Judge: Glenn R. Salter, Case: 15-767040, Date: 2022-10-20 Tentative Ruling

The motion of the plaintiff, Jane Frost as Trustee of the Jane Frost Trust (who is self-represented) to vacate a 2017 judgment pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 473, subdivision (d), is DENIED.

(The court notes that it appears under the facts as pled in the 2015 complaint, the plaintiff may represent the trust under the specific facts of this case.  (See Justice Aronson’s opinion in Aulisio v. Bancroft (2014) 230 Cal.App.4th 1516 and Justice Fybel’s concurring opinion.))

The plaintiff initially filed this action in 2015.  In 2017, a jury awarded her nothing.  Her appeal was dismissed in 2018 when she failed to file a brief.  She now claims, in essence, that she lost at trial because the defendant lied, and an important document was concealed from her (apparently by her attorney?) and was not introduced at trial by her attorney.

Although subdivision (d) of section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure is generally geared towards the correction of clerical errors in a judgment, Frost does not argue that there was a clerical error.  Instead, she relies on that portion of the statute that allows a court to vacate and set aside a void judgment.

Frost fails to establish the judgment was void as a matter of law.  Although she registers several complaints about how the trial was conducted, none of them address the singular issue of whether the judgment was void.  Having failed to address the key issue, or to provide any basis on which the court could make such a finding, she has not established a right to relief.

The court also notes the plaintiff appears to be using this motion as a sword in the legal malpractice action she filed against her trial attorney.  (See Frost v. Hanley, 2018-01014124.)  She states that if this motion is granted, she suggests she will dismiss the other action because the damages she would obtain there are included within this action.

On its own motion, the court takes judicial notice of the file in the other action before Judge George.  On October 11, 2022, the court notes Frost dismissed that action without prejudice.

The defendant shall give notice.