Conservatorship of the Person & Estate of Townsend

In this dispute over title to real property, objector and appellant Nationstar Mortgage, successor in interest to Aurora Loan Services, LLC (hereafter, Lender), attempts to appeal from a judgment in favor of petitioner and respondent Barbara L. Gonzales, as conservator of the person and estate of Louise E. Townsend, following a trial before the Hon. Thomas F. Nuss, a retired superior court judge appointed as a temporary judge. Gonzales moved to dismiss the appeal because Lender’s notice of appeal was not filed within 60 days after service of notice of entry of judgment (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.104(a)(1)(B)), and Lender’s motion to set aside and vacate the judgment submitted to the temporary judge did not extend the time within which to appeal because it was not timely filed with the superior court clerk as required under rule 2.400(b)(1), (2) and section 663a, subdivision (a) of the Code of Civil Procedure. In this case, we must determine whether submitting the motion to vacate to the temporary judge rather than filing it with the superior court clerk extends the 60-day time period to appeal under rule 8.108(c).

We conclude the time to extend the period to appeal is…