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 enforcement for no more than 10 days after the last date a notice of appeal could be filed.
An application for a stay of enforcement of a California judgment requires the moving party to file a notice motion or, more commonly, an ex-parte application for what is known as a stay of enforcement of the judgment.
Any party in California who has had a money judgment entered against them in California 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. judgment. The reason for this is that section 683.010 of the Code of Civil Procedure states that, “Except as otherwise provided by law or judgment, a judgment is enforceable under this title upon 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 that it can begin collection efforts immediately, that party may wish to file an ex parte application for a stay of enforcement.
The period of time in which enforcement of a judgment can be stayed varies depending on whether the case is limited civil or unlimited civil and whether the clerk of court or any other party to the action. Therefore, each case is unique and this is why there are several different time frames 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 Court Rule 8.822 governs the deadline for filing a notice of appeal in limited civil cases.
For most limited civil cases in which the court clerk or either party has served a notice of entry of judgment on the defendant, the deadline to file a notice of appeal is 30 days from the date the that the statement entry notification 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 judgment.
California Court Rule 8.104 governs the deadline for filing a notice of appeal in limited civil cases.
For most unlimited civil cases in which the clerk of court or either party has served a notice of entry of judgment on the defendant, the deadline for filing a notice of appeal is 60 days from the date the that the statement entry notification is delivered. the accused.
For most unlimited civil cases, if the defendant was not notified that judgment was entered, the time to file a notice of appeal is 190 days from the date the clerk of court entered judgment.
While the trial court has the power to stay execution of the sentence, 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 plausible reasons at least on the face of it to appeal the judgment and the moving party can convincingly show 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 that will be suffered if a stay of execution is not granted and must also include all relevant documents as evidence.
Possible reasons could include that the judgment was obtained by default and the moving party has filed or will file a motion to vacate the judgment, that allowing the judgment to be enforced 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