Flannery

Plaintiff and appellant Joyce Flannery filed a complaint which alleges that by virtue of defendant and respondent VW Credit, Inc.’s (VW) failure to comply with provisions of California’s Vehicle Leasing Act (VLA) (Civ. Code, § 2985.7 et seq.), VW violated California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Civ. Code, § 1788 et seq.) (the Rosenthal Act) and California’s unfair competition law (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.) (the UCL). VW filed a demurrer to the complaint, which the trial court sustained without leave to amend. On appeal, Flannery contends the court erred by applying the doctrine of substantial compliance to consumer protection laws.

VW has moved to dismiss the appeal as untimely. We deny the motion to dismiss and reverse the dismissal. Following the trial court’s ruling on its demurrer, VW sought and received entry of an order dismissing the complaint and provided Flannery with notice of entry of the order; however, before the time in which to appeal from the dismissal expired, VW asked the trial court to vacate the dismissal and enter a new dismissal that included VW’s costs. The trial court granted VW’s request and entered an order vacating…