
We conclude the trial court had jurisdiction to rule, but its order conditionally granting a new trial was a nullity with no legal effect. It is settled that the right to a new trial is purely statutory and the power of the trial court to grant a new trial may be exercised only by following the statutory procedure. As we shall explain, the trial court had jurisdiction to rule on the new trial motion, because notice of entry of judgment was never served “on the Page 477
moving party” as required by section 660. However, the court was not authorized to enter an order conditioning the grant of a new trial on Plaintiff securing a favorable appellate determination of the jurisdictional issue. Because the order purported to require the parties to seek appellate review in the absence of a final judgment or an enforceable new trial order, we conclude the order was a nullity. Further, because the court did not file a valid order ruling on the new trial motion before its jurisdiction expired, the motion was denied by operation of law. Though we may review a denial by operation of law on an appeal from the judgment, Plaintiff has not supplied an adequate record to establish grounds for reversal. Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed and Defendant’s appeal is dismissed.
On April 12, 2013-22 days after serving a file-stamped copy of the judgment with her motion to tax costs-Plaintiff filed a notice of intention to Page 478
move for new trial. The notice specified inadequate damages, insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict, and error in law as grounds for the new trial motion. In her subsequent memorandum of points and authorities, Plaintiff argued damages were inadequate because the evidence showed she incurred medical expenses totaling $275, 930 as a result of the accident, the evidence was insufficient to find her comparatively negligent, and the trial court erred by giving a comparative negligence jury instruction.
In the course of the hearing, the court inquired whether the parties gave notice of entry of judgment. Plaintiff’s counsel responded that he believed his office gave notice, prompting Defendant’s counsel to suggest the court’s jurisdiction to rule on the motion might have expired. Neither party could confirm the date notice was given; accordingly, the court adjourned the hearing to investigate the jurisdictional issue.
On June 11, 2013-82 days after Plaintiff served a file-stamped copy of the judgment with her motion to tax costs, but only 60 days after she filed her notice of intention to move for new trial-the court held the continued hearing on the new trial motion. Relying principally on Palmer v. GTE California, Inc. (2003) 30 Cal.4th 1265 [135 Cal.Rptr.2d 654, 70 P.3d 1067] (Palmer), Defendant argued Plaintiff’s service of a file-stamped copy of the judgment with her motion to tax costs constituted written notice of entry of judgment sufficient to trigger the 60-day jurisdictional period for ruling on her new trial motion.[3] Because 82 days had passed since Plaintiff served such notice, Defendant maintained the court’s jurisdiction to rule had lapsed.
After reviewing Palmer, the trial court stated it “agree[d] with [the] defense that the court’s power has expired.” Nevertheless, the court reasoned that what it “should do is make a conditional order granting a motion for new trial in the event that a superior [appellate] court should find that... the jurisdiction of time [sic] has not expired.” The trial court clarified that the conditional nature of its ruling meant that, until an appellate court found it had jurisdiction to rule, “there is no new trial.” Plaintiff’s counsel did not object to the condition, and acknowledged Plaintiff would bear the burden of challenging the ruling on appeal. Later that day, the court filed a minute order “conditionally grant[ing]” Plaintiff’s new trial motion “on the grounds as fully set forth in the notes of the Official Court Reporter....”
In this case we must decide under the applicable statutes whether the trial court had jurisdiction to rule on Plaintiff’s new trial motion when the court entered its conditional order. This question turns on whether the jurisdictional clock started to run upon Plaintiff’s service of the file-stamped copy of the judgment with her motion to tax costs, or upon Plaintiff’s filing of her notice of intention to move for new trial. If it is the former, then Plaintiff’s notice of intention to move for new trial-filed 22 days after Plaintiff served the file-stamped copy of the judgment-was too late to confer jurisdiction on the trial court. (See § 659, subd. (a)(2).) If it is the latter, and the notice of intention was filed on time, then the court had jurisdiction to rule when it entered its conditional order 60 days later.[4] (See § 660.) “The issue as to what triggers the commencement of time within which to rule on a motion for new trial involves a pure question of statutory interpretation, which we review de novo.” (People ex rel. Dept. of Transportation v. Cherry Highland Properties (1999) 76 Cal.App.4th 257, 260 [90 Cal.Rptr.2d 214] (Cherry Highland).)
