JAKUBOWSKY

Defendants MCI Telecommunications Corporation and its employee Joe Serrano (collectively MCI) obtained a summary judgment against plaintiff Andrew Jakubowsky in his lawsuit for wrongful discharge and defamation. Plaintiffs counsel failed to oppose or appear at the hearing on summary judgment. More than five months later, plaintiff applied for and was granted relief from the judgment pursuant to the mandatory attorney fault provision of Code of Civil Procedure section 473, subdivision (b) (section 473(b)). (All further statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure.)

We will conclude that order was jurisdictionally defective in light of plaintiffs failure to comply with the mandatory requirement that an application for relief under section 473 be accompanied by a copy of the proposed pleading. We reverse.

This case began with a multi-count complaint filed by plaintiff against his former employer MCI and two of his supervisors [1] there. In a first amended complaint plaintiff, who was employed in MCFs Russian telecommunications department, alleged that he was ostensibly discharged for poor performance and sexual harassment of coworkers, but that these…