Leung

Verdugo Hills Hospital (Hospital) petitions for a writ of supersedeas directing the trial court to reduce the amount of its appeal bond. Code of Civil Procedure section 917.1 requires the posting of an undertaking to stay a money judgment pending appeal. (Code Civ. Proc., § 917.1, subd. (a)(1).) It sets the amount of the undertaking, if provided “by an admitted surety,” at “one and one-half times the amount of the judgment.” (§ 917.1, subd. (b).) The Hospital’s appeal is from a medical malpractice judgment which, as stated in the judgment, has a present value of approximately $14.8 million, but which has been entered as a periodic payments judgment under section 667.7 requiring monthly payments that cease in October 2065 or upon plaintiff’s death, whichever occurs first. The trial court calculated the amount of the appeal bond based on the lump sum present value of the judgment. The Hospital contends that the amount of the bond should be calculated only on that portion of the judgment currently due or that may come due during the appeal. We hold that the lump sum present value of the judgment against the Hospital is the “amount of the judgment” for the purpose of…