Please explain what it means to resolve all inferences in favor of the non-moving party on Summary Judgment.

Basically, the judge must decide if there is any reasonably conceivable way that the non-moving party could win. That means all reasonable inferences must be drawn in favor of the non-moving party, even if the moving party has some contrary evidence. That's why summary judgment motions only weed out the totally baseless claims/defenses; for any other claims/defenses, a summary judgment motion is extremely rarely granted.

Before I respond to your inquiry, I must state that we have not spoken, I have not reviewed the relevant documents and facts, and I do not represent you. Therefore, my discussion below is not a legal opinion, but is informational only. Finally, my discussion applies only to issues to which Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Federal law applies, unless otherwise specified. That being said, resolving all inferences in favor of the responding/non-moving party means that if there is a disputed fact or inference from a fact, that the court will consider, for the purposes of the motion only, that the disputed fact or inference would be found in the non-moving party's favor at trial. If a fact is not disputed, then the court will not consider it any differently for summary judgment. This means that even when a case is weak, if there are facts that could conceivably be found to be in the non-moving party's favor, the court will let the non-moving party proceed to trial. /Christopher E. Ezold/

It means "Assume everything they say about the facts is true. Under the law they still lose"

As a practical matter it means that even a loser of a case can survive a motion for summary judgment. if you happen to have a case and you survive the other parties motion for summary judgment, that does not mean your case is good, or strong or has a chance of winning.

Before getting to "resolve all inferences in favor of the non-moving party" you have to first start with the facts. Summary Judgment is only decided based upon Undisputed Material Facts. This means that to win Summary Judgment, a moving party (the party seeking Summary Judgment) must come forward with only undisputed facts to support their claim that the law says that they win. Any fact that is in dispute (or not admitted to or agreed to by the other side), cannot be the basis for a judge to grant Summary Judgment. The words "resolve all inferences in favor of the non-moving party" means that when the judge decides the motion, the judge will pretend that ALL of the facts that are in dispute will be decided in favor of the party that did not make the motion when the case goes to trial. This means that you can only win Summary Judgment by using facts that both sides admit or facts that the party that did not make the motion has produced or admitted in order to make its case. It is a lot more difficult to say all of this than it is to simply say "resolve all inferences in favor of the non-moving party." The best way to understand it is like this. Both sides make motions for Summary Judgment for different reasons. Side A and Side B. When the judge looks a Side A's claim for Summary Judgment, the judge pretends that what Side A says about everything that is disputed at all is true and that what Side B says about it is not true. When the judge looks at Side B's claim for Summary Judgment, the judge pretends that what Side B says about everything is true and that what Side A says about it is not true. Because the judge is just pretending, when he/she looks at Side A's claim, everything Side A says is true, when he/she looks at Side B's claim everything Side B says is true------even if the judge is looking at the exact same facts. The undisputed facts are the only facts that matter in a Summary Judgment situation.

The respondent gets all inferences in any question of fact.