Oldcastle Precast, Inc. v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co.

INTRODUCTION

Defendants Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company (Lumbermens) and Safeco Insurance Company of America (Safeco) (collectively, defendants) appeal from a summary judgment entered in favor of plaintiff Oldcastle Precast, Inc., doing business as Utility Vault Company (plaintiff). In granting the motion for summary judgment, the trial court found no triable issue of material fact existed as to Lumbermens’s liability, as surety, on a payment bond in favor of plaintiff or Safeco’s liability, as surety, on a stop notice bond release for plaintiff.

We affirm the judgment. We publish this opinion because of our analysis of the substantive deficiencies of defendants’ opposition to plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and the trial court’s proper exercise of discretion in denying defendants’ requests for a continuance of the hearing on the motion and the opportunity to submit a revised responsive separate statement. Parties opposing a motion for summary judgment are not entitled to an automatic do-over of their opposition to the motion. Nothing in Code of Civil Procedure section 437c or in the well-reasoned opinion of Parkview Villas Assn., Inc. v. State Farm Fire &…