Chase v. Evoy

58 Cal. 348, 1881 Cal. LEXIS 230
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1881
DocketNo. 7,165
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 58 Cal. 348 (Chase v. Evoy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chase v. Evoy, 58 Cal. 348, 1881 Cal. LEXIS 230 (Cal. 1881).

Opinion

Sharpsteih, J.:

The appellant in her notice of appeal states that she “ appeals from the judgment rendered against her * * ® on the 1*7th day of October, 1879, and from the judgment therein made and entered up in the said Court, on the 20th day of December, 1879, in favor of the plaintiff and against her in said action * * * and also from the order * ® * made on the 6th day of February, 1880, dismissing the defendant’s motion for a new trial.”

This constitutes a notice of appeal from a judgment entered December 26th, 1879, and from an order made February 6th, 1880. We will first consider the appeal from the latter.

On the 27th day of October, 1879, the attorneys of appellant served upon the attorney of the respondent a notice of motion for a new trial, in which it was stated that the motion would be made on a statement of the case thereafter to be settled and filed.

On the 15th day of December, 1879, a clerk in the office of one of the appellant’s attorneys took a statement on motion for a new trial in said action, prepared by said attorney, to the office of respondent’s attorney of record, who took it, looked it over, and then returned it to said clerk, “ saying that he would not receive it; that it was out of time, or that defendant’s time was out.” On the next succeeding day the same clerk took said statement to W. M. Francis, Esq., one of the attorneys of the plaintiff who tried the case. He took the statement but refused to receipt for it, “ as he believed the defendant’s time for filing was up, or words to that effect.” It was left with him and remained in his office until February 4th, 1880, when it was returned to the attorney who prepared it. The judge thereupon refused to settle it, and afterwards dismissed the motion for a new trial.

A party moving for a new trial upon a statement of the case must, within ten days after service of the notice, or within such further time as the Court or Judge may allow, not exceeding thirty days without the consent of the adverse party, prepare a draft of the statement and serve the same or a copy thereof upon the adverse party.

The notice of motion for a new trial was served on the 27th [352]*352of October, 1879, and no attempt was made to serve a draft of a statement of the case or a copy thereof upon the adverse party until the 15th day of December, 1879, which was more than forty days after the notice of the motion for a new trial had been served. The attempt to serve the draft of the statement upon an attorney other than the attorney of record after the latter had refused to receive it, is an immaterial circumstance. And it is likewise immaterial whether the notice of the motion for a new trial was served earlier than it need to have been. No other notice ever was served, and the time within which the code requires service of statement to be made commences to run from the date of service of such notice.

As the motion could only be heard upon a statement of the case, and no draft of one had been served within the time prescribed by the code, we do not think that the Court erred in dismissing the motion for want of prosecution, and we are not prepared to say that under the circumstances this was not an appropriate order to make, although an order denying the motion might have been equally proper. As the motion could never be heard, we think there was no error in dismissing it.

Upon the appeal from the judgment, in the absence of any statement or bill of exceptions, we are not permitted to go outside of the judgment roll. The complaint was not demurred to, and if it states facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action of which the Court had jurisdiction, it is sufficient.

But the appellant insists that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, because, as he says, “ it fails to show due presentation of the claim to the administratrix” of the estate of the deceased maker of the note sued on. In support of this objection, it is urged that there is no sufficient allegation that the claim presented was supported by an affidavit of the claimant. The allegation is that the claim “ was duly verified by the oath of plaintiff in the form prescribed by law.” The law requires that “every claim which is due, when presented to the executor, or administrator, must be supported by the affidavit of the claimant * * * * that the amount is justly; that no payments have been [353]*353made thereon, which are not credited, and that there are no offsets to the same, to the knowlege of the affiant.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1494.)

We think that the most serious objection that could be raised to the averment, is that it is not sufficiently definite and certain, and that defect, if it be one, could not be taken advantage of by general demurrer and a fortiori would not be fatal to a judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff in the absence of any demurrer to the complaint, or averment in the answer that the claim was not supported by a proper affidavit. In Hentsch v. Porter, 10 Cal. 555, this Court said, all the justices concurring: “We think it clear that the failure to aver this presentment (of a claim against the estate of a deceased person to the administrator), not such a fatal objection to the complaint as to make judgment by default a nullity or reviewable on appeal.” (Cited and approved in Coleman v. Woodworth, 28 Cal. 567; Bank of Stockton v. Howland, 42 id. 129,134.) In Hunt v. Porter, decided at the October term, 1856, it was held that an objection of this character, if first raised in this Court, came too late. The correctness of the decision in Ellissen v. Halleck’s Executors, 6 Cal. 386, to the effect that such an objection may be raised by a general demurrer, is doubted in Hentsch v. Porter, 10 id. 533.

It is claimed that the Court erred in not finding upon all the material issues raised by the pleadings.

1. It is alleged in the answer that the defendant’s intestate signed the note with his co-maker Cobb for the accommodation of the latter, and that the plaintiff knew it. How that could be material we are not advised, and cannot therefore reverse the judgment for want of a finding of the fact, one way or the other.

2. The defendant by way of counterclaim avers that prior to the commencement of this action the plaintiff was indebted to M. G. Cobb in the sum of two thousand and fifty dollars and sixty-seven cents, and that said Cobb on the 14th day of April, 1873, and prior to the commencement of this action, assigned said indebtedness to G. G. Briggs, a co-maker with said Cobb and defendant’s intestate, of the note sued on in [354]*354this action, for the benefit of said Briggs and defendant’s intestate. The assignment is alleged to have been made after the death of said intestate.

The test by which it may be determined whether this was a counterclaim is a very simple one. A counterclaim must be one existing in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff. (Code Civ. Proc., § 438.) In this case it would have to be a claim which constituted a right of action in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff at the time of the commencement of this action. (Id.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 Cal. 348, 1881 Cal. LEXIS 230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chase-v-evoy-cal-1881.