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California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1029.5

Legal Research Home > California Laws > Code of Civil Procedure > California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1029.5

1029.5.  (a) Whenever a complaint for damages is filed against any
architect, landscape architect, engineer, building designer, or land
surveyor, duly licensed as such under the laws of this state, in an
action for error, omission, or professional negligence in the
creation and preparation of plans, specifications, designs, reports
or surveys which are the basis for work performed or agreed to be
performed on real property, any such defendant may, within 30 days
after service of summons, move the court for an order, upon notice
and hearing, requiring the plaintiff to file an undertaking in a sum
not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500) as security for the costs
of defense as provided in subdivision (d), which may be awarded
against the plaintiff. The motion shall be supported by affidavit
showing that the claim against the defendant is frivolous.
   At the hearing upon the motion, the court shall order the
plaintiff to file the undertaking if the defendant shows to the
satisfaction of the court that (i) the plaintiff would not suffer
undue economic hardship in filing the undertaking, and (ii) there is
no reasonable possibility that the plaintiff has a cause of action
against each named defendant with respect to whom the plaintiff would
otherwise be required to file the undertaking. No appeal shall be
taken from any order made pursuant to this subdivision to file or not
to file the undertaking.
   A determination by the court that the undertaking either shall or
shall not be filed or shall be filed as to one or more defendants and
not as to others, shall not be deemed a determination of any one or
more issues in the action or of the merits thereof. If the court,
upon any such motion, makes a determination that an undertaking be
filed by the plaintiff as to any one or more defendants, the action
shall be dismissed as to the defendant or defendants, unless the
undertaking required by the court has been filed within such
reasonable time as may be fixed by the court.
   (b) This section does not apply to a complaint for bodily injury
or for wrongful death, nor to an action commenced in a small claims
court.
   (c) Whenever more than one such defendant is named, the
undertaking shall be increased to the extent of not to exceed five
hundred dollars ($500) for each additional defendant in whose favor
the undertaking is ordered not to exceed the total of three thousand
dollars ($3,000).
   (d) In any action requiring an undertaking as provided in this
section, upon the dismissal of the action or the award of judgment to
the defendant, the court shall require the plaintiff to pay the
defendant's costs of defense authorized by law. Any sureties shall be
liable for such costs in an amount not to exceed the sum of five
hundred dollars ($500) or the amount of the undertaking, whichever is
lesser, for each defendant with respect to whom the sureties have
executed an undertaking.

Last modified: February 22, 2013