Woodham v. Anderson
Woodham v. Anderson
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I dissent from that part of the foregoing opinion which declares that,- as to tax cases, the defendant was not required to appear until sixty days after the period prescribed for publication had ended. As I understand the opinion, it does not purport to hold that in cases other than tax cases the defendant has sixty days
Fullerton, O. <T., concurs in dissenting opinion.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff in this action as the holder of a delinquency tax certificate, brought this suit to foreclose the same. Publication summons Was issued, and was first published Pebruary 8, 1901. The summons commanded the defendants to appear within sixty days
It is assigned that the court erred in making the order which vacated the original judgment. It will he observed from the statement hereinbefore made that the first publication of the summons was made April 8, '1901. Under the law as it then existed, the summons in a tax case required the defendants to appear within sixty days after
Pending the publication of the summons in this case, and after it had actually been published six Consecutive times in as many weeks, an act of the legislature took effect changing the above rule as to service of a publication summons in a tax foreclosure. When the act took effect there remained hut two days until the full six Weeks’ period following the first publication expired, and when the service was complete. The new act will be found in the Session Laws of 1901, chap, 178, page 883. The act is an amendment to certain portions of the revenue law, and specifically provides for publication summons in tax foreclosure eases. Section 1, subd, 2, provides that in the case of service by publication the defendant shall be required to appear within sixty days from the date of the first publication of the summons, exclusive of the day of said first publication. It will thus be seen that the summons published in this case actually conformed to the requirements of the new law, and appellant insists that the new law controlled, and that he was entitled to his judgment at any time after the expiration of sixty days from the first publication of the summons. The act contains no clause expressly repealing the former provisions, but was simply amendatory, and went into effect immediately by virtue of an emergency clause. Was it, therefore, retroactive in its operation, so as to affect the service of process theretofore initiated ? It will be observed that the
“Where a new statute deals with procedure only, p’ima facie it applies to all actions — those which have accrued or are pending, and future actions. If before final decision a new law as to procedure is enacted and goes into effect, it must from that time govern and regulate the proceedings. But the steps already taken, the status of the case as to the court in which it was commenced, the pleadings put in, and all things done under the late law, will stand, unless an intention to the contrary is plainly manifested; and pending cases are only affected by general words as to the future proceedings from the point reached when the new law intervened.”
There is no manifest intention expressed in this statute to make the new procedure affect the status of pending cases. Under the above rule, therefore, “all things done under the late law will stand.” It follows that the summons in this case, issued and published as it was under the late law, must be governed by that law. If under the former law the summons did not confer jurisdiction to enter the judgment, the later law did not vitalize it so as to give it jurisdictional force. The judgment was therefore void, and the court did not err in vacating it.
Appellant urges that respondents waived the defect in the summons by making a general appearance when they moved to vacate the judgment. It is true, their motion and petition did not state, in words, that it was intended as a special appearance, as provided by § 4886, Bah Code. Their appearance, therefore, brought them within the jur
It is further insisted that the court erred in denying appellant’s motion for default for want of answer after the original judgment was set- aside. As hereinbefore stated, an affidavit was presented which was intended to excuse the delay. The matter was largely a discretionary one with the court, and, from the record, we shall not undertake to say that the discretion was abused. When the answer was filed, accompanied with the tender, the ease stood ready for disposition in accordance with the revenue law. The process authorized by statute requires a defendant to appear “and defend the action or pay the amount due.” By the tender of the full amount, with accrued costs, respondents complied with the law, and were entitled to judgment.
The judgment is affirmed.
Anders and Dunbar, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- William Woodham v. J. Anderson
- Cited By
- 25 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- TAX FpEECLOSUEiE •— SUMMONS TIME FOB APPEABANOE. Under Laws 1897, P- 182, § 96, subd. 3, requiring defendants in tax foreclosure cases to appear within sixty days after service of summons, exclusive of the day of service, and under Bal. Code, I 4878 (which, by Laws 1897, p, 182, § 97, is made applicable in tax cases), providing for the publication of summons in a newspaper once a week for six consecutive weeks, and that the service should not be complete until the expiration of the time prescribed for publication, a defendant in a tax foreclosure suit under the revenue law of 1897 would have sixty days for appearance after the completion of the publication of summons (Mount, J., and Fullerton, O. J., dissent). SAME-AMENDMENT OF STATUTE — EFFECT ON PENDING CASES. Where, pending the completion of service by publication, the law governing it is changed hy amendment so as to alter the procedure, and no provision, is enacted in the new law making it apply to pending cases or expressly repealing tbe old law, the question of the sufficiency of the summons to confer jurisdiction would be determined by the law in force at the time pf its issuance, GENEB4L APPEABANOE AFTEB JUDGMUNT — EFFECT. Where a judgment was yoid by reason of defective process, it would not be validated by the fact that the defendants subsequently made a general appearance in the action for the purpose of moving jts vacation. TRIAL —■ DELAY IN FILING PLEADINGS —-- DISCBETION OF COUBT. The sufficiency of defendant's excuse for delay in filing answer to a complaint after the setting aside of the original judgment therein is a matter resting largely in the discretion of the trial court for determination.