Niles v. Gonzalez

92 P. 74, 152 Cal. 90, 1907 Cal. LEXIS 315
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 1, 1907
DocketL.A. No. 2043.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 92 P. 74 (Niles v. Gonzalez) 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
Niles v. Gonzalez, 92 P. 74, 152 Cal. 90, 1907 Cal. LEXIS 315 (Cal. 1907).

Opinion

*92 SLOSS, J.

The respondent moves to dismiss appeals taken by the defendants Lillian L. and M. G. Gonzalez from the judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial.

The principal ground for the motion is that the defendant Jennie R. Tarr is an adverse party on both of said appeals and that no notice of either of the appeals by the defendants Gonzalez was served on said Jennie R. Tarr. On the appeal from the order denying the motion for a new trial the further point is made that no undertaking on appeal has been filed, and that, while the filing of such undertaking has been waived by the plaintiff, it has not been waived by the defendant Jennie R. Tarr. This point, like the one made with reference to the failure to serve notices of appeal, is necessarily based upon the premise that Jennie R. Tarr was an adverse party to the appeal in question.

The judgment was entered on the eighteenth day of September, 1906, and the notice of appeal therefrom was served on the plaintiff and filed on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1906. The order denying the motion for a new trial was made and entered on the twenty-eighth day of December, 1906, and the notice of appeal therefrom served on the plaintiff and filed on the fourteenth day of January, 1907. The notice of the present motion to dismiss these appeals was served on the fourth day of April, 1907. On April 9, 1907, after the service of notice of motion, and prior to the hearing of the motion, the appellants obtained from the defendant Jennie R. Tarr a written stipulation waiving the service of any papers in connection with either of said appeals, waiving the giving of undertakings to perfect said appeals and appearing in the matter of said appeals as fully as if all necessary papers had been duly and properly served upon her.

It is apparent that this purported appearance and waiver can have no effect to cure the failure to serve the notices of appeal upon the co-defendant, if she was in fact an adverse pa”ty, and service upon her was necessary to vest this court with jurisdiction of the appeals. The stipulation waiving the service of notices and entering an appearance on behalf of Jennie R. Tarr was made more than six months after the entry of the judgment, and more than sixty days after the making and entry of the order denying a new trial. At the time such stipulation was made, the time for taking an appeal from *93 either the judgment or the order had expired. In order to vest jurisdiction in the appellate court the notice of appeal must be both served and filed within the time allowed for the taking of the appeal. (San Francisco etc. Co. v. State of California, 141 Cal. 354, [74 Pac. 1047].) If the notice of appeal has not been served within the time required by law, the appellate court has no jurisdiction of the case. (Dalzell v. Superior Court, 67 Cal. 453, [7 Pac. 910].) Jurisdiction of the appeal cannot be conferred by a waiver made after the time for taking an appeal has expired. (Perkins v. Cooper, 87 Cal. 241, [25 Pac. 411].)

And similarly, if Mrs. Tarr was an adverse party to the appeal from the order denying a new trial,- the failure to file an undertaking on that appeal could not be cured by the waiver of such undertaking given by Mrs. Tarr after the time for appeal had expired. (Perkins v. Cooper, 87 Cal. 241, [25 Pac. 411].)

Indeed the appellants do not in their brief place any reliance upon the alleged waiver of service and of the undertaking, but take the position that it was unnecessary to serve notice of appeal upon Mrs. Tarr or to procure her waiver of an undertaking, for the reason that she was not an adverse party to either appeal.