The resolution of this issue is controlled by the express language of sections 659 and 660. In relevant part, section 659 requires the party intending to Page 481
move for a new trial to file a notice of intention within the earlier of “15 days of the date of... service upon him or her by any party of written notice of entry of judgment, or... 180 days after the entry of judgment." (Id., subd. (a)(2), italics added.) Similarly, section 660 provides in pertinent part: “[T]he power of the court to rule on a motion for a new trial shall expire... 60 days from and after service on the moving party by any party of written notice of the entry of the judgment, ... or if such notice has not theretofore been given, then 60 days after filing of the first notice of intention to move for a new trial.”[5] (Italics added.)
Here, even if we assume that attaching a file-stamped copy of the judgment to a motion to tax costs constitutes notice of entry of judgment under sections 659 and 660, we still must conclude that Plaintiff’s service of the document on Defendant did not trigger the statutes’ jurisdictional deadlines. This is because both statutes require service on the moving party, and Plaintiff-the moving party here-did not (and could not) serve notice of entry of judgment on herself. (See Cherry Highland, supra, 76 Cal.App.4th at p. 263 [likewise holding service of notice of entry of judgment by party moving for new trial does not trigger § 660’s jurisdictional time period], disapproved on other grounds in Palmer, supra, 30 Cal.4th at p. 1278, fn. 5.) Accordingly, Plaintiff timely filed her notice of intention to move for new trial under section 659, and that act commenced the 60-day jurisdictional period for the court to rule on her motion under section 660.
Notwithstanding the statutes’ express language, Defendant contends Plaintiff waived the requirement of “service on the moving party” by attaching a file-stamped copy of the judgment to her motion to tax costs. For support, Defendant relies on Gardner v. Stare (1901) 135 Cal. 118 [67 P. 5] (Gardner). In Gardner, the Supreme Court held the moving party’s application to stay execution of the judgment, which admitted the party’s knowledge of the judgment, constituted “a waiver of [the party’s] right to a notice of the decision” under a former version of section 659. (Gardner, at pp. 119-120.) When Gardner was decided, former section 659 read in pertinent part: “The party intending to move for a new trial must, within ten days after... notice of the decision of the court... file with the clerk and serve upon the adverse party a notice of his intention....” (Former § 659, added by Stats. 1872 and amended by Code Amends. 1873-1874 ch. 383, § 85.) Because the moving party filed her notice of intention 12 days after serving her application to stay execution of the judgment, Gardner held the trial court “had no jurisdiction to hear her motion for a new trial.” (Gardner, at p. 120.)
Furthermore, due to the jurisdictional implications of the new trial statutes, recent Supreme Court authority emphasizes the need for strict adherence to statutory language, notwithstanding the sort of practical concerns over notice and expediency at play in Gardner. In Van Beurden, the Supreme Court considered what was required to commence section 660’s jurisdictional time period under the provision pertaining to “the mailing of notice of entry of judgment by the clerk of the court pursuant to Section 664.5.”[7] (§ 660; see Van Beurden, supra, 15 Cal.4th at pp. 56-58.) There was no dispute in the case that the clerk of the court mailed a file-stamped copy of the judgment to the moving party more than 60 days before the trial court ruled on the new trial motion. (Van Beurden, at pp. 57-58.) However, because section 660 expressly requires notice “ ‘pursuant to section 664.5, ’ ” the Van Beurden court explained that “the clerk’s mailing of the file-stamped copy of the judgment commenced the 60-day time limit for ruling on the new trial motion only if it Page 483
As indicated, a critical linchpin of the Van Beurden decision is the Supreme Court’s admonition that “in a matter involving jurisdictional restrictions” there should be no need for “ ‘guesswork.’ ” (Van Beurden, supra, 15 Cal.4th at p. 62.) Van Beurden thus reflects the modern view that jurisdictional statutes must be strictly construed according to their express language to ensure that parties and courts are not required to speculate about jurisdictional time limits. (Id. at p. 64; see S M Trading v. Kono, supra, Page 484
2. The Trial Court’s Order Conditioning a New Trial on Appellate Review of the Court’s Jurisdiction Is a Nullity with No Legal Effect
Though we have concluded the trial court had jurisdiction to rule on Plaintiff’s new trial motion, this does not mean the court was authorized to enter an order that conditioned the grant of a new trial on a favorable appellate resolution of the disputed jurisdictional issue. It has long been settled that “[t]he right to a new trial is purely statutory, ” and a motion for new trial can be granted only as provided in the applicable statutes. (Fomco, Inc. v. Joe Maggio, Inc. (1961) 55 Cal.2d 162, 166 [10 Cal.Rptr. 462, 358 P.2d 918].) "Because new trial motions are creatures of statute, ‘ “the procedural steps... for making and determining such a motion are Page 485
mandatory and must be strictly followed [citations].” ’ ” (Wall Street Network, Ltd. v. New York Times Co. (2008) 164 Cal.App.4th 1171, 1193 [80 Cal.Rptr.3d 6]; see Mercer v. Perez (1968) 68 Cal.2d 104, 118 [65 Cal.Rptr. 315, 436 P.2d 315] (Mercer).) When a trial court purports to issue a new trial ruling without following the mandated procedure, the resulting order is “an act in excess of jurisdiction and is therefore a nullity.” (La Manna v. Stewart (1975) 13 Cal.3d 413, 418 [118 Cal.Rptr. 761, 530 P.2d 1073].)
