American Surety Co. of New York v. Superior Court

23 P.2d 508, 218 Cal. 377, 1933 Cal. LEXIS 507
California Supreme Court·Decided June 22, 1933·No. Docket No. L.A. 14061.·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

PRESTON, J.

Action in mandate directed against the appellate department of the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles to compel it to reinstate on its docket the appeal of defendant in a case begun in the municipal court of said county styled “Myron W. Goble, plaintiff and respondent, vs. American Surety Company of New York, a corporation, defendant and appellant”, said superior court having entered an order purporting to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction thereof.

The petition correctly states the question of law involved as follows: “Is the superior court without jurisdiction of an appeal from the municipal court merely because the undertaking on appeal is filed prior to the filing of a notice of appeal, where the undertaking was filed subsequent to the entry of judgment-in the municipal court and thereafter, and within the time allowed by law, a notice of appeal ■was filed?”

Plaintiff, in the trial court, sued defendant for breach of contract and obtained a money judgment in the sum of $2,000. This judgment was entered on July 5, 1932. Defendant, pursuant to due notice, brought on for hearing his motion for new trial, which motion was denied on August 29, 1932. On September 10, 1932', the formal notice of appeal from the judgment was filed. All these steps were admittedly taken in due time. However, the undertaking on appeal required by sections 985 and 986 of the Code of Civil Procedure was actually on file on August 2, 1932, was still on file on September 10th thereafter and has continuously remained a record in said court. Respondent court, upon this showing, refused jurisdiction of the appeal because of failure to lodge the said undertaking with the court subsequent to and within five days after the filing of the notice of appeal.

The undertaking, however, correctly recites the date of rendition of judgment, the amount thereof, the parties to *379 the action; also that an appeal has been taken; that a stay of execution is desired and it covenants that the surety is bound in double the amount of the judgment, if the appeal is dismissed or the judgment affirmed, to pay said judgment, together with damages and costs, and authorizes a summary «judgment after thirty days from such termination of the action.

The statute in question, section 986 of the Code of Civil Procedure, contains the following language: “The undertaking on appeal must be filed within five days after the filing of the notice on appeal, and the notice of the filing of the undertaking must be given to the respondent. The adverse party may except to the sufficiency of the sureties within five days after the notice of the filing of the undertaking. . . . ” This section and sections 983 to 987, inclusive, pertain to appeals from the municipal courts. They are modeled after sections 974 to 979, inclusive, of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to appeals from the justices’ courts.

Respondent contends that this law not only fixes the point of time beyond which an undertaking may not be filed, but also fixes the period when the right to file such instrument first accrues. We agree only with the first part of this contention. After the right of appeal accrues we see no efficacy in limiting the mere order in which the notice of appeal and undertaking may be filed. The reasons which may have prompted a different holding under other statutes are not present here. The notice of appeal need not be served, but the notice of filing the undertaking must be served on respondent, and his duty to inspect it and his right to except thereto do not arise until such notice is received. This fact renders it immaterial whether the one filing precedes the other so long as both papers are filed after the right of appeal has accrued and within the period prescribed by law. The five-day period after the notice of appeal is filed is simply an enlargement of the period for the filing of the undertaking but it does not forbid the filing of such undertaking at an earlier period after judgment.

We do not regard the cases of Buckholder v. Byers, 10 Cal. 481, Dooling v. Moore, 19 Cal. 81, and Carpentier v. Williamson, 24 Cal. 609, as binding upon us, for they arose under the Practice Act, enacted in 1851, which required a service of the notice of appeal but did not require a notice *380 of the filing of the undertaking; hence for the protection of the respondent it ivas proper to declare a definite time within which he might expect the undertaking to be filed and thus bring into being the right to except to the sufficiency thereof. Practically the same observation may be made as to the cases of Hewes v. Carville Mfg. Co., 62 Cal. 516, and Little v. Jacks, 68 Cal. 343 [8 Pac. 856, 9 Pac. 264, 11 Pac. 128], arising under section 940 et seq. of the Code of Civil Procedure, enacted in 1872 and as amended in 1874. Here, as already observed, we have a statute which does not require a service of the notice of appeal but does require service of notice of the filing of the undertaking and the time for the respondent to except to the sufficiency thereof does not begin to run until such notice is received. No possible injury could come to respondent by holding the order of filing to be immaterial so long as the right of appeal has accrued.

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American Surety Co. of New York v. Superior Court, 23 P.2d 508, 218 Cal. 377, 1933 Cal. LEXIS 507 (Cal. 1933).

23 P.2d 508 (American Surety Co. of New York v. Superior Court) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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