Cox v. Certified Grocers of Cal. Ltd.

224 Cal. App. 2d 26, 36 Cal. Rptr. 48, 1964 Cal. App. LEXIS 1433
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 2, 1964
DocketCiv. 27363
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 224 Cal. App. 2d 26 (Cox v. Certified Grocers of Cal. Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cox v. Certified Grocers of Cal. Ltd., 224 Cal. App. 2d 26, 36 Cal. Rptr. 48, 1964 Cal. App. LEXIS 1433 (Cal. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

KINGSLEY, J.

This is an action to recover damages for injuries sustained by plaintiff in a fall at a food market. Defendants are Big Saver Food, Inc., the operator of the public market where the fall occurred (hereinafter “Big Saver”); Certified Grocers of California Ltd., a supplier of nonfood items to the market (hereinafter “Certified”); and Jack Orphan, an employee of Certified Grocers (hereinafter “Orphan”).

At the close of plaintiff’s case, the trial judge granted Big Saver’s motion for nonsuit. The jury thereafter returned a verdict for the remaining defendants, Certified and Orphan, on which verdict judgment was entered. A motion for a new trial was denied. Plaintiff has appealed from both the judgment of nonsuit and from the judgment on the verdict. Plaintiff is represented on this appeal by counsel other than those who appeared for her in the trial court.

I

At the outset Certified and Orphan contend that the appeal as to them must be dismissed because it was not timely taken.

*30 As it concerns defendants Orphan and Certified Grocers, judgment on the verdict was entered December 5, 1962. Plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, filed December 12, 1962, was denied January 18, 1963. Plaintiff’s notice of appeal to this court was filed February 5, 1963 (62 days after entry of judgment).

Ordinarily a notice of appeal to this court must be filed within 60 days after the date of entry of judgment. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2(a).) However, rule 3(a) allows an extension of time when a valid notice of intention to move for a new trial is served and filed by the moving party. Defendants Orphan and Certified claim that they were never served with a valid notice of intention to move for a new trial, and therefore that plaintiff’s time to appeal was not extended by the operation of rule 3 (a).

Plaintiff’s notice of motion for a new trial was addressed “To Certified Grocers of California, Big Saver Foods, Inc., and their attorney’s [sic] of record:’’ The affidavit of service by mail shows that the notice was served upon the respective attorneys of each defendant named therein. It is to be noted, however, that the notice of motion was not addressed to defendant Orphan nor served upon him personally.

Since the notice of motion was not addressed to Orphan and the affidavit of service by mail does not show that service was made upon him personally or by service upon his attorneys (although he was represented by the same attorneys who represented his employer), the trial court lacked all jurisdiction to make an order affecting Orphan. (Spruce v. Wellman (1950) 98 Cal.App.2d 158 [219 P.2d 472]; Tubbs v. Los Angeles Transit Lines (1953) 121 Cal.App.2d 748 [264 P.2d 46].) The fact that the notice of hearing of the motion for new trial was addressed to defendant Orphan and served upon his attorneys of record does not cure the initial defect; that notice merely advised Orphan that a motion not involving him was to be heard; it may have piqued his curiosity, but it did no more. Further, since the notice of hearing was served over a month after notice of entry of judgment, it was too late to have any legal effect. (Code Civ. Proc., § 659; Sitkei v. Frimel (1948) 85 Cal.App.2d 335 [192 P.2d 820].) Since no valid motion for new trial was ever pending against defendant Orphan, and since the notice of appeal was filed more than 60 days after entry of judgment, the appeal is untimely and must, therefore, be dismissed as to him.

*31 The notice of appeal was also filed too late insofar as Certified is concerned. Since the notice of motion for new trial was invalid as to Orphan, it was also invalid as to his employer, Certified. The cases give two reasons for this result:

(1) “It is made mandatory by section 659 of the Code of Civil Procedure that a party intending to move for a new trial shall serve upon the adverse party a notice of intention so to do. The term ‘adverse party’ includes every party whose interest in the subject-matter of the motion will be affected by the granting of the motion. The superior court is without jurisdiction to reexamine an issue of fact that has been tried and change its decision thereon unless all of the parties to the issue have been properly brought before it by serving the required notice.” (Johnston v. City of San Fernando (1939) 35 Cal.App.2d 244, 246 [95 P.2d 147].) Defendant Orphan was not only interested in any judgment that might be rendered against himself but he was also interested in any judgment that might be rendered against Certified, his employer. The rule is that an employer against whom a judgment has been rendered for damages occasioned by the negligent act of an employee, within the scope of his employment, may recoup his losses in an action against the negligent employee. (Johnston v. City of San Fernando, supra.) Since an indispensable party was not properly joined in the notice of motion for new trial, no valid notice was ever served on defendant Certified.

(2) A second reason for the rule that the employee must be made a party to a motion for new trial exists where, as here, the sole ground urged against the employer is that of respondeat superior. Since defendant Orphan has finally and conclusively been dete:rmined not to be liable to plaintiff, his employer cannot be liable. (Spruce v. Wellman, supra (1950) 98 Cal.App.2d 158.) A new trial against Certified would, therefore, be useless, since no verdict or judgment rendered against it could lawfully be entered.

It follows that, as with Orphan, the notice of appeal, not having the benefit of a valid motion for a new trial to help it, was filed too late and the appeal as to Certified must also be dismissed.

II

The remainder of this opinion will be concerned with plaintiff’s appeal from the judgment of nonsuit entered in favor of the market owner, Big Saver.

*32 Big Saver also urges that the notice of appeal as to it was filed too late. The nonsuit was granted by minute order made on December 3, 1962, and entered on December 5, 1962. The notice of appeal was filed on February 5, 1963. 1 As with the attempted appeals from the judgments in favor of Orphan and Certified, the notice is in time only if a valid notice of motion for new trial had extended the time. Big Saver asserts that the notice of motion, although properly designating it as a party, and properly served, was defective in that the grounds upon which plaintiff sought a new trial against Big Saver were not set out with the required specificity. We do not agree.

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Bluebook (online)
224 Cal. App. 2d 26, 36 Cal. Rptr. 48, 1964 Cal. App. LEXIS 1433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-v-certified-grocers-of-cal-ltd-calctapp-1964.