In this case, the trial court entered an order purporting to grant Plaintiff’s motion for new trial on the condition that Plaintiff would file an appeal from the order and secure a favorable appellate ruling on the trial court’s jurisdiction. Nothing in the new trial statutes authorizes the court to enter such an order, which effectively requires appellate review of what is in essence an interlocutory order. That is, the court’s order on the one hand purports to set aside the judgment on the jury’s verdict by granting a new trial, while on the other hand, the order specifies that no new trial will take place unless and until an appellate court resolves the jurisdictional timing issue in the moving party’s favor. This procedural state of limbo, in which there is neither a valid final judgment nor an enforceable new trial order, is contrary to the orderly administration of justice that the new trial statutes are meant to promote. (See, e.g., Mercer, supra, 68 Cal.2d at p. 123.) The conditional order in this case is a nullity that we can neither reverse nor affirm.[10]
Because the trial court failed to enter a valid order within the time allowed by section 660, Plaintiff’s motion for new trial was denied by operation of law. Though the trial court erred in concluding it lacked jurisdiction to rule on the motion, there is nothing we can do now to reinstate or revive the motion in the court below.[11] (Free v. Furr (1956) 140 Cal.App.2d 378, 385-386 [295 P.2d 134] (Free) [where trial court erred in holding it lacked Page 486
jurisdiction to rule on a new trial motion due to the filing of an appeal, plaintiff’s only remedy was to apply to the appellate court for a writ of mandate ordering the trial judge to proceed with hearing the motion within the time allowed by §660]; see Mercer, supra, 68 Cal.2d at pp. 122-123 [holding Supreme Court had no power to revive the trial court’s jurisdiction to specify reasons for granting a new trial where trial court failed to comply with § 657, discussing Free with approval].)
Further, while the denial by operation of law can be reviewed on an appeal from the judgment (Free, supra, 140 Cal.App.2d at p. 386), here, Plaintiff has not supplied an adequate record to establish grounds for reversal. The record consists almost exclusively of the moving and opposition papers on Plaintiff’s new trial motion, and hearing transcripts on the same. Apart from excerpts of trial testimony attached to the parties’ briefs, we have no record of the evidence presented at trial. The trial record that we do have, however, shows there was conflicting evidence on the extent of Plaintiff’s injuries and whether her own conduct constituted negligence sufficient to support the jury’s comparative fault determinations. In considering Plaintiff’s new trial motion, the trial court had the power to reweigh this evidence in its exclusive role as the 13th juror. However, as an appellate court reviewing the judgment, we are bound by the jury’s findings so long as they are supported by substantial evidence. (See Holmes v. Southern Cal. Edison Co. (1947) 78 Cal.App.2d 43, 51-52 [177 P.2d 32] ["The trial judge sits as a thirteenth juror with the power to weigh the evidence and judge the credibility of the witnesses. If he believes the damages awarded by the jury to be excessive and the question is presented it becomes his duty to reduce them.... An appellate court has no such powers. It cannot weigh the evidence and pass on the credibility of the witnesses as a juror does.... [I]f there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the damages awarded by the jury..., we are powerless to reduce them or to hold the award excessive." (citations omitted)].)
The record supplied by Plaintiff fails to establish grounds for reversing the judgment. Accordingly, we must affirm. (See Free, supra, 140 Cal.App.2d at p. 386.)
The judgment is affirmed. The appeal by Defendants Asaf Iacobsohn, M.Y. Iacobsohn and Pac West Corporation from the purported order conditionally granting a new trial is dismissed. Defendants are entitled to costs on appeal.