Hart v. Capital Film Co., Inc.
Hart v. Capital Film Co., Inc.
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from a judgment entered pursuant to default. The printed transcript on appeal shows, among others, the following papers and minute orders : The complaint; a demurrer to the complaint; an order overruling that demurrer; the answer; an order striking the answer from the files, with which is incorporated an order granting leave to file a supplemental complaint and an order granting leave to file an amended answer; an amended and supplemental complaint; the entry of default; and a judgment by default, by the clerk of the court. The amended and supplemental complaint, which was filed June 2, 1920, was introduced by the statement that its filing was upon leave of court. Included with the order giving leave to file a supplemental complaint, there was, as we have observed, an order granting leave to file an amended answer. The time allowed for that purpose by the order was three days. The defendant having filed no answer to the amended and supplemental complaint, his default was entered on June 7th and a judgment on the default was rendered June 8th and was entered June 10th. If we are to take all these matters as they appear in the printed transcript, and are to construe the leave to file an amended answer within three days as an order shortening the time to answer the amended and supplemental complaint, it is apparent that defendant’s time to answer had expired when the default was entered.
There is a feature of the record to which we have not referred in our statement of its • contents. The judgment rendered by the clerk récites that, among other things, de
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fendant’s “legal time for answering having expired,” the judgment against it is “hereby rendered,” etc., and the statement showing the entry of default also recites that the time for answer had expired. In the case of a judgment by the court, such a recital would be conclusive on appeal
(Catanich
v.
Hayes, 52
Cal. 338;
McCauley
v.
Fulton,
44 Cal. 355;
Whitney
v.
Daggett,
108 Cal. 232 [41 Pac. 471]); but appellant, citing
Providence Tool Co.
v. Prader, 32 Cal. 634 [91 Am. Dec. 598], and
Farrar
v.
Steenbergh,
173 Cal. 94 [159 Pac. 707], insists that no such sanctity surrounds that recital when contained in a judgment rendered by the clerk. These decisions go no further than to state the well-recognized rule that in entering a default and in rendering judgment upon it the clerk acts in a ministerial and not in a judicial capacity, making application of it to the facts presented in each of the cases. The two citations are but parcel of a long line of decisions on the same subject running at least from
Stearns
v.
Aguirre,
7 Cal. 443, to
Landwehr
v.
Gillette,
174 Cal. 654 [163 Pac 1018.] In none of this line of cases, however, is there presented such a situation as is evident in the present litigation. In none of them was there before the court the question, of the effect of a recital by a clerk such as appears in the judgment here. In considering that question, then, for the first time, we are to remember that there is nothing in the record in this cause to instill a doubt as to the truth of the recital. Moreover, in such a case as this the judgment-roll can never be made to speak in such a manner as either to justify or to confound such a recital. The statute (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 432), we are to observe, allows a defendant ten days within which to answer an amended and supplemental complaint filed under the conditions which obtain here or within “such other time as the court may direct.” We have already seen that an order of court directing the filing of an answer to such a pleading in a shorter time has no place in the judgment-roll. Under the contention now made the consequences of such a situation are startling. If the judgment before us is not to stand it is not possible for a clerk to render one which will stand in a case in which an amended complaint has been filed after answer to the complaint and in which less than ten days has been allowed by the court for the
*664
filing of answer to the amended pleading unless the clerk awaits the expiration of ten days from the service and filing of the amended complaint. This, of course, would allow the defendant ten full days to answer, would nullify the practical operation of the portion of the statute allowing the court to fix less than ten days for that purpose, and, in effect, would nullify any order made under it. An order shortening the time to answer under the section can be preserved for use on appeal only by a bill of exceptions. The party in whose favor such a judgment is rendered could file no such bill, because there is nothing to which he is to except. The other party will make no effort thus to' preserve such an order, for he may sit quietly beside the trap the law has laid, and, if the clerk should enter default under the order and in less than ten days, he may prosecute an appeal the outcome of which is bound to satisfy his most sanguine expectations. Such a condition of affairs would be intolerable if there were no remedy at hand, which, happily, there is.
Where a default is entered for a failure to answer the complaint, the summons and proof of service are part of the judgment-roll, and the default, or any recital made in entering* it or in the clerk’s judgment rendered pursuant to it, may be measured accordingly. If the judgment-roll, so constituted, shows that the default has been entered too soon, the presumption that the clerk’s duty has been properly performed is overcome. In such a case as this, however, where the judgment-roll does not show, and cannot show, whether the statutory time has been shortened, the situation is quite different. Here, without the aid of any showing in the judgment-roll, we are bound to assume either that the clerk violated his duty by entering default before the expiration of the statutory time within which an answer *665 might have been filed, or that he properly performed it pursuant to some order of the court shortening that time. We have no doubt as to which of these assumptions we shall indulge. The case presents a clear opportunity for the operation of the presumption that official duty has been properly performed. It appears, then, that this is an instance in which it is incumbent on the appellant to make an affirmative showing of error. This it might have done through the medium of a bill of exceptions, if, in fact, it were true that the statutory time was not shortened and that, therefore, the clerk entered the default before the time to answer had run out. No such showing being made and no error appearing in the rendition of the judgment, it must stand.
Judgment affirmed.
Finlayson, P. J., and Craig, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- NEAL HART, Respondent, v. CAPITAL FILM COMPANY, INC. (A Corporation), Appellant
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published