Fisher

The defendant appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff. Appellant’s primary contention is that the court should not have heard the summary judgment motion against him but should have denied or continued the motion because he faced a parallel criminal investigation and was entitled to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. We affirm because plaintiff proved his case and defendant failed to establish the right to a continuance under Code of Civil Procedure section 437c, subdivision (h).

Factual and Procedural Background

This case involves an investment scheme in which hundreds of “investor/ lenders” were misled into providing over $90 million to a company hereafter referred to as PCO. PCO represented itself to be in the business of purchasing “viaticáis,” which is a transaction in which a terminally ill person’s life insurance benefits are purchased for a discounted amount of cash. The owner of the policy obtains immediate cash and the investor has the right to a larger payment in the future. Appellant Ronald Gene Gibson’s company located investors and provided “marketing” services to PCO.

The investors were told their…