Summary Adjudication Reversed Where Trial Court Acted On Superseded Pleading
In the case of State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) v. Superior Court (Onvoi Business Solutions, Inc.), No. A125834 (February 23; ordered published May 20), Division Five of the First Appellate District granted SCIF writ relief where the trial court had entered a summary adjudication against it on a superseded complaint. SCIF had sued Onvoi to collect unpaid premiums SCIF claimed were owed for workers’ compensation insurance policies it had issued. The Fund’s original complaint included a fraud cause of action. Onvoi moved for summary adjudication based on the three-year fraud statute of limitations. SCIF then filed a First Amended Complaint alleging an ongoing conspiracy to defraud SCIF by concealing the information SCIF needs to calculate Ovoi’s premium. Onvoi did not amend its motion in response to the First Amended Complaint, and the trial court acted on it despite SCIF’s objection that it was mooted by its subsequent filing.
SCIF timely appealed, and the appellate court agreed that the trial court had erred in granting a motion for summary adjudication on a superseded pleading. Onvoi argued on appeal that it did not matter to which pleading the court looked; it was entitled to summary adjudication of the fraud claim regardless of that.  The Court of Appeal, in issuing a writ to the trial court, disagreed. It found that the First Amended Complaint raised new issues of fact with respect to the tolling of the statute of limitations and found there was substantial evidence before it supporting SCIF’s theory of the case.
February 23, 2010
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