summary judgment

noun

Updated on: 21 Apr 2018

Definition of summary judgment

: judgment that may be granted upon a party's motion when the pleadings, discovery, and any affidavits show that there is no issue of material fact and that the party is entitled to judgment in its favor as a matter of law

Recent Examples of summary judgment from the Web

The city and the officers filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the case.

— john wilkens, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Judge declines to dismiss lawsuit against San Diego police for aiming guns at the wrong person," 6 Apr. 2018
Judge Wilken would have only granted summary judgment if the NCAA had satisfied a high threshold.

— michael mccann, SI.com, "NCAA Amateurism to Go Back Under Courtroom Spotlight in Jenkins Trial," 2 Apr. 2018
The appellate majority also found that the lower district court's order denying summary judgment was not reviewable following a full trial on the case's merits.

— colin stutz, Billboard, "The 'Blurred Lines' Appeal Failed -- Now What?," 22 Mar. 2018
Judge Wilken’s decision to deny the NCAA summary judgment does not mean the NCAA will lose the trial.

— michael mccann, SI.com, "NCAA Amateurism to Go Back Under Courtroom Spotlight in Jenkins Trial," 2 Apr. 2018
Schlitterbahn was granted summary judgments in three cases and prevailed twice at trial, the most recent in 1992.

— joshua fechter, San Antonio Express-News, "Schlitterbahn co-owner plagued with financial, legal troubles before murder charge in boy’s death," 31 Mar. 2018
The court, ruling on summary judgment, didn’t question the assistant’s claims.

— steve kurtz, Fox News, "Hollywood writers privately concerned about impact of #MeToo on creativity," 27 Mar. 2018
Often, denial of a defendant's summary judgment motion primes the way for a trial, but in this instance, there's a bit of a quirk.

— eriq gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, "Judge Rules Reality Star's Contract Doesn't Bar Defamation Suit Against Discovery," 9 Mar. 2018
More: Yarmuth: Call for deportation of DACA students at State of the Union is a 'stunt' The judge granted the motions of police, prosecutors and forensic examiners for summary judgment and dismissed the case with prejudice.

— grace schneider, The Courier-Journal, "David Camm wanted $30M after he was acquitted of killing his family, but a judge says no way," 30 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'summary judgment.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of summary judgment

1798

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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