Getting a ruling from the trial court - Pt. 1

What about the judge who refuses to rule even though you request a ruling or says that he or she will only consider admissible evidence?  This situation may arise when the judge forgets to rule on the objection or states something like “the court will only consider admissible evidence” or it was “following Biljac and is only considering the relevant and pertinent evidence.”  (Demps v. San Francisco Housing Authority, supra, at pg. 575.) 

When the trial court refers to Biljac, it means Biljac Associates v. First Interstate Bank (1990) 218 Cal.App.3d 1410, in which the appellate court held that a trial court is not required to issue formal rulings on objections because a summary judgment will be upheld if it is correct on any grounds, even those not relied on by the trial court.  In addition, the court in Biljac raised a presumption that a trial court is not relying on irrelevant or incompetent evidence when it makes its ruling.  Well, maybe in a perfect world but experience teaches us otherwise. This ruling has been overruled by several courts and has been criticized - as it should be - by many courts and attorneys.

In Demps, the appellate court indicated that the trial court was not required to issue a written or formal ruling, and furthermore, there was little purpose served in such a requirement because the appellate court reviews the matter de novo, including objections.  Other courts have held that the failure to obtain a ruling should be treated as though the objections were impliedly overruled and the objectionable evidence then becomes part of the admissible evidence. 

So what is an attorney to do?