Juge v. County of Sacramento

Opinion

SCOTLAND, J.

This case involves the pleading and notice requirements of a summary judgment proceeding, We are presented with the question whether the trial court may grant a motion for summary judgment upon a ground of law not explicitly tendered by the moving party, i.e., a ground of law identified by the trial court rather than by the movant, if application of that law to an undisputed material fact put in issue by the parties’ separate statements of undisputed material facts is dispositive of a cause of action presented by the pleadings.

To answer this question, we first examine the…