Judge: Lisa R. Jaskol, Case: 21STCV32838, Date: 2023-11-14 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV32838    Hearing Date: November 14, 2023    Dept: 28

Having considered the moving papers, the Court rules as follows. 

BACKGROUND 

On September 3, 2021, Plaintiff Kayvan Vojdani (“Plaintiff”), representing himself, filed this action against Defendants Yasiel Diaz Valledor (“Defendant”) and Does 1-20 for motor vehicle tort and general negligence. 

On October 12, 2021, attorney K. Tom Kohan filed a substitution of attorney substituting himself as counsel for Plaintiff. 

On February 17, 2023, no parties or counsel appeared at the final status conference or contacted the Court. 

On March 3, 2023, the date of the scheduled trial, no parties or counsel appeared and the Court dismissed the action without prejudice under Code of Civil Procedure section 581, subdivision (b)(3). 

On August 11, 2023, Plaintiff filed a motion to vacate the dismissal to be heard on November 14, 2023. 

PARTY’S REQUEST 

Plaintiff requests that the Court vacate the dismissal. 

LEGAL STANDARD 

          Code of Civil Procedure section 473, subdivision (b), provides in part: 

“Notwithstanding any other requirements of this section, the court shall, whenever an application for relief is made no more than six months after entry of judgment, is in proper form, and is accompanied by an attorney’s sworn affidavit attesting to his or her mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or neglect, vacate any (1) resulting default entered by the clerk against his or her client, and which will result in entry of a default judgment, or (2) resulting default judgment or dismissal entered against his or her client, unless the court finds that the default or dismissal was not in fact caused by the attorney’s mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or neglect. The court shall, whenever relief is granted based on an attorney’s affidavit of fault, direct the attorney to pay reasonable compensatory legal fees and costs to opposing counsel or parties. However, this section shall not lengthen the time within which an action shall be brought to trial pursuant to Section 583.310.” 

(Code Civ. Proc., § 473, subd. (b).) 

DISCUSSION 

Plaintiff’s counsel has submitted a declaration stating that counsel “[has] had to deal with and continue[s] to deal with multiple serious health issues, stemming, among other things, a quintuple heart bypass surgery and therefore, for a while was not able to tend to all the pending matters.” 

Counsel also states that, “on or about July 1, 2022, I moved offices to the current location at 1310 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024. Admittedly, I failed to file a notice of change of address with the court. I believe based on the foregoing, I never received the notice of dismissal, dated on or about March 3, 2023, or any other papers that the court might have served on my office.” 

The motion was filed within six months of the dismissal and shows that the dismissal was the result of attorney mistake.  Therefore, the Court grants the motion. 

CONCLUSION 

The Court GRANTS Plaintiff Kayvan Vojdani’s motion to vacate the March 3, 2023 order dismissing the case.  The Court vacates the March 3, 2023 order of dismissal. 

Moving party is ordered to give notice of this ruling. 

Moving party is ordered to file the proof of service of this ruling with the Court within five days.