Talbott

INTRODUCTION

After Kamran Ghadimi, M.D., backed out of an alleged oral agreement to settle Ghadimi’s collection action against his former patient, Eileen Talbott, Talbott filed a cross-complaint for breach of contract to enforce the oral settlement agreement. Ghadimi missed the deadline to respond to the cross-complaint, and the trial court entered his default. Ghadimi filed a motion to set aside the default under the mandatory relief provision of Code of Civil Procedure, section 473, subdivision (b).1 The trial court denied the motion, finding the default was caused by a calculated litigation strategy, not by neglect or mistake by Ghadimi’s lawyers. We conclude Ghadimi was entitled to relief under the mandatory provision of section 473, subdivision (b). In doing so, we follow Solv-All v. Superior Court (2005) 131 Cal.App.4th 1003, 1008 (Solv-All), where the court held a defendant may be entitled

Statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure.

2 to relief under the mandatory provision of section 473, subdivision (b), even where the attorney makes a bad strategic decision, rather than Jerry’s Shell v. Equilon Enterprises, LLC (2005) 134 Cal.App.4th 1058 (Jerry’s…