Henderson v. Drake
Henderson v. Drake
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent.
By a skillful process of legal legerdemain the majority opinion attempts to bring to life an attachment which died a natural death on January 28, 1952, when plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was granted by the trial court.
It is conceded by the majority that pursuant to sections 553 and 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure an attachment is dissolved when judgment is rendered in favor of the defendant unless he perfects an appeal and gives an undertaking within five days after receiving notice of entry of judgment, and that it is not kept alive by proceedings on motion for a new trial.
In the light of this concession let us examine the record:
(1) November 26, 1951. Judgment for defendant entered.
(2) December 4, 1951. Plaintiff served and filed notice of intention to move for a new trial on all statutory grounds.
(3) January 3, 1952. Defendant served and filed notice to dissolve attachment.
(4) January 28, 1952. Motion for new trial granted.
(5) February 6, 1952. Motion to dissolve attachment denied.
(6) The agreed statement on appeal states: “No appeal has ever been taken by [defendant] Henry K. Henderson from said judgment. No undertaking on appeal was filed by Henry K. Henderson within five days after the entry of said judgment or at any other time.”
It is true that no formal notice of entry of judgment was
The order denying defendant’s motion to dissolve the attachment was entered February 6, 1952, nine days after the motion for a new trial was granted. At that time plaintiff had not and could not comply with the requirements of sections 553 and 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and the motion to dissolve the attachment should, therefore, have been granted.
Even accepting the unsound reasoning of the majority, that at the time defendant’s motion to dissolve the attachment was denied, plaintiff’s time to appeal had not expired, because he had the right to cross-appeal if defendant appealed from the order granting the new trial, and, therefore, the motion was properly denied, it will avail plaintiff nothing, as the attachment must now be dissolved because of plaintiff’s noncompliance with the provisions of sections 553 and 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the majority affirms an order which is obviously invalid and which must be vacated by the trial court when this decision becomes final. This, however, will necessitate further proceedings in the trial court and another appeal if the losing party sees fit to thus prolong the litigation.
This is unfortunate in view of the overcrowded condition of our court calendars. It also violates the policy of our courts to decide cases so as to terminate litigation wherever possible in the interests of justice.
For the foregoing reasons, I would reverse the order.
Opinion of the Court
Defendant appeals from an order denying her motion to dissolve an attachment. The only ground of the motion was “that judgment had been rendered in favor of the defendant and no notice of appeal or undertaking on appeal had been filed within five days from and after the entry of said judgment.” The sole question for decision is the correctness of the order denying such motion. We have concluded that under sections 553 and 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure, upon which the motion was based, the trial court was required to .deny it.
In this action against defendant plaintiff attached certain shares of corporate stock owned by defendant. Thereafter, on November 26, 1951, judgment for defendant was entered in that action. No formal written notice of entry of judgment was given to plaintiff. No appeal was taken but on December 4, 1951, plaintiff served and filed notice of intention to move for a new trial. On January 3, 1952, defendant served and filed notice of motion to dissolve the attachment. On January 28, 1952, plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was granted. On February 6, 1952, defendant’s motion to dissolve the attachment was denied; on this date neither the time for an appeal by defendant from the order granting the new trial nor, in the event defendant took such appeal, for a cross-appeal by plaintiff from the judgment, had expired.
Section 553 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides in material part, “If the defendant recovers judgment against the plaintiff, and no appeal is perfected and undertaking executed and filed as provided in section 946 of this code, ... all the property attached . . . must be delivered to the defendant or his agent, the order of attachment be discharged, and the property released therefrom.” Section 946 provides in material part, “An appeal does not continue in force an attachment, unless an undertaking be executed and filed on the part of the appellant . . . and unless, within five days
Under the wording of those sections it is clear that an attachment may be preserved by taking an appeal and that an attachment remains effective after rendition of judgment for defendant until there is no longer a right to appeal, unless written notice of entry of judgment is given, in which event the appeal must be perfected within five days after such notice or the attachment becomes subject to discharge. Section 553 states that if defendant recovers judgment and no appeal is taken and no undertaking filed, then the “order of attachment [must] be discharged.” This necessarily implies that if an appeal is perfected and an undertaking filed, then the attachment should not be discharged. Similarly, section 946 states that an appeal does not “continue in force an attachment, unless an undertaking” is filed and, “unless, within five days after written notice of the entry of the order appealed from,” the appeal,is perfected. This necessarily implies that the filing of the undertaking and the perfection of the appeal will keep the attachment alive. The only reference to time contained in the sections is the requirement of section 946 that the appeal be perfected “within five days after written notice of the entry of the order appealed from.” It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the attachment remains effective as long as an appeal may be taken unless written notice of entry of judgment is given, in which event the attachment perdures for only five days after such notice unless an appeal is perfected within that time. If sections 553 and 946 were not so construed, plaintiff would have to file his undertaking and perfect his appeal at the same time the judgment for defendant was entered, or the mere entry of judgment for defendant would discharge the attachment.
