JENNIFER RYGH VS. STEVE RUSSELL ET AL

Matter on the Law & Motion / Discovery calendar for Thursday, October 23, 2025, Line 7. DEFENDANT STEPHEN RUSSELL's (ERRONEOUSLY NAMED AS STEVE RUSSELL) MOTION FOR SET ASIDE/VACATE JUDGMENT.

Defendant's motion to vacate judgment is denied. It is untimely and lacks merit. Defendant contends that he was not properly served and lacked actual notice in time to defend. The record belies defendant's contentions.

Plaintiff was personally served with the summons and complaint on February 17, 2022, and filed an answer and appeared through counsel on April 1, 2022. Defendant apparently abandoned the case and judgment was entered against him on June 12, 2023, because he failed to appear at the trial.

On October 18, 2023, defendant filed a notice of intent to file motion to set aside judgment. Thereafter, defendant took no action to vacate the judgment until filing the instant motion on August 25, 2025. This motion lacks substantive merit and given defendant's delay, the policy in favor of the finality of judgments prevails. (In re Marriage of Stevenot (1984) 154 Cal.App.3d 1051, 1071 ["Once relief is no longer available under section 473, the public policy in favor of finality of judgments predominates, and the power to set aside valid final judgments ... should be exercised only when exceptional circumstances [exist]"].)

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Counsel for the prevailing party is required to prepare a proposed order which repeats verbatim the substantive portion of the tentative ruling and must email it to contestdept301tr@sftc.org prior to the hearing even if the tentative ruling is not contested.

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