Frank Lloyd Wright famously once said: “A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” What about a Supreme Court, whose stock in trade is words, albeit words that often wind up written in stone? A recent California Supreme Court decision, Ryan v. Rosenfeld, had to confront this question.
Ryan illustrates that a good place to look for judicial mistakes is in California’s labyrinth of post-trial motions, which can be a source of vexation for trial practitioners. It is bad enough to lose a judgment; now you have to choose, often quickly, whether to file a motion for new trial, motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, motion to vacate the judgment, motion to correct the judgment, motion to set aside a judgment, motion for relief from judgment, some combination of motions, or perhaps some creative non-statutory motion.