As is held in Primm v. Superior Court (1906), 3 Cal. App. 208, 211 [84 P. 786], an attachment is not “finally and irrevocably dissolved the moment a judgment for defendant is entered. ... A fair, reasonable, unstrained construction [of sections 553 and 946] leads to the conclusion that the dissolvent force of a judgment is neutralized by a perfected appeal, provided the additional undertaking is filed and the appeal perfected within the specified time. This construction gives harmonious effect to both sections and does not nullify any part of either.”- (See, also, Morneault v. National Surety Co. (1918), 37 Cal.App. 285, 286 [174 P. 81] ; Clark v. Su
The time to appeal had not expired when the notice of motion to dissolve the attachment was filed on January 3, 1952, or when the trial court denied such motion on February 6, 1952. Plaintiff had 60 days from the entry of judgment (i. e., from November 26, 1951) in which to file notice of appeal (Rules on Appeal, rule 2(a)), and when he served and filed his notice of intention to move for a new trial the time for appeal was extended (Rules on Appeal, rule 3(a)). When the trial court denied the motion to dissolve the attachment, plaintiff’s motion for a new trial had been granted. Regardless of the effect or lack of effect on the attachment of the order granting a new trial, defendant at the time of the denial of her motion to dissolve the attachment could have appealed from the order granting the new trial and, had she done so, plaintiff could have appealed from the judgment (Rules on Appeal, rule 3(a)). Therefore, on February 6, 1952, there was still an opportunity for plaintiff to perfect an appeal, file an undertaking, and in that manner keep alive the attachment, and the trial court correctly refused to order that the attachment be dissolved.
Since no written notice of entry of the judgment of November 26, 1951, was given, the five days referred to in section 946 did not run. Defendant urges that although she did not give formal notice of entry of judgment and thus start the running of the five-day period, there was substantial compliance with the requirement of section 946 that “written notice” be given. She says that her notice of motion to dissolve the attachment was, in effect, a notice of entry of judgment, and that plaintiff’s notice of motion for a new trial constituted a waiver of written notice of entry of judgment. It is true that a statutory requirement of “written notice” of entry of judgment can be waived, and that in some circumstances it has been held that the filing, by the party entitled to such written notice, of a document disclosing his actual knowledge of the entry of judgment shows waiver of the written notice. (Prothero v. Superior Court (1925), 196 Cal. 439, 441, 444 [238 P. 357].) But waiver is the intentional relinquishment of a known right. (Roesch v. De Mota (1944), 24 Cal.2d 563, 572 [150 P.2d 422].) The fact that plaintiff here evidenced his actual
For the reasons above stated the order appealed from is affirmed.
Gibson, C. J., Shenk, J., Edmonds, J., and Spence, J., concurred.
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent.
It is my opinion that plaintiff had written notice of the entry of judgment within the meaning of section 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure and that his right to preserve the attachment by taking an appeal was therefore lost five days after the service of the notice.
Judgment for defendant was entered on November 26, 1951. On December 4, 1951, plaintiff served and filed notice of intention to move for a new trial, and on January 3, 1952, defendant served and filed notice of motion to vacate the attachment on the ground that “judgment had been rendered in favor of the defendant and no notice of appeal or undertaking on appeal had been filed within five days from and after the entry of said judgment.” At no time thereafter did plaintiff perfect an appeal from the judgment. Defendant’s motion was denied on February 6, 1952, after plaintiff’s motion for a new trial had been granted. Section 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that an attachment may be continued in force if an appeal is perfected “within five days after written notice of the entry of the order appealed from.” Whether or not plaintiff’s notice of motion for a new trial constituted a waiver of the right to written notice (see Prothero v. Superior Court, 196 Cal. 439, 444 [238 P. 357], defendant’s notice of motion to vacate the attachment, which recited that “judgment had been rendered in favor
Section 946 assures the plaintiff knowledge of the entry of judgment and fixes the date for the commencement of the running of the five-day period. These purposes were accomplished when defendant served and filed her notice of motion to vacate the attachment. The only other possible purpose for the notice of the entry of judgment is to bring home to the plaintiff that the defendant is asserting his right to have the attachment dissolved if an appeal is not perfected in five days. (See Byrne v. Hudson, 127 Cal. 254, 257 [59 P. 597].) Since defendant’s notice expressly called plaintiff’s attention to the fact that defendant was relying on the entry of judgment to establish her right to dissolution of the attachment, it could not have subserved this purpose better. The majority opinion states, however, that “the fact that defendant incidentally indicated to plaintiff, by serving and filing her notice of motion to dissolve the attachment, that judgment had been entered is not sufficient compliance with the statutory requirement that written notice be given to start the running of the five-day period. (See Byrne v. Hudson (1899), 127 Cal. 254, 257 [59 P. 597].)” In the Byrne case the judgment provided that if plaintiff did not pay defendant a certain sum of money within 20 days of written notice of entry of judgment she would lose her equity of redemption. Defendant served on plaintiff a notice of intention to move for a new trial, reciting that the judgment had been entered. The court held that this notice of motion was not sufficient to start the running of the 20-day period. ‘ ‘ The question arose out of the express terms of the judgment, which required ‘written notice of the entry of this judgment.’ We think, therefore, that as appellant’s right in the premises depended upon the commencement of the running of a certain period of time mentioned in the judgment, and as her title was to be forfeited unless a certain act was done within that period of time, she was entitled to a notice expressly intended for the purpose of starting the period of time mentioned in the judgment, and that a mere incidental recital in a notice of a motion for a new trial, given for an entirely different purpose, was not a sufficient compliance with the terms of the judgment.” (127 Cal. at 257.) In the present case, however, defendant’s notice of motion was not given
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied January 27, 1954. Carter, J., and Traynor, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HENRY K. HENDERSON, Respondent, v. LILY ZELLERBACH DRAKE, Appellant
- Cited By
- 18 cases
- Status
- Published