Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Summary judgment and 12 O.S. 2056


Below is a link to a decision of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, along with a link to yesterday’s order by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, giving the decision precedential effect under Oklahoma Supreme Court Rule 1.200.

The Court of Civil Appeals decision addresses the summary judgment standard.  Among other things, the Court of Civil Appeals states: “Title 12 O.S. 2056 (2011) governs the procedure for summary judgment.”  [para. 5.]

I have not previously seen any action by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that could be viewed as adopting the view that Section 2056 governs the summary judgment process.  There has been some speculation that Section 2056 is vulnerable based on the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s own jurisprudence on summary process, based on state constitutional law, adopting standards less favorable to summary judgment than the federal courts.

I might be the only one to focus on this narrow aspect of the decision.