Monday, June 29, 2020

Waiver by failing to contest tentative?

See footnote 7 in this pub'd opinion here, where Respondents argue that Appellant waived an issue by failing to object to the trial court's tentative decision on the point. But the Court of Appeal says 'nah':
  • We will give appellants the benefit of the doubt. If appellants had not challenged the tentative ruling at all, they could have appealed all the issues decided by the trial court. “Submission on a tentative ruling is neutral; it conveys neither agreement nor disagreement with the analysis.” (Mundy v. Lenc (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 1401, 1406.)
[Hat tip to appellate star and loyal reader Michael Colantuano for flagging this one!]

If you really need an appellate waiver case to make your day today, then 1/3 comes through for you in this published opinion here:
  • In the published portion of our opinion, we hold that [Appellant] forfeited several legal arguments that she failed to present to the trial court below. In doing so, we reject her contention that an appellate court is required to consider all arguments challenging an order sustaining a demurrer based on the compulsory cross-complaint statute when such arguments purport to raise purely legal issues that are belatedly raised for the first time on appeal.