Rule 47.Summary Judgment

Summary judgment lets a party win a claim or defense — in whole or in part — without going to trial, when the evidence in the record leaves nothing for a jury to decide. Rule 47 gives both sides a route to it, though on different timelines. A party seeking to recover on a claim or seeking a declaratory judgment, under section A, has to wait until 20 days after the action commenced before moving, unless the other side moves for summary judgment first, in which case the claimant can move immediately in response. A defending party, under section B, faces no such waiting period and can move at any time. Either side can support its motion with affidavits or declarations, or file it without them.

Timing matters throughout. The motion and everything supporting it must be served and filed at least 60 days before the trial date; the opposing party then has 20 days to serve and file its own opposing affidavits, declarations, and supporting documents; and the moving party gets five days after that to reply. A court can shorten or lengthen any of these periods. The standard for granting the motion is set out in section C: the court grants it when the pleadings, depositions, affidavits, declarations, and admissions on file show no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to prevail as a matter of law. Oregon defines that phrase concretely — no genuine issue exists if, looking at the record in the light most favorable to the adverse party, no objectively reasonable juror could return a verdict for that party on the issue the motion raises. Once a properly supported motion is on file, the adverse party cannot rest on the allegations or denials in its pleadings; on any issue where it would carry the burden of proof at trial, it has to come forward with evidence — through affidavits, declarations, or otherwise — showing a genuine factual dispute, or the court will grant the motion.

The rule also governs how that evidence has to look and what happens when it is missing. Affidavits and declarations must rest on personal knowledge, state facts that would be admissible at trial, and show the person is competent to testify to them, with sworn or certified copies of any supporting documents attached. Section E addresses a common problem for the party opposing the motion: proving a fact often takes expert testimony, but a party should not have to unmask its expert witness this early just to survive summary judgment. So the rule allows the opposing party’s attorney to submit a declaration describing an unnamed expert who has been retained, is available and willing to testify, and has already reached an opinion that would create a genuine factual dispute — that declaration alone is enough to defeat the motion. If the opposing party instead needs more time — to take a deposition, gather affidavits, or complete other discovery — section F lets the court deny the motion outright or grant a continuance rather than force a premature ruling. And an affidavit or declaration filed in bad faith or purely to cause delay backfires: section G requires the offending party to cover the other side’s reasonable expenses, including attorney fees, and exposes that party or its attorney to contempt sanctions. When a motion succeeds against only some parties or claims, section H allows a limited judgment on those, but only once the court makes the findings Rule 67 B requires for one.