1. The appeal from the judgment. It appears from the record that the plaintiff had entered into a contract with the defendant Jennie R. Tarr by which said Jennie R. Tarr agreed to convey to plaintiff, upon the making of certain payments by him, a lot of land situate in the county of Los Angeles. The complaint alleges the due performance by plaintiff of all of the conditions of the contract; that the defendant Tarr had, before the final payment became due, conveyed the property to Lillian L. Gonzalez, who took with notice of plaintiff’s rights. The complaint alleges a tender to said Lillian L. Gonzalez of the balance due under the contract and a demand for a conveyance, which tender and demand were refused. The defendant M. G. Gonzalez is the husband of Lillian L. Gonzalez, and as to him it is alleged that he was in possession of the property claiming an interest therein. The defendants Gonzalez answered, alleging that the defendant Lillian had purchased the property from Mrs. Tarr for its full value, giving in part consideration a note for six hundred *94 dollars secured by a mortgage of the property, and that such purchase had been made without notice of any rights claimed by any other person. The defendant Tarr answered separately, alleging that the plaintiff had failed to comply with the contract on his part, and that he had forfeited his rights thereunder.

The court found in favor of the plaintiff upon the issue raised as to the performance on his part of the conditions of the contract and found that the defendant Lillian L. Gonzalez had taken with notice of his rights. The decree declared that the plaintiff was entitled to the specific enforcement of his contract against Lillian L. Gonzalez, and was entitled to receive from her a good and sufficient deed of conveyance of the property upon payment to her of the sum of $107.38. It further declared that the defendant Jennie B. Tarr is the owner and holder of the Gonzalez note and mortgage above referred to and that said Jennie B. Tarr is entitled to receive from the plaintiff, and the plaintiff is required to pay to her as á condition to the specific performance of said contract and as a condition to having said mortgage satisfied of record the sum of $578.30. The decree orders the plaintiff to pay to the clerk of the court within ten days the sum of $107.38 for the defendant Lillian L. Gonzalez, and the sum of $578.30 for the defendant Jennie B. Tarr. Within ten days after the payment of said sums, the said Lillian L. Gonzalez is ordered to execute and deliver to plaintiff a deed of the property, and said Jennie B. Tarr is ordered to enter a satisfaction of her mortgage.

We think it is clear that this decree grants Mrs. Tarr certain substantial rights of which she might be deprived upon a reversal, or upon any conceivable modification of the judgment, and that she is therefore an adverse party who should have been served with the notice of appeal.

The case is not distinguishable in principle from Johnson v. Phenix Insurance Co., 146 Cal. 571, [80 Pac. 719]. That was an action upon a policy of fire insurance. Part of the insurance money was payable to the mortgagee, who was made a co-defendant. ' The judgment was in favor of plaintiff against the insurance company, with a provision that the amount of the mortgage was to be discharged • out of the judgment. The mortgagee was not served with notice of *95

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Krueger v. Hayko
87 N.W.2d 539 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1958)
Casasús v. White Star Bus Line, Inc.
58 P.R. 864 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1941)
Pauley v. California
75 F.2d 120 (Ninth Circuit, 1934)
Colwell v. Union Central Life Insurance
232 N.W. 10 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1930)
Colwell v. Union Central L. Ins. Co.
232 N.W. 10 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1930)
Pacific Live Stock Co. v. Ellison Ranching Co.
286 P. 120 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1930)
Brown v. Superior Court
223 P. 426 (California Court of Appeal, 1924)
Mathis v. Superior Court of City & County of San Francisco
195 P. 711 (California Court of Appeal, 1920)
Shelton & Luck v. Sydnor
102 S.E. 83 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1920)
De La Guerra v. Striedel
112 P. 856 (California Supreme Court, 1910)
Potrero Neuvo Land Co. v. All Persons Claiming
101 P. 12 (California Supreme Court, 1909)
Niles v. Gonzalez
100 P. 1080 (California Supreme Court, 1909)
McKenzie v. Hill
98 P. 55 (California Court of Appeal, 1908)
O'Rourke v. Finch
96 P. 784 (California Court of Appeal, 1908)
Bell v. San Francisco Savings Union
94 P. 225 (California Supreme Court, 1908)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 P. 74, 152 Cal. 90, 1907 Cal. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/niles-v-gonzalez-cal-1907.