September 26, 2023
Alpert, Barr & Grant is pleased to announce that David M. Almaraz prevailed for the firm’s client before the Court of Appeal of the State of California in a complex lawsuit involving the enforcement of a judgment.
In 2019, representing the defendant and judgment debtor, Mr. Almaraz successfully obtained a motion for summary judgment on behalf of a client, for a matter that began over 20 years prior. He argued the statute of limitations for the enforcement of the judgment originally entered in 1997 had lapsed. The plaintiff argued that since the defendant had lived out of state for the last 20 years, the statute of limitations had been tolled pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure ⸹ 351. Mr. Almaraz argued that based on the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the tolling statute was unconstitutional as applied to the defendant who was engaged in interstate commerce. The Trial Court agreed with Mr. Almaraz and granted summary judgment in defendant’s favor.
Now in October 2020, Mr. Almaraz argued in front of the Court of Appeal and asked the Court to affirm the Trial Court’s decision. The Court of Appeal agreed with the Trial Court’s analysis and found that the creditor’s lawsuit was time-barred since the tolling statute as applied to defendant violated the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution. Therefore, the Court of Appeal affirmed the summary judgment in favor of the firm’s client in a published decision. The Court further ruled that the firm’s client is entitled to recover his costs on appeal.
We congratulate David on another tremendous job!
