Garcin

Properly conceived and executed, motions for summary adjudication of issues encourage settlement, reduce trial time, save money for the *330 parties and preserve limited judicial resources. Ill-conceived and improperly executed motions for summary adjudication have just the opposite effect— they waste time and money and, almost as certainly as night follows day, result in reversals and further litigation. This case presents a paradigm of the latter form of motion and we therefore reverse a judgment predicated on an earlier order adjudicating three issues in a legal malpractice action, finding that the issue of causation was neither summarily adjudicated nor proved at the subsequent trial.

Facts

Promising construction of a theological library, William S. McBirnie, the senior minister of United Community Church (UCC), borrowed money from two dozen individuals and signed promissory notes in his capacity as President of the Community Churches of America (CCA). He used the money for other purposes and refused to repay the loans.

Not surprisingly, the two dozen lenders sued McBirnie, CCA, UCC and several other entities for damages, an accounting, and imposition of a…

I concur in the result. However, in my view, the question of causation is encompassed within United Community Church’s undisputed fact No. 12. Defendants understood fact No. 12 in this fashion, and the issue of causation was fully briefed in the pleadings on the motion. Additionally, I do not view any evidentiary defect in United Community Church’s statement of undisputed facts as fatal to the motion. Hence, I would reach the question *340 of whether defendants successfully demonstrated the existence of a triable issue of material fact as to causation.

To be sure, fact No. 12 expresses an ultimate fact rather than a detailed evidentiary fact: Because defendants failed to file an answer, United Community Church (UCC) lost the case and was injured by the resulting judgment. However, implicit in the statement that defendants’ nonfeasance caused UCC to lose the underlying case is the assertion no other circumstance, such as the lack of a meritorious defense, contributed to the loss. In other words, fact No. 12, if true, would require or permit the ruling UCC desired.

That fact No. 12 adequately informed defendants of UCC’s causal claim is evident in their response to it. Defendants…

Properly conceived and executed, motions for summary adjudication of issues encourage settlement, reduce trial time, save money for the parties and preserve limited judicial resources. Ill-conceived and improperly executed motions for summary adjudication have just the opposite effect — they waste time and money and, almost as certainly as night follows day, result in reversals and further litigation. This case presents a paradigm of the latter form of motion and we therefore reverse a judgment predicated on an earlier order adjudicating three issues in a legal malpractice action, finding that the issue of causation was neither summarily adjudicated nor proved at the subsequent trial.

Promising construction of a theological library, William S. McBirnie, the senior minister of United Community Church (UCC), borrowed money from two dozen individuals and signed promissory notes in his capacity as President of the Community Churches of America (CCA). He used the money for other purposes and refused to repay the loans.

Not surprisingly, the two dozen lenders sued McBirnie, CCA, UCC and several other entities for damages, an accounting, and imposition of a…