Stay of Enforcement of California Judgment
The stay of execution of a California judgment is the subject of this article. Section 918 of the Code of Civil Procedure is the California statute that authorizes a trial court to stay the execution of any judgment, but only for a limited period of time. For most California judgments, such as money judgments, the trial court can stay execution for no more than 10 days after the last date a notice of appeal could be filed.
A request for stay of execution of a California judgment requires the moving party to file a motion on notice or, more commonly, an ex-parte request for what is known as a stay of execution of judgment.
Any party in California who has had a money judgment entered against them should realize the vital importance of immediately seeking a stay of enforcement of any money judgment as soon as possible after the judgment has been entered. The reason for this is that section 683.010 of the Code of Civil Procedure states that, “Except as otherwise provided in law or in judgment, a judgment is enforceable under this title at the time of entry.” This means that California law allows a judgment creditor to start collection proceedings to enforce the judgment as soon as the court clerk has entered the judgment, in some cases that can be the same day!
In cases where the judgment creditor appears to be particularly aggressive and one party believes it can begin collection efforts immediately, that party may wish to file an ex parte request for a stay of enforcement.
The length of time that enforcement of a judgment can be stayed varies depending on whether it is a limited civil or unlimited civil case and whether the clerk of court or any other party to the action. Therefore, each case is unique and this is the reason why there are several different deadlines for filing a notice of appeal for both limited civil cases and unlimited civil cases. Examples of the different deadlines will be given below.
California Rule of Court 8.822 governs the deadline for filing a notice of appeal in limited civil cases.
For most limited civil cases where the clerk of court or either party has served a notice of entry on the defendant, the deadline to file a notice of appeal is 30 days from the date on which notification of entry of judgment is delivered. the accused.
For most limited civil cases, if a notice of entry of judgment was not served on the defendant, the deadline to file a notice of appeal is 90 days from the date the court clerk entered the judgment.
California Rule of Court 8.104 governs the deadline for filing a notice of appeal in limited civil cases.
For most unlimited civil cases where the clerk of court or either party has served a notice of entry on the defendant, the deadline to file a notice of appeal is 60 days from the date on which notification of entry of judgment is delivered. the accused.
For most unlimited civil cases, if the defendant was not notified that the judgment was entered, the time to file a notice of appeal is 190 days from the date the court clerk entered the judgment.
While the trial court has the power to stay execution of the judgment whether or not a notice of appeal has been filed in the real world, there are some judges who can only grant a stay of execution in the following situations:
The moving party obtained a judgment against you for default and has filed or will file a motion to vacate that judgment showing good cause to vacate the judgment.
The moving party has already filed a notice of appeal or will file a notice of appeal and can show at least apparently plausible grounds for appealing the judgment and the moving party can show convincingly that it will suffer irreparable harm if the judgment is enforced. did not stay
The moving party must include a detailed statement with specific facts and evidence detailing the irreparable harm they will suffer if a stay of execution is not granted and must also include all relevant documents as evidence.
Possible grounds could include that the judgment was obtained in default and the moving party has filed or will file a motion to vacate the judgment, that allowing enforcement of the judgment will cause the sale of a key asset of significant value, would devastate an ongoing business, or would likely lead to insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings.
To view the text of any of the Code of Civil Procedure sections cited in this article, visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes.xhtml
To view the text of any California Court Rules cited in this article, visit http://www.courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index.cfm?title=eight
