USA: Summary Judgment in U.S. Courts

The party moving for summary judgment (normally the defendant) must prove that there is no “triable issue of material fact” as to the plaintiff’s claims.  The defendant must submit evidence that the plaintiff cannot establish one or more of the elements of the claim.  For example, if the plaintiff is suing for breach of contract, the defendant may be able to prove that there was never a signed contract or that the case was filed too late.  The court will deny a motion for summary judgment if there’s any material conflict in the documents or testimony supporting the claim.  The judge does not weigh the evidence or witness credibility, but simply examines if the motion papers contain any admissible evidence against the motion.  In other words, these motions are very difficult to win.

We recently won summary judgment in two cases that otherwise would have proceeded to trial.  The first involved a $60 million trust challenged by an unhappy granddaughter.  With our motion, we were able to prove that the granddaughter had no admissible evidence to support her claim of wrongdoing.  In the second case, a company that sold manufacturing equipment accused our biotech client of stealing trade secrets.  We established that the plaintiff could not prove that our client received or used the trade secrets, and thus obtained summary judgment.

Summary judgment motions can be a great tool to win a U.S. case before trial, but you need the right case and skillful presentation of the facts and law.

By Ben Riley, BARTKO LLP