Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Re: What is a Summary judgement

It is a decsion made by the court based on the pleadings and supporting affidavits. It assumed that no material issues of fact are in dispute, no trial is necessary and that the court can make a decision based on the law.

Re: What is a Summary judgement

A summary judgment issues upon the making of a motion for summary judgment, which basically asks the court to find that there are no triable issues of fact, and, therefore, no reason to have a trial. In other words, the pleadings and result of discovery procedures have produced a state of the case where one side or the other has established by admitted facts, its right to judgment, without the necessity for trial. Courts, because of their reluctance to forego trials, are loathe to grant such motions, they are difficult to make, but the appeals courts have upheld them, and will continue to, although as they say, "All intendments are to resolved in favor of the non moving party."

Re: What is a Summary judgement

Summary judgment is judgment that is "summarily" granted.

It is done by motion paractice (on papers) and evidence is submitted to the court to determine whether it should grant judgment.

It is the duty of the court in these cases to try to find a substantial issue of material fact to deny the motion---but there may not be...

Good Luck

RRG

Re: What is a Summary judgement

I know that you have already had two explanations for your question and both are correct. I thought, however, you might want a little more detail and explanation . . . so here goes:

A jury decides disputed issues of fact (i.e., was the light red or green when the car when through the intersection?), and the judge decides disputed issues of law (i.e., even if the light was red, was the driver lawfully justified in going through the light?).

In many cases, there are no disputed issues of fact or, if they are disputed, the issues in dipute are not material. For example, all of the parties agree that Company A did not provide the widgets to Company B as provided in the contract, but the contract was to supply illicit drugs; therefore, the only issue is one of law -- i.e., are contracts to supply illicit drugs enforceable?

In these circumstances, it is not necessary to have a trial because there are no disputed issues of fact for the jury to resolve. Thus, rather than having a "judgment" entered after a trial, the "judgment" may be issued by the court alone b/c the jury is not necessary.

This is called summary judgment -- judgment where there exists no material issues of fact and one party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

Hope this helps.

-- Kenneth J. Ashman; Ashman Law Offices, LLC; [email protected]