§ 9-11-56.Summary judgment

Subsections (a) and (b) set who can move and when. A claimant — someone seeking to recover on a claim, counterclaim, or cross-claim, or seeking a declaratory judgment — can move for summary judgment, with or without supporting affidavits, only after 30 days have passed from the commencement of the action, or sooner if the adverse party has already served its own summary judgment motion. A defending party faces no such waiting period and may move at any time. Once a motion is filed, subsection (c) requires it be served at least 30 days before the hearing date, giving the adverse party time to serve opposing affidavits before the day of the hearing.

The heart of subsection (c) is the standard itself: judgment must be granted if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and any affidavits show there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. That standard cuts both ways — it doesn’t deny any party the right to a jury trial where a substantial issue of fact exists. And it doesn’t require an all-or-nothing outcome: a court can grant summary judgment on liability alone even while a genuine issue remains over the amount of damages. When the whole case isn’t resolved on the motion, subsection (d) has the court narrow the issues instead — identifying what facts are undisputed and directing that the trial proceed on the facts that remain in good-faith controversy, with the undisputed facts treated as established.

Subsection (e) sets the ground rules for affidavits: personal knowledge, facts that would be admissible in evidence, and an affirmative showing the affiant is competent to testify to them, with sworn or certified copies of any referenced documents attached or served alongside. Affidavits can be supplemented or countered with depositions, interrogatory answers, or further affidavits, and every affidavit must be filed with the court and served on the opposing parties. Once a properly supported motion is on file, the opposing party can’t rest on the pleadings’ allegations or denials — the response has to set forth specific facts, by affidavit or otherwise, showing a genuine issue for trial, or summary judgment, if appropriate, will be entered against that party.

The final subsections cover what happens around the edges. Subsection (f) lets a court refuse the motion, order a continuance, or make another just order when the opposing party shows, by affidavit, that it can’t yet present the facts essential to its opposition. Subsection (g) addresses bad-faith affidavits: once the court is satisfied an affidavit was presented in bad faith or solely to delay, it must order the offending party to pay the other side’s reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, caused by the affidavit's filing, and the offending party may also be held in contempt. And subsection (h) sets the appeal path: an order granting summary judgment on any issue or as to any party is subject to ordinary appellate review, while an order denying summary judgment can be reviewed only through the direct-appeal procedure in subsection (b) of Code Section 5-6-34.