Don Jose's Restaurant, Inc. v. Truck Ins. Exch.

In this case we condemn the artifice of trying to create an appealable order from an otherwise nonappealable grant of summary adjudication by dismissing the remaining causes of action without prejudice but with a waiver of applicable time bars. The one final judgment rule remains the rule in California. (See generally, Morehart v. County of Santa Barbara (1994) 7 Cal.4th 725, 743 [ 29 Cal.Rptr.2d 804 , 872 P.2d 143 ] [“. . . an appeal cannot be taken from a judgment that fails to complete the disposition of all the causes of action between the parties even if the causes of action disposed of by the judgment have been ordered to be tried separately, or may be characterized as ‘separate and independent’ from those remaining.”].)

The facts here are simple. Plaintiffs sued defendant insurance companies on no less than 11 causes of action. Defendants brought a motion for summary adjudication on two causes of action. That motion was granted. Plaintiffs and defendants then entered into a formal written stipulation in which the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss all their remaining causes of action, but without prejudice and with a waiver of all applicable statutes of limitation. Thus…