Judge: Maurice A. Leiter, Case: 21STCV37715, Date: 2023-09-15 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV37715    Hearing Date: September 15, 2023    Dept: 54

Hearing Date: September 15, 2023

Department 54, Judge Maurice A. Leiter

Motion to Enforce Settlement

Moving Party: Defendant Sarah Hinton

Responding Party: Plaintiff June Duante

T/R:      DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO ENFORCE SETTLEMENT IS DENIED.

DEFENDANT TO NOTICE.

If the parties wish to submit on the tentative, please email the courtroom at SMCdept54@lacourt.org with notice to opposing counsel (or self-represented party) before 8:00 am on the day of the hearing. 

The Court considers the moving papers, opposition, and reply.

“If parties to pending litigation stipulate, in a writing signed by the parties outside the presence of the court or orally before the court, for settlement of the case, or part thereof, the court, upon motion, may enter judgment pursuant to the terms of the settlement.”  (CCP § 664.6.)

Defendant moves to enforce the settlement executed by Plaintiff and Defendant in August 2022 and enter judgment according to its terms. Plaintiff filed this action against Defendant, the administrator of the estate of Decedent Spencer Davies, alleging an interest in Davies’s estate as Decedent’s long-term romantic partner. Defendant asserts Plaintiff has breached the settlement agreement by accessing, deleting, and copying information on Decedent's laptop and by implying on social media that Plaintiff and Decedent were married.

In opposition, Plaintiff represents that she did not delete or copy information on Decedent’s laptop and that she has not posted anything on social media about being married to Decedent. Plaintiff removed references to being married on her Facebook page, which were created before the settlement, after being notified by Defendant’s counsel of the references.

Defendant has failed to establish Plaintiff breached the agreement, nor has Defendant shown a need for its enforcement. Defendant’s motion is DENIED.