Village of Fontana-On-Geneva Lake v. Hoag

The appellants attack the propriety of the procedure followed by the trial judge in granting summary judgment and in conducting a trial. They claim that they left the pretrial conference anticipating a subsequent trial of the issues and were surprised when, approximately two months later, the trial court issued its order for summary judgment.

We conclude that, on the basis of the record before us, the entry of the order was improper, and the order and subsequent judgment must be vacated.

Although the decision was denominated by the trial judge as one on summary judgment, it is apparent that the…