Sometimes You Can Lose But Still Win

Time flies by. I’ve been a lawyer for more than 30 years. They call it practicing law for a reason. Each day brings a different challenge. And as Judge Alexander Williams III (retired) used to tell the litigants in his courtroom, he loved his job because it was like going to Las Vegas with your money. I have a mediation scheduled with Judge Williams in a few weeks.
I am handling a very large case as co-counsel with a colleague that is pending outside of Los Angeles. We divide up the work. His firm is listed on the papers so he gets all of the filed paperwork. This particular case has already been up to the Court of Appeal once and millions of dollars are at stake.
The last time I was in court on it, the Judge had set a briefing schedule for the other side to possibly file a demurrer to our first amended pleading. When I met and conferred with the lawyer about bringing his demurrer, after our conversation, I believed he was not going to file it because of technical reasons not particularly relevant to this article. BTW, Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks at the Sofi 3/10/23! You should go.
Anyway, I am in court about a week ago, and the hairs on the back of my neck go up. Our case is coming up in 10 days. I call my co-counsel and ask if we ever got the demurrer. Turns out it has been sitting quietly in his Outlook trash folder for weeks. Our papers are now very late. I immediately devote my life to cranking out a beautiful opposition. My co-counsel submits a declaration explaining why our papers are late. I rationalize that the other side has 7 full days to prepare a reply. We even offer to extend the hearing date if they want. But no, what they want is for the court to strike our opposition and not even consider our papers.
So, I head up North for oral argument. Our case was specially set for 10:30 a.m. so there are no other cases in the courtroom. We have a very spirited debate after the Court excoriates me for submitting late papers. We spend what appeared to be a lot of time arguing the merits. We submit the case to the Court. The Court immediately provides its ruling.
First, it states that it was not considering my opposition because it was lately filed. Oh no. Second, the Court was overruling the demurrer. Overruling is fancy pants for denying. So we win anyway. As I said, sometimes you can lose, but still win. Please contact the Law Offices of Richard A. Marcus for all of your litigation needs at 661-257-8